Hello,
I recently hooked my gas tank up to my 230 flat head and after about 3 days of driving it, it developed stuck valves in cylinder 1 4 and 6. I should have known better, but it is what it is. I literally drove one day and the next day 5 of 6 cylinders were sticking initially. The trucks runs, but obviously poorly. Cylinder 1, I'm able to pry up on the valve, and move it up, but so far it hasn't dropped down. I have been squirting sea foam towards the valves via spark plug hole and underneath. I don't really want to take the head off For now, I'm running external tank with clean fuel and carb is also clean. I've run it a few times hoping the valves will free up, but no luck so far.
Appreciate any suggestions
Thanks
MikeM
Stuck valves
Moderators: Cal_Gary, T. Highway, Monkey Man, robi
Re: Stuck valves
You can try to squirt them and the tappets by removing the tappet covers from under the manifolds for access.
You can hope there isn't damage to the tappet bores, tappets and valve guides from the valves sticking.
You can hope there isn't damage to the tappet bores, tappets and valve guides from the valves sticking.
"It may be ugly, but at least it is slow!"
Re: Stuck valves
Thanks for reply. I had removed the cover and that's how I confirmed they were stuck. Engine is very clean and tappers move up and down and rotate freely. I put a screw driver between the taper and can easily move the valve up, it just won't come down. Almost like there's a stop from preventing the valve from going down. Very weird, but the only variable is that I put fresh gas into a gas tank that hadn't been used in over 20 years.
Re: Stuck valves
Sounds like the valve stems are gummed up then. What valves are stuck? Intake, exhaust or both?
The spray for cleaning direct injection ports might help dissolve any deposits. But you will need to remove the manifolds to do it. And maybe the head if they are that bad. (And the can of worms called "while I'm in there")
The spray for cleaning direct injection ports might help dissolve any deposits. But you will need to remove the manifolds to do it. And maybe the head if they are that bad. (And the can of worms called "while I'm in there")
"It may be ugly, but at least it is slow!"
Re: Stuck valves
It's the intake valves. Just hard to believe they r stuck that bad. It was sitting less than 24 hours when we last started it. I removed the vacuum port on intake for cylinders 1 and 2 and sprayed sea foam in there. Also started it twice and tapped on outside of head with plastic hammer to try to free it up. Cylinder 1 is easier to get to than the others so mainly trying to free that one first. The area of the valves and tappets is so clean due to rebuild I did many years ago and low mileage since then. Beginning to think I'll have to bite the bullet and remove the head, even though I'm being stubborn about it.