I have seen some valve stems that were just about to be finished and ready
to fall in.  Those grooves were so shredded up by the hardened keepers,
there was barely any left of them.  Hard to keep the valves open or closed
that way also.  Yes, the heads are good othewise.
Zoltan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: AMC valves, Boston Bob

> The three groove keepers are designed to be loose enough so the valves
> rotate. That is also why the rockers screws hit them off center.
>
> Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Zoltan
> Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:04 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: AMC valves, Boston Bob
>
> One important fact I learned from Bob, was that the AMC heads have loose
> keepers.  The two halves meet each other to touch, thus grabbing the valve
> stem, being loose, they travel up and down until they break through the
> grooves and the valve free to move deeper inside and then operated by the
> piston to have it pushed up.
> So, the first thing I recomment to anyone I meet is to have the keepers
> ground at their sides until they don't touch each other.
> Bob was very happy with the AMC heads and tossed the old ones for their
> metal fatigue.  In his experience, it was not worth chancing all the
> troubles by putting the old ones back.
> He liked the better material the AMC heads are made of.
> So, the keepers must be fixed first.
> Zoltan

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