Cheap Magnum Heads and some porting

I want to try my hand at porting a set of Magnum heads I have. I would like to port them and put new valve seals on then slap them on my Duster and have a little fun for as cheap as possible.

I know that the magnum heads are prone to cracks in the combustion. So I don't want to dump a lot of money into these heads. I just want to use them to see what I can do.

The heads are out of my 1995 Jeep GC with the 5.2. The engine had about a 160,000 miles on it when I pulled it.

How do you tell if the heads need a valve job? I have a set of valve seals laying around somewhere so I might as well put them on. As soon as I'm done typing this I'm gunna finish disassembling the heads. So what should I look for as I'm doing it?


I pulled an intake and exhaust valve. The intake valve seat is shinny all the way around. The exhaust valve seat is wide compared to the intake. If you look close, i guess the best way to describe it is that its dimpled all the way around the seat.

O I also put the valves in a drill chuck, to check to make sure they weren't bent. So far they look straight.

Can I get away with just using some valve lapping compound on the seats?