Healthy Head?

morsim said
As it may be known I've been in a time crunch for this project and was just set on a date of completion that I wanted to meet at the very least with a reassembled vehicle since I'd be away for the next 7ish months. Would not mind having to come back for round 2 with more time on my hands, but I assumed it wouldn't be great if the engine guts were left exposed to the elements (AKA general outdoors) for that amount of time. I'm not working under a roof.

That being said, she's back together. All new gaskets. I did not have the time to replace or check on the valve seals this time 'round. I will do so when I get back.

To clarify, I instructed the machinist only to clean the head. He quoted the price for a full rebuild (new seals, etc.) but I declined simply because I'm tight on money - this time 'round.
It came back painted too, which I honestly wasn't expecting.

Now that I have more time to write in length, here's some further context:
The car was purchased from a garage it has not left in over 30 years.
She wouldn't start, but thanks to the collective conscious that makes up this forum, we were so back in no time, as seen here. Everything was great 'n smooth, and we hit the road for a good while with no issues other than really difficult braking.
We end off the day with an oil change.

Fast forward a few days, my buddy and I give it a 3 hour tow to our hometown, arriving at night. The next morning we start'er up, and it's just all around rough.
Hard starts, misfires, blowing smoke, you name it.

That brings us to more recent times. Following the "repair" as documented in this thread, she gets fired up for the first time following open heart surgery. The head is back on, push rods are replaced, valve cover is reattached, gas is depressed to set choke, and the key is turned.
Surprisingly, we encounter the smoothest start ever. The engine is very stable with minimal shaking.
We let it run for a good while following some clamp tightening of leaking coolant hoses - but other than that, all around smooth running.
There was still some smoking from the exhaust but it actually disappeared after mucho idling time (and didn't return, even on rev).

Now I understand we're working with a slant 6 here and it'll run even off dish soap, but please, rip at me for my corner-cutting -- I can take it, and I will start appending the to-do list for when I get back. Starting with @Oyster60V200 and others valve seal advice. Pinky promise. :thumbsup:

That’s great news that it runs smoothly and starts quickly. One of the attributes I’ve found most slant sixes share. Given that she’s all buttoned up and back in operation, you might be out of the woods for the time being. I wouldn’t remove the head now just to replace umbrella seals as I was discussing earlier. That was just in the slight chance that you didn’t get it back together yet. Valve seals are actually easier (I think at least) to do with the head on using the air-compressor-in-spark-plug-hole method many have already detailed. But if it isn’t smoking or running roughly or using oil, you can wait it out. Next time you need to remove the valve cover (valve lash adjustment possibly) you can prod the seals with a pick and see how resilient they are. If the seals are failing, you’ll know from the blue puff on decel that you were already aware of and say isn’t present. The smoking going away after mucho idling could be what I suspected, stuck rings freeing up with use and fresh oil. Not uncommon for a long haul storage engine. My ‘60 V-200 170 slant six was so crudded up, nothing could free it. Marvel Mystery? It just pooled in there like blood. I even jacked up the car at a 30 degree angle to make it a slant Valiant with a straight six just to evenly distribute the oil. When that didn’t work, off with the head, direct tapping on piston tops with an oak block and a hammer. Nope. Big *** breaker bar on the harmonic balancer nut? Bent my breaker bar. I ended up buying my friend’s built up 225 out of his scrapped ‘71 Dart Swinger. When I finally disassembled the old 170, I needed to violently pound on the pistons to get them out even after the crank was gone and everything was freed up. That baby was STUCK! So you got lucky it sounds like. They probably hot tanked the head and that may have softened up hardened seals a bit. But this is speculation. Run it, enjoy it, improve it. Glad there’s another A body on the road!