Hardened valve seats - do they really matter?

Princess Valiant said

Ok. This is all some good info.

A lot to digest. Now that I have a visual of what a valve seat failure looks like, my 68 slant head is definitely a good head. So I think I'll just mill it and use it.

Milling a head these days is a couple hundred bucks so I just wanted to be sure.

I do plan to daily drive the car but if it's made it this far, 56 years later, surely it will take more than me to kill it.

Click to expand...

My understanding on installing exhaust seats is, if you drive a lot (long distances) at a high rate of speed or hot rod a lot (drag strips or light to light racing) you should install the harden seats. As some say here, putting around town or just cruising, you should be fine with the heads as they are. Removing the heads should tell you the whole story. I don't play cheap with my motors. For the minimal cost of installing harden seats, I would do it, though you may not need or have to.