Hey everyone,

As I mentioned over in my thread about the bad ignitor, H8PVMNT was kind enough to procure me a good one. As part of the trade, I built him a tool to install valve guides in a 22R head. I thought the method of building it might interest those here who have their own metalworking tools, so I took pics along the way for a post about it.

These are the starting materials: a 4" long piece of 5/8" steel rod and a 5/16" copper washer.


We put a smooth face on the ends of the rod.


Down to business. I turned the last 2" of the rod down to .309" to slip inside a valve guide (shooting for .313" but overshot). Here is the first pass of many:


Half a mile of chips later...

Beating up new valve guides with steel is not a good idea. Hence the copper washer.

The washer is soldered on:




Back to the lathe for some cleanup. The face of the washer is cut square and true to the part that goes in the valve guide:


And the outside is turned down close to 5/8":


I then turned the tool around in the chuck to work on the other end. First, I took a skim cut on the 5/8" rod for a good finish and to be flush with the washer:




We want a dimple in the end so it can be driven with an air hammer. Start with a pilot hole...


And finish up with the radius tool.


I added some chamfers to avoid cut fingers:


I can't knurl, so I cut 5 shallow grooves to afford the operator some kind of a grip.


And there it is.


Here's to seeing it in action soon!

Got it in Saturday's mail.  Really great job I can't wait to use it!

I really appreciate the copper washer, I think it will help a lot.

Got it in Saturday's mail.  Really great job I can't wait to use it!

I really appreciate the copper washer, I think it will help a lot.

I can't wait to see how it works.

I've deformed one too many parts in my time hammering on them with something too hard. Enough to give me visions of valve guides with burrs raised on the inside... not pretty. Hence the copper washer.

SO get this:  The valve guides are just about the perfect sized hole to run a 3/8" x 16 tap through.  I am going to attempt to thread one, make a puller from a 3/8" bolt and a piece of tube and pull one out.  I saw it work on a youtube on some veedub heads so we will see how I do.

Then I can use your sweet tool to drive the new ones in!

Did you install new valve guides with this tool? How’d it go?

Nice! Thanks for the heads up and the link. I’ve also read your valve removal tool thread. Did you do any heating of the head or just pull em and install em room temp? I’m currently on the fence as to rebuild my head or just order up a new assembled one, will probably have an easier time deciding once the head is off. Do you have any other opinions you’d like to share on rebuilding these heads? I ask because I don’t have the measurement tools for the guides and springs, seat work is for the machine shop anywho.

Good work! I could use some toggle clamps, but you did a great job! You can actually get some from https://www.sandfieldengineering.com/toggle-clamps/ if you're planning on using them for future projects. Having quality tools it's a must, but I'm sure that you already know this. That's why I love this community. I would love to meet you guys in real life and discuss about different projects that we want to do. It would be way easier to learn anything new. But I'm thankful for having the opportunity of learning new things like this and I can't wait to post more projects!