23/04/2026
Been a while since my last post, been a bit busy lately.
Anyway, an engine builder customer dropped off a set of Ford Motorsport Yates C3 heads. One of his drag racing customers bought a complete engine and was told “Fresh build, just came off dyno”. What the seller forgot to add though, “We also ran about 2500 ¼ mile passes after that as well”.
WOW! Someone in the automotive industry was less than truthful about the state of the parts he’s selling. Never, ever heard of this happening before.
Fortunately, the engine builder and owner decided to pull down the engine, otherwise it most likely would have disassembled itself. After performing an inspection of all the components, it became obvious that engine maintenance was not one of the previous owners' strong points.
The valve guides were so badly worn which saw the valve heads clashing into each other. The exhaust guide was also shortened dramatically which allowed excessive movement of the exhaust valve head contributing to the valves clashing.
As with many heads of this age, the guide bores measured bigger than 0.500”. These ones were at 0.502”. Fortunately, Dean at CHE Performance Auto Pty Ltd keeps oversize OD guides in stock. We required 0.504” for this set of heads to give us the required 0.002” press fit.
