Hi Guy's

I have a 1300 x-flow head in the garage that was given to me a while back and in order to start clearing some space i thought i would give it a clean to see what's what.

After dismantling i have found that one of the valve guides has been damaged (the bit that the valve stem seal connects to at the top of the guide)

Now my question is, is it possible to just have the one guide changed or is it advisable to have them all done, i have now intention of using the engine myself but once cleaned up it might be of some use to someone else

Also, how much should i expect to have a guide changed, i know an engine/machine shop that is local that will do cash in hand jobs, and as i can't imagine that this is a major job, i would imagine it shouldn't take long to replace?

ATB Alex

It is really not a major job the most time consuming part is re-cutting the valve seats.
As they came from the factory xflos didn't have valve guide but the valve ran directly in the head casting.

In the old days if you were going to be tuning and thrashing your engine to within an inch of its life it was normal to leave the seals off the exhaust valves and in some cases even put in a little champher to help promote oil lubricating the valve stem.

If the valve stems are a nice tight fit and do not wobble I would not bother, leaving the seals off the inlet is okay if clearances are tight, just expect a little puff of smoke on startup.

It's not as if these engines have loads of oil floating around at the top, OHC is a different matter.

if the guides were machined into the head casting does this mean that i might as well weigh it in?

Damage below

It is a fairly procedure to drill out Ford cast iron heads to take interference fit valve interference fit valve guides.