Posted by David Sherman [108.162.245.38] on Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 17:23:10 :
In Reply to: Re: Stuck valve posted by Jerry in Idaho [172.68.23.46] on Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 13:00:52 :
I ran it for 5 or 10 minutes just to get it firing on all cylinders and get it warmed up, before I took off the tappet covers to paint them, and then saw that #6 exhaust valve was stuck open. It's sat for maybe 5 years, and our winter weather on here is terrible for making condensation on everything, inside and out. But the way it ran, it didn't sound or feel any worse than the last time I took it for a drive, so maybe it has been stuck for as long as I've had it.
Interestingly the '56 has a 251, whereas that '52 (my first Sno-Cat) has a 230. I never noticed that before. Now, when I fire up the '52, which hasn't run for even longer, I will check and make sure all its valves are working too.
I have thought about sticking pieces of aluminum of various thickness in between the tappet and the valve stem while it's running, to see if that jiggles the valves loose, but it seems a bit risky too.