Not bad, no exhaust that look burned just heavy sand colored carbon buildup on one. The machine shop should clean those up. They may suggest having the seats and valves ground and also they can replace the stem seals while doing so. I'd have em ground with your mileage. It'll make the job worth the effort once back on. You can remove the rocker assembly yourself and take care of those. Four bolts and tons of grunge inside the rocker shafts.

 

I have pulled the rockers and they are rough. Can I just toss them in the parts washer as a unit or do I need to take them apart?

Do I need to do anything to the heads for the shop or just remove the rockers?

I'm honestly shocked by the condition this engine is in. I have no clue why/how it still ran. I have had problems with oil pressure in the past and I know why now. Like you suggested when that was going on I switched to rotella but I was already on borrowed time.

 

As a unit works to get the major grunge off, you will want to remove each rocker afterwards because there's an oil feed under each one. I use tungsten to scribe with on metals, also use a sharpie. You should remove/reinstall in their running order. Brief yourself using the Rave on the shafts. Nothing but removing the rockers from the heads really, you can hit em with dish soap and a hose prior, they don't mind that.

 

Work got in the was of my truck, but I did manage to get one rocker arm broken down cleaned and reassembled. I am amazed at how clean and smooth they are.

On a side not I picked up 6 cans of the chemtool on the way home and WOW does that stuff work good. In the past I just grabbed the "house" brand and thought it was good until I used that. Takes a lot of work out of cleaning.

 

So I'm having trouble finding a shop to do the heads. No one wants to touch them because its of a land rover. They all said they do not know specs of them, or how to get the valve seals, or the valve stem oil seals. I even told them i all the specs and all the seals they need and the still rejected the job.

 

When my friend lost his valleypan gasket and was leaking coolant we thought it was his head gaskets. We began looking around town for places and had similar issues. We finally found a few shops that were willing to help us out. Moral of the story you will have to just keep looking and explain to them that these engines are not anything "special" in Laymans terms it's a "chevy" after all.

 

Did you try Raleigh? Heck, I live in a quiet little town and had no problem with a shop. They had no problem with my Saturns head with larger valves than spec. Keep trying.

 

Well...Buick. And so true. Nothing special in these engines.

 

Well I found a shop 4 miles from my house and called them up, said bring them by and he will take a look at them. I opened the box he took one look and said if you carry them in I will take care of them. Winner winner chicken dinner! They should be all cleaned up and inspected by the end of Monday. He will pressure test them and check to see if they need a full rebuild, or just replace the oil seals and valve seals. I did give him the overhaul manual from the rave and told him they are prone to sticking valves. He assured me they would not have a problem with that when he was done with them.

We started talking and found out he builds drag car engines and is related to my boss. So I feel better about finding this shop.

 

Cool, any motorsport engine guy is a friend of mine.