84 ford 460 engine

If the exhaust valves are bad, you can find it with either a compression test or a cylinder leakdown test or some combination. There may or may not be smoke related to valve failure/leakage.

Lugnut

If the exhaust valves are "going bad", I'll go out on a limb and suggest that other things are also going bad. Patch repairs are rarely a wise consideration. Once we get things apart and patched, we find the next weakest link in the chain..... and so on and so on...

FWIW, bad valve seats and faces wont cause smoke.... bad exhaust valve guides may but not usually cause smoke.... bad intake valve guides nearly always cause smoke but are not the only reason for smoke...

If the exhaust valve guides are going bad, what kind of a job would it take to fix it? Thanks,

Mark

Jim Warman wrote:

That's exactly right.... This motor is over 20 years old. I would guess that there are many other components showing signs of advance wear and, if these are not addressed at the same time, will come back to haunt the original poster.

Doing it right isn't cheap... doing it piecemeal is even more expensive, not to mention frustrating. To borrow a term from the woodworkers.... do it right and only cry once...

I think you guys worry too much.:) I wouldn't put rebuilt heads on it if the compression was low or it knocks or something but....I would check the price of a rebuilt long block verses just heads and decide from there I guess. Do a compression check wet and dry and if the bottom end is good and the price makes since, just do the heads...