Well "Dude" I'm sorry, but I meant to say bronze when I was typing I guess I just slipped, but I did state that it was a valve guide that I'm pretty sure was the culprit so that should have cleared that up. Although I couldn't possibly have as much "experiance" as you, you know I do know some of my sh*t and your underlying tone of me not knowing what I'm doing and just going for a quick fix realy irratates me. My engine is fixed to the best of my knowledge and runs damn good now, so if the gear was being eatten I would think I would still be having the same problem, but what do I know.
And heres the whole story so maybe you can get your head around it:
Engine started making a strange noise, a tinking and loosing power at higher speeds (along with backfiring from the left side). So I went and checked things over (including valves) and found a small pile of BRONZE shavings under the 3rd cylinder exhaust valve, and the pile was only in the valve cover, so the only way it could get there would be through coming from above as far as I can see it. This also made it so the only way any of the material would get into the oil was by oil washing it over the seal into the pushrod tubes. So from this deduction (this was before Bob's very informative reply) I couldnt see how it could be anything but that valve. So to sort of test this after finding the pile was I changed the head and now the problem is gone. So I guess if anything else turns up I will reasses the situation, but since I used my own knowledge and logic as quickly as i could (cause I need to get back to school) I guess that would be going along with what Bob has also said in his sermineabout you are the mechanic and you can't just take everything others say, from newsgroups ect. for the honest to god best way to do it or that what they say is what is wrong is actualy wrong.
Xyclone