I am replacing the valve stem seals on my low-miles (60k) 22re.

I have the head at the machine shop to get it cleaned up and lapped (and replace the valve seals). I asked them to make sure the head was flat and they said they shave 'em just as a routine matter of course.

Does that sound right? It seems like shaving the head would change the compression ratio and maybe even affect timing. It also seems like they should at least check it first. Or Is this normal?

The FSM doesn't even mention shaving the head - it just says if it is beyond spec, toss the head.

Anyone with some experience in this?

THANKS!!

 

yeah, pretty routine to skim the head to make sure it's really flat... they don't have to really take off much either, compression ratios barely even change... there's a spec to how much you can take off, beyond that it is "junk"

 

They will set the head up, and shave as little off as possible, just to make sure it is flat. If it is flat from the begining they will take very little off, not anything that will make a difference, but if it is not flat, they will take as much off as is needed, and hopefully tell you how much was taken off, so if need be you can go get a thicker gasket to make up for the amount taken off.

 

Alright - cool. Thanks!

 

I'm in the austin area as well and need a good machine shop. Who did you use to get the head machined? Did they do good work? Anyone else in the Austin area have some good recommendations or shops to stay away from.

 

I used South Austin machine shop, which is on South Lamar near Manchaca. There are definitely other machine shops in town. I chose this one because they are only a few blocks from the house.

They've done good enough work on several projects but the place is a mess. The prices, as I remember, were decent.