The valve looks so innocent sitting there.  But it took a bit of work to get there.After two days of soaking with penetrating oil the valve is still stuck tight.  Looks like the head will have to come off.

First step is the exhaust manifold.  That was surprisingly easy to get loose.  Good think I already ordered a complete gasket set, because there is another one to replace.

With the manifold out of the way the head bolts were next.  No problems there except I sort of forgot to drain the water out of the block first so I made a bit of a mess.

 

I borrowed a valve spring compressor from the parts store and removed the valve spring (duh).

The valve was really stuck in there.  I eventually tapped it out with a brass drift and a hammer.  There was nothing obvious about the valve to cause it to be sticking so the guide seems like the logical suspect.

 

The guides look like they have been knurled to me.

I think that whoever rebuilt these heads did not press in iron or bronze valve guides but instead cut a spiral grove into the guide then reamed it out.  I suspect that this intake valve was not reamed quite enough.  I am not an expert here though so I think I am going to take the head to the machine shop see what they think.

In the meanwhile I can start cleaning up.   Lots of dirty hardware to clean

That’s better.

I cleaned the lifters and pushrods on the other bank of cylinders and reassembled them with engine assembly lube.

I then re-installed the rocker arms and torqued them down.

I cleaned and repainted the intake manifold and valve covers too.  Shiny!