Club 80-90 Forums

The article explains what a fire ring is (asterisked at bottom in case you missed that).

And here's another one addressing the function, or I should say lack of it, of the cyl. top o-ring.

https://intrepidoverland.com/little-green-mental/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I’ve read that the amc valves aren’t great and that they should be swapped for original VW ones?

What problems could arise?

And if I go in and replace the seals + fire rings on both heads, are there any other jobs I should do at the same time?





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The AMC valves seem to be made of cheese and the collet grooves soon mis shape leading to dropped valves. I have found that 6 times out of 10 the original vw valves are able to be refaced to a serviceable condition. If not get the valves from Brickwerks as they are reasonable quality. It is pot luck on the old heads whether they will last a rebuild or not so after several failures I now use new AMC heads. As for the fire rings cust coat them and the mating surfaces with a thin smear of hylomar using a small artists paint brush. (very thin coat) The o ring mating surfaces need a good clean up with wire wool or a dremel wire brush (after which the head or block must be cleaned so do this when cleaning up before the rebuild starts. I then use some thick silicon grease on the o rings during assembly. Bottom and top.

Symptoms sound exactly like mine and mine did fail a sniff test-took over four minutes to go from blue yellow even though there was only 2ml of fluid in the test.