Valve seats
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi All,
I have tried to search but could not really find anything.
Is there any obvious way to know if a head has hardened valve seats.
Also what year where they fitted as standard if they ever where?

Any advice or pictures would be great.
Cheers,
Mark.

They're usually pretty obvious to see. If you take the exhaust valves out and look into the throat you can usually see where the insert is fitted. They're about 8mm deep and there's often quite a step/lip as they aren't blended in at all from the factory. They were fitted from around 1989 onwards.

Phil.

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

take out valve look for seat insert. imho only foolproof way . there was thing about rivets indicating seat type but given the consistency of BL i'd just check

That sir, is not rust, it is the progressive mass reduction system

http://aseriesmodifications.wordpress.com/

If you have the head in front of you with the valves out, note that only the exhausts would have hardened seats (on cast iron heads).

If you trying to buy a head on ebay, look carefully at the exhaust valves. If they're obviously sunken lower than the inlet valves, be sure that it does not have hardened seats. Obviously, having level inlet and exhaust valves is no proof that it has hardened seats, but if you have several to choose, you could rule some out.