I'm getting ready to pull the heads on my 1917 to repair a small amount of blow under the gasket.

Question is, are the 490 valves and valve springs the same? I thought I had read somewhere that they hoped to use the valves and parts, but not having one apart I wasn't sure.

Anybody shed light on this that has been inside of one of these motors?

I scored really well the other day, I mentioned to my machinist that I was probably going to have to have the head gaskets made, and he agreed to call his gasket maker. The guy had three orginal McCord 33 head gaskets. Wonders never cease.

Hi Ward1917,

Your correct about reading that they had hoped to use common parts from the 4 cylinders. I think I have read that as well, or at least that they were wanting to use the same tooling or something like that!

I know that when Ardie was working on the engine for my car he was using some modern valves and parts. I can call Dave, the guy that worked for Ardie and see what they were using. My heads are not together yet, everything is still in boxes waiting for me to work on the engine.

As to the head gasket I know Ardie had them made, I think he had a sample to work from. So your every lucky on finding some new ones. Also I think there was a post some time back where someone had some NOS gaskets for sale.

Let me know if you need anything or give me a call.

Bruce