The shop I was at for years used the JB trick on many since the mid 90's on
vans whoose owners were fiscally challenged...Works slick for long periods
of time....One I know of ran another 75K before we lost track of it...JB
wont pit or corrode. Daryl
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Fisher" <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 12:15 PM
Subject: Re: Head treatment for pitting--flattening technique

>I wound up doing the JB thing to my pitted heads after the machine shop had
> taken them apart and thoroughly cleaned them; I sanded them down as best I
> could with a block, mainly looking for bubbles (holes), etc. Everything
> looked pretty good, but I knew I didn't have it perfectly flush, so when I
> took the heads back to the shop to have them finished, they shaved the
> mating surfaces slightly to get them flat. Now they understood about the
> cylinder clearances and all that, so they just took off some very slight
> fraction of an inch (don't remember exactly, might have been 1/100ths).
> They
> figured that the gaskets and such probably had more give than what they
> took
> off. Didn't seem to have any effect at all on reassembly or running; that
> was probably 12,000 miles ago or more and all is well so far, assuming I
> didn't just jinx myself.
>
> Probably something you wouldn't be able to get away with more than once
> but
> it seemed to be effective.
>
> Cya,
> Robert
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Felder" <felder@KNOLOGY.NET>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 7:50 AM
> Subject: Head treatment for pitting--flattening technique
>
>
>> I'm slogging through head replacement and have tried a technique that,
>> while I can't say it's worked out well because I haven't run the car,
>> seems worthy of mention for others contemplating the same procedure.
>>
>> I had the heads cleaned, then dremeled out the corrosion to leave
>> bright, shiny pits and filled them with JB weld. Cured overnight. Then
>> I spray-glued 100 grit sandpaper to 3/4 inch smooth plywood, mounted
>> the sanding surface on a table, and sanded the head in a circular
>> motion until all was perfectly--and I do mean perfectly--flat.
>>
>> I have pictures of procedure and results if anyone is interested.
>> Everyone may do this, I don't know. But it saved me a couple of trips
>> to the machine shop and went really quickly. I tried it wet and dry,
>> both have advantages/disadvantages. I'd just do dry next time.
>>
>> Jim
>