So the next day I'm on the phone to DAN KLIM ... 'Dan, can you help me out ???'. So the following evening, I got everything together, heads, intake and headed over to Dan's place. Dan is the guy who did the machining on my 400.

As we started to pull out the valves, we notice some funny wear on some of them. It seems some of the valves weren't seating properly and had some funny wear on them. At one point we thought I had a cracked head, which later on turned out to be carbon deposit.

So Dan ended up hot-tanking the heads, doing a 3-Angle Valve Grind, pulled out the broken stud, as well as all the other 'Pressed In' Studs and replaced them using Elgin Pro Valve Guides with Poineer 'Screw-In' Studs.

Dan also took the time to port out the heads as well as my intake to match !! (SWEET!!)

Here are the heads, some pics of the machining as well as a pic of the porting job. Dan pulled out all the pressed-in studs and machined the heads to be used with Screw-In Studs.

Here's Dan installing the valves. Had to have a few replaced, one from the rocker marking it up and a few other due to funny wear.

Voila!, one down, one more to go. A pic of my intake, which Dan ported and matched to the head, as well as he hot-tanked it and recoated it.

Here's a pic of a splitter which I had installed back on the old 350 when I was installing the gauges. Have to thank Glenn Evans for this idea, as I wanted to have the gauges as well as the dummy light hooked up.

Right on!!... all the work on Dan's end was done, and now time for me to put everything back together.

Plus, mom's getting edgey as her car is stuck out in the driveway while repairs were being carried out.

Here we are bolting on the heads, and torquing them to spec as required, which I'm using the manual for. Good ol' Service Manual!!

Dan was nice enough to come over and help me set the rockers. I hate setting the rockers ... hardest part of building a motor. Dan also helped me get the intake on as well ... Hopefully with no leaks!

All is coming along nicely, slowly reconnecting everything. Also flushed the motor with new oil to wash out any anti-freeze that might of gotten into the block. I was unable to drain the block as both screws were seized in, so I had to drain it by the back head-bolts. So flushed the motor through and did an oil change after.

After working through most of the night (till 5:30am), had to make a ride to Canadian Tire for some last minute parts. Actually the reason I stopped at 5:30am was because I couldn't find the carb gasket.

The Nova roars to life in the afternoon. My poor baby was off the road for 27 days. The longest streak ever, since I've had it. Well, the neighbors were happy to have a few days to sleep in, but not now that the Nova is back!

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