Anyone had good luck with a mahine shop in Oregon that is well versed with Mitsu heads? I know a couple that I trust with Chrysler V8s, but they don't exactly know the ins and outs of 6G72 heads!

In the last 3000 miles, the valve seals finally went on my truck. Just turned over 170K. Stem seals went from being pretty good to completely shot, with LOTS of oil burning. Also, seems I just blew an exhaust manifold gasket, probably the exhaust valve with the worst stem seal. I'm sure that valve was running pretty hot with all that oil dripping on it. Truck is parked for now. Guess I'll be yanking the heads this weekend... Might as well rebuild the heads and drop some new VLAs in there.

170K seems to be the magic number on both the 2.6 and 3.0. In the end I'm happy my head cracked, sometimes you have to go backwards to get ahead <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Sorry no help with Machine shops

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

There just aluminum heads, anybody can work on them. I would be more concerned about finding a good machine shop, instead of one that "knows" that head. Aluminum heads do not present a challenge for most shops, as they have been around for 80 some years now.
Theres no magic in them.
Kary

I disagree. I'm not going to take one of my Mopar big blocks to a shop that does mostly GM stuff. Sure they'd be able to do it, but they wouldn't necessarily know all the quirks of an engine that they've only rebuilt a handful of times versus one that is their bread and butter.

I would like to use a shop that knows about the Mitsu valve guide install issue, valve seals, etc., is familiar with the updated pieces... Makes alot better sense than just dropping them off at a shop that does mostly Honda heads, or whatever...

So I guess no one has any recommendations? Guess I'll just start calling...

Well, I ended up taking my heads to Bearing Service Co. in downtown NW Portland. They've been in business since the 20s and have a really cool, very large, old shop. More importantly, the guys that work there were very knowledgable about the Mitsubishi V6 heads (all the different models) and knew about the eccentricities of the design.

I'm having them pressure test the coolant passages to check for cracks or pinholes, do a three angle valve job, check the guides and replace any that are out of spec, install new seals, and resurface the heads. Should be getting them back in a few days.