Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ok all immature joking aside.....

My 8th cylinder is dead on my 89 Fleetwood Brougham, a burnt valve is suspected. I was told I should replace the heads to correct this problem, so I have a question. I've heard that putting remanufactured heads on my engine will cause the lower part to wear out resulting in a complete rebuild down the road. Is this true?

I don't think that is true. If the longblock(pistions, crank, rods, block, etc) is in good shape, you'll be good to go. Although if you have the funds, I'd take out that boat anchor 307 and swap in a 350 Chevy with vortec heads. They are dirt cheap to build, and you can get an easy 300hp with a very mild cam(no lope, good vacume, etc)

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ok all immature joking aside.....

My 8th cylinder is dead on my 89 Fleetwood Brougham, a burnt valve is suspected. I was told I should replace the heads to correct this problem, so I have a question. I've heard that putting remanufactured heads on my engine will cause the lower part to wear out resulting in a complete rebuild down the road. Is this true?


NO, what was said is doing a valve job may show that you also have bad rings. It will not cause wear, it will show up the wear that is already there.

NO, what was said is doing a valve job may show that you also have bad rings. It will not cause wear, it will show up the wear that is already there.

Which is why I'm saying just replace the whole motor with something better.

Dope, how did you come up with the conclusion that the cylinder is dead? How did you decide it was a "burnt valve"? This is the cylinder with the fouled plug, correct?

Just don't swallow Dope......the big repair bill I mean.

Dope, how did you come up with the conclusion that the cylinder is dead? How did you decide it was a "burnt valve"? This is the cylinder with the fouled plug, correct?

*Deep breath* Welllllllllllllllll........

Basically the car ran like crap for a while. While at work I delivered to one of our accounts and found out the guy was a former Cadillac mechanic in the 80's, so I told him about my issues with my car and he told me to bring it over. I basically brought him the car and he could tell from just hearing it run that the timing was off, carb wasn't tuned correctly, and the engine had a miss. I knew about all these problems and asked him if he would tune it for me, so we agreed on $100 cash to correct these problems. Now..... yes I replaced the spark plug in cylinder number 8 because when I pulled it, and showed it to my friend, he told me it was fouled. I dunno, I just changed it. Haven't seen a fouled spark plug in my life so whatever.....

So.... I dropped the car off early the next morning and got a call back later in the afternoon saying he was done. I came to see what changes he had made and the car ran much better with a lot more power. He corrected the timing, to 20* (It was almost at 30) tuned the carb, and did a compression test on all 8 cylinders. He came back telling me that the 8th cylinder had 80 lbs of pressure in it, which I hear is very insufficient. He told me that it looks like I have a burnt valve which replacing the heads would correct. He also told me that he jacked up the idle to compensate for the dead cylinder so the car in park sounds like someone is pressing the gas pedal down a bit. I thanked him for his work, paid him, and left.

On my drive home I noticed a big difference in power. The car with cruise on tends to spend more time in overdrive than it used to and doesn't lose 10 mph on an incline. However I still feel a bit of shimmying at stops which would be the fault of my dead number 8.

I found some cheap remanufactured heads at Advanced Auto Parts for $178 a piece so I just decided to keep that information in my head. When I returned to the shop today for a routine delivery he told me he would swap my heads out for $800. Sadly I don't have that kinda money to drop on the car so I find myself in a connundrum.......

As I'm sure everyone on here knows my strange, yet passionate love for my '89 Fleetwood refuses to allow me to sell the car or *shudder* junk it. I've had the car for over 4 years now and I refuse to give up on her now. What can I do to correct my problem and not break the bank or my back for that matter? (Which sucks, I have a doctor's appointment for my beat to hell spine) So far I've heard the following.....

- Replace the heads with remanned or used ones and new gaskets. (expensive)
- Replace the burnt valve and new gaskets. (Not as bad, but still expensive)
- Swap the engine. (Don't have the tools but would have to get another 307 since I'm not swapping trannys and rear ends)

P-L-E-A-S-E help. At the end of my rope with no where to jump to.....

Okay, First you have to determine if your problem really is a bad valve. Do you personally own a compression tester? Air Compressor? Air gun?
If you have an air compressor and an air gun, you can find out for yourself what the true loss of your dead cylinder is.
Remove the number eight plug from your engine. Disconnect the red feed line to your distributor cap. Have a friend "bump" your engine over. That is just hit the starter to turn the engine over and release, so the engine just indexes it self in stages. With your finger over the plug hole ( don't use your finger at operating temperature ) have your friend "bump" the engine. When you feel air pushing out the plug hole, stop. You are now on the compression stroke and both valves are closed. Put your air gun to the cylinder. Note: if you have an old spark plug you can knock out the porcelin and braize a male quick release fitting on the end of the plug body and plug your air line's quick release coupler to the cylinder or you can use your compression tester's connector hose to the quick release coupler.
You don't need a lot of pressure. Set your compressor's output pressure around 30 lbs. Now, if your exhaust valve is at fault, You will hear the air going past the valve and out the exhaust pipe. If it is sounding through your carburetor or intake, it's your intake valve. If it's sounding in your crankcase ( check at oil fill cap ), the air is going past your piston rings.

Call Advance Auto Parts back and get prices on rebuilt engines. Check your 307, then check the Olds 350, 403 and 455. You will probably have to give them year and model for those. Pick something 71 and later, and it will run fine on regular gas.

It is probably less work to swap the entire engine than doing heads. Personally, I would put in an Olds 350 if it was a daily driver, and a 403 or 455 if it was a toy.

Ask your guy how he knows it's the valve and not the rings on #8. There are different tests to do that will tell you if it is one or the other...

You should think really hard about how long you are going to have this car. If you plan on keeping this car forever and ever and ever, think about replacing the motor with a SBC 305 w/serpentine belt setup. You can use the stock tranny. I would say to get a 350 but the stock tranny wasnt built for it. Your stock tranny will bolt up to small block chevy motors also. If you dont really want to do all that, try to take the heads off yourself. I dont think it would be too hard. Once you get them off, you will see how easy it is to rebuild them.

My old 307 lost the number 8 cylinder too. I always assumed it was the exhaust valve because I could hear every compression stroke echo down the exhaust pipe. I thought I had an exhaust leak but I could never find it. I replaced it with an Olds 350 and the car drove better than it ever did. Fuel economy did go down and that is an important consideration.

Ya know I had a thought..... I used Sea-Foam on the car a few weeks ago and apparently I did it wrong. I just dumped half the bottle down the carb slowly so it wouldn't stall. I was told that I was supposed to stall the engine out halfway and let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then restart it and let it burn off all the carbon and shit. I wonder if by incorrectly top engine cleaning, I gummed up my valve? Do you think I should buy another bottle of Sea-Foam and try it again, this time the right way?

COULD this fix my problem?

I don't think that would cause a problem. I would suck the seafoam up thru a vacuum line. The 307 has enought of them.