I was putting the heads together for the 5.3 in my regal today and after I had cleaned up the valves to put them back in I noticed one was cracked. It was a hairline crack all the way around the stem up by the tip, Above the retainer groove and below the hardened tip. Now I thought it was just one, so I looked back through the other head I just finished assembling and about 50% of the valves were this way. This is a 60k mile 5.3 that was running before it was pulled apart.

Now for the kicker. I have a blown up 4.8 in the shop from a job I did at work, out of curiosity I yanked a valve cover and checked it out....same thing.

Has anyone seen anything like this? I will try to grab a picture tomorrow.

 

Yes, that is normal. I am assuming it is only the exhaust valves. It's part of the valve assembly process due to the welded on hardened tip.

 

well that's good to hear, I cant believe I have never noticed before. I work on these things every day.

I was about to pull the valve covers off my pickup today and check them out too.

 

Ya , I saw that also when customizing My heads but after I saw it was all of the exhaust 1's I figured it had to be normal ,,,,,,,,,,,,,I have 2 pr of heads I saw it with .

 

You're not alone, I almost crapped myself when I saw it for the first time

 

Sorry for the old bump but thanks for posting this.....found some of these this evening.