Well, here's the culprit for my 60 psi (versus about 160-170 for the other three cylinders) in my #4 cylinder...





I haven't done a compression test yet, but I have high hopes after replacing that thing.  The valve seat actually looked pretty good.  I replaced the intake valve too.

wow, I heard the stories, but never saw what happens

Hey, I got one that looks kinda like that,
I keep it around as a momento  

Wild

Wow that looks nasty.
2 of my cylinders have 30 and 35 psi, the other 2 have 170psi.  Im sure its the valves on mine too.

Intake valves rarely burn, it's the hot
exhaust gasses that burn an unadjusted
valve    You could have prevented this

A fairly common practice is the regrind the
intakes and replace the exhausts, and I would
pop for the extra few $$ to put in Stainless
Exhausts, I have seen them for about $12
ea.  which is much better than the $20 I paid
for mine.

Best to fix that head before you ruin the valve
seat, the seat is cooled by the head, so it burns
much slower, but it will get grooved if you keep
going.

Wild

Intake valves rarely burn, it's the hot
exhaust gasses that burn an unadjusted
valve    You could have prevented this

Wild

I have adjusted motorcycle valves before.  Is the process on the trackkick the same?  Can you hear it if the valves need adjusting?  Do they get tighter or looses as they wear?  A lot of motorcycle valves get tighter, which is the opposite of what I would expect.

the valves are easy to adjust, you need a feeler gauge

I have adjusted motorcycle valves before.  Is the process on the trackkick the same?  Can you hear it if the valves need adjusting?  Do they get tighter or looses as they wear?  A lot of motorcycle valves get tighter, which is the opposite of what I would expect.

Great question, they tighten as they
wear, which is why I burned my exhaust valves

Keep up on the valve adjustments, it's hard to
hear when they need it, I would say adjust every
7,000-10,000 miles after the first adjustment and
oil change at 500 miles from rebuild

Wild

I had one like that in the black Tracker. It just had one crack in it... but that crack extended into that center thing . It was a mess.

the hot
exhaust gasses that burn an unadjusted
valve    You could have prevented this

Wild

Yea, I don't know how I missed it, but for the first 3 years I owned the vehicle, I didn't even know the valves were supposed to be adjusted.  Found that out when I bought a FSM.  So, it went at least 15k (don't know how much before that) before I adjusted them for the first time.  I'd guess that valve has had problems for longer than that though.

Anyway, there are a lot of thing I "should have done".  I probably should have just bought a rebuilt head or as a minimum used all new valves when I pulled this head.  I just didn't know what I would find when I opened it up and have no idea what kind of shape the bottom end is in, so I opted for what I thought would be the least cost solution.

Hopefully, things will stay together for a while.  Then I'll have to decide how much more I want to do to this thing and how long I figure on keeping it.  Most cars I have I expect to keep forever, but that's not terribly realistic I guess  :-/

I wasn't really mad you know  
I was the same as you, I didn't
know that the valves were not
hydraulic, and that on most heads
valves get loose, not tighten, it
would be a nice addition to get a
retro hydraulic valve setup but I'm
not sure how to go about changing
that in a 1.6 head

Wild

Wow that looks nasty.
2 of my cylinders have 30 and 35 psi, the other 2 have 170psi.  Im sure its the valves on mine too.

FWIW, it wasn't a bad job.  I was very happy that I didn't have to take anything apart on the exhaust or the intake (well, I had to loosen the fuel line clamp and pull a vac hose) manifold to get the head off    All I had to do after removing the timing belt was remove the exh & int bolts and pull them to the sides and then just lift the head out.  That was nice.  The worst problem I had was getting the screws out for the rocker bars.  I had to drill half of them out    I don't understand why they were so difficult.

I wasn't really mad you know  
I was the same as you, I didn't
know that the valves were not
hydraulic, and that on most heads
valves get loose, not tighten, it
would be a nice addition to get a
retro hydraulic valve setup but I'm
not sure how to go about changing
that in a 1.6 head

Wild

I know  

Heck, I figure if you got mad/upset enough about it, you'd come on over and adjust them for me rather than see a Trackick abused  

Hydraulic would be nice (for no adjustment necessary and no noise), but it seems like the head would have to be cast to have cylindrical spaces available to put them in.  I can't imagine how you could do it otherwise.  Unless you could mount them on the end of the valve, but then how well would they get oiled :-/

Oh, I'll probably keep that valve as a keepsake too.

To Virginia from California, well
hey to keep a Zuke alive, call me
when you are at your 500 mile
valve adjustment time, I'll be right over

Wild

To Virginia from California, well
hey to keep a Zuke alive, call me
when you are at your 500 mile
valve adjustment time, I'll be right over

Wild

What about turbo's? Gonna offer a turbo-install and maintenance service, too? Pretty please