How shiney????

[mvalenti]

Lapped 2 of the 4 intake valves... The lapped valves are considerably less shiney than the unlapped.... Is this normal?

[Agemax]

yea, that is exactly what you are looking for. it means the valves have been lapped in properly. if you see any shiney patches on the lapped valve, then that is a low spot, which means it still needs some more lapping in

[Nessism]

The idea is to lap them until you see a nice even ring on both the valve face and the seat, then stop. Do not continue to hammer away once you get the valve and seat cleaned since you are just wearing the parts needlessly. Photo shot looks good.

[Steve]

You are not polishing the faces, so you will not be looking for a shine.

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[mvalenti]

Thanks all.. Will continue...

[oldgrumpy]

Lapped 2 of the 4 intake valves... The lapped valves are considerably less shiney than the unlapped.... Is this normal?

,,,,,, hi you should be BLUEING the mating edges of the valves and lightly rotating and lapping them ,,, i did polish the heads of all my valves only because i could they look great ,, and i also did a slight port job which helped regards oldgrumpy

[gs1197]

When the shiny spots are gone and the entire face has an even, 'velvety' appearance...you're done.

[Triam]

Valves become shiny with wear because of something called burnishing. It's a process where two metal with similar harnesses rub together. They deform together making each other shiny and increase the stress on the surface which increases the tensile strength. The only problem is that it's free to deform how it wishes, so lapping the valves brings it back into check, and makes it look less shiny.