Hardened valve seals in T/A heads

[72 Challenger]

Anyone ever done it? Can the heads handle it? Will it "ruin" them?

Thanks!

[Chryco Psycho]

The TA head is just a J casting , the only difference is the offset pushrod & the factory never ported the heads to take advantage .
I have installed hardened seats in virtually every engine build & I generally port the heads also , I generally only install them on the exhaust side unless the intake seats are very sunken from numerous rebuilds .

[Bossgold]

Anyone ever done it? Can the heads handle it? Will it "ruin" them?

Thanks!

This is one of those discussions where it all depends. My valve seats were not hardened on my rebuilt 340 TA Numbers match AAR motor. With the engine compression ratio, metallurgy as a factor, as are driving habits and engine loading I guess it depends on how hard you plan to drive it. I'm not pulling a trailer, not going through the mountains and don't plan to drive my car state to state - and put on a ton of miles. So I opted to run additives or high octane gas instead. Remember -  seats can come loose and destroy an engine. It happens every now and then no matter how good the shop is so I decided to not take the chance. These TA 915 (Date Coded) heads aren't common chrysler heads you can find anywhere and they are not cheap. If I was buidling a 440 probably but in this case I'll use the fuel/additive option. This is just my opinion.

[70vert]

Aren't hardened seats "required" due to the elimination of lead, not an octane issue? The lead provided some lubrication that helped with wear. I would always replace with hardened seats, exhaust only if preferred, if you plan to drive the car much. If it is just a show car or rarely driven/run then probably not a big concern.

I'm sure there is controversy, there always is. 

[Chryco Psycho]

 
I have never had a seat come loose in an iron head , maybe I just use good machinists !

[Brads70]

I have never had a seat come loose in an iron head , maybe I just use good machinists !

I literally used a BBQ to heat up the heads , had the seats in the freezer overnight.  That was 10 years ago now.....

[anlauto]

The title says "seals" , but he means seats right ?  Usually if your seals are hard you want to replace them