I remember a little while ago someone else on this board had a burnt valve. I had one and fixed it. I also found the reason it burnt. Mine was the number 7 cylinder. Which is also the cylinder that the power booster hooks up to. I had fixed the valve a few months ago, but 2 weeks ago I had a thought. I checked the power booster and it was leaking bad. Which would cause cylinder #7 to run lean, which is a major cause of burnt valves. I replaced the brake booster. So if whoever it was that had the burnt valve, if it was cyl #7 I'd check your brake booster, might save the new valve. Actually anyone with power brakes should check their booster. After replacing mine I cured a bad pinging problem. -Nick
Good point. I once bought a 72 Lark that had an open vacuum line behind the carb. After I fixed it and did all sorts of other work it still ran lousy. I knew it was a burnt valve. How do you recommend we check our boosters? I know that mine holds some vacuum for about a day after it's been run, so I believe that it's healthy..
I hooked mine up to my vaccuum pump, and pumped away. I think the better/easier way is to run the car, then shut it off, and see how long it takes for your power brakes to not work. I know mine would die once I shut off the car or if it stalled. I checked my check valve and that worked. The check valve is the elbow fitting the comes out of the booster, and it makes sure that the booster will hold vacuum if the engine dies.
I think that mine is OK. I had an 89 corvette that had a blown booster. It was so bad that you could hear the vacuum rush when I hit the brakes. Also, if you sat at a long light, the car would start to idle poorly because the booster was loosing all of the engine vacuum!
