This car has 121K and I use it every day for about 150 miles per day. The car runs/ran terrific. As I said it idles beautifully and performed quickly off the start and had super power at all speeds.

Here is my point of view on what has happened and I would like some comment from the group.

When the shop called me they said that they thought they had screwed up and that when they installed the chain they had done something wrong and bent a valve. They removed the head and put a level across the top of the valves and pointed out that one Valve was higher than the other. They say that this could have been the case for some time? I don't think the car would have run that well if that were the case!
Am I wrong or are their extenuating circumstances that the car would run great with this condition? Comments Please!

I believe that the chain was installed wrong and bent the valve. Now that the valve is bent you remove the head and look at the valve bottoms and you see cracking and some valve wear on 2 other cylinders. Rather than bite the bullet on bending the valve they go to me and say " You have valve issues and they need repair. We should remove the head and have it redone". It costs me money and they are off the hook.

The real issue here is that it is true that I saw valve cracking and some wear or debris on 3 of the valves. Two valves had a baked finish that was a tan ceramic color. I believe it to be the first and last valve in the head.

Based on the observation, I would probably be back to them in some months to have the valves done anyway. This episode just moved the head work up a bit.

The question I have is that even though it may have been good fortune to uncover the problem now, Why wouldn't they just admit the error and accomodate me some little bit. Would anyone in the business do that or am I a dreamer?

What would you do in these circumstances?

Another question: What causes the valves to crack and some to carbon up worse than others?

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1988 560SL
Black Pearl/Palamino