Originally Posted by
PLR
Hello , if it were me i`d do a bit more searching before you remove it .
We have 3.9 with and 4.0 without both in RRCs . The 3.9 has efi and lpg the 4.0 has carbs and lpg .
The one with is not so much a valve lube as a power thing it has more with than without or seems to , never on a dyno .
Ive replaced the exhaust valves on the one without , the valve seats were fine and only need a touch up but the valve faces were pitted beyond reassembly . This motor has both stanless exhast and inlet valves . I have maybe 3 other sets of 3.5 heads that have been on lpg and their valves/seats are fine as well as another set of 10 bolt 3.9-4.6 heads that ran lpg and the seats/valves are fine also .
All these head sets came from engines that have 2 numbers and a letter in there engine number pre-fix . 12D to 86D .
If your mid 70s 3.5 is a 341 . 355 , 359 , 398 etc prefix .
Being 8.25 or .5 or .13 :1 ratio it will have small valve heads and i think you will find that these valve seats are not so lpg friendly and i would keep flash lube etc on these . None of the early V8s had stem seals at all .
Actually when i think on it a bit more if yours is a 398 prefix with 8.13:1 ratio and is at least 76 it should have the bigger valve heads but the only way of knowing is the casting numbers on the heads which if bigger valve will be ERC-0216 , this is the numbers the first of the bigger valved heads had .
Being its age it could have had much done to it over the years you`d need to know what it is before you can be sure .
Cheers