Never heard of that before. You would need a catastrophic fail somewhere for that to happen. Guides are a heavy interference fit and need a press to be fitted. My guess is that the garage has got the message wrong.

 

as above it is very rare to have guides drop if they have and you can pop over the uk you can pick up a head for £30 1.8i type not sure on the other
Ron

 

Maybe meant to say the liners had dropped?

 

yes the guides just dont drop.......if anything, the head would just want facing up......unless its grooved too deep. i would be reluctant to let them continue with the job if they have no idea about the engine

 

He took the car away from the garage and delivered it to me yesterday. 600 miles with a TF on a rent a car van !
Not had a look at it yet.

 

Ask him what the garage said exactly in french, perhaps he got lost in translation... That could save some time.

Valve guides don't "drop" like that, even a silly mechanic would know.

All the way from South of France... Well, there are quite a few garages that can fix and tune K series in France, some even race with us in Lotus Cup Europe together with many UK specialists and all these are probably the most experienced you can find although probably overkill just for HGF. They can't be that difficult to find...

Having said that I know indeed no garage in the South and then he can enjoy the Uk while his car gets fixed.

 

So I've just had a look and checked the head. All the valves are in place, the cams are out, looking through the inlet and outlet ports I can see a couple of mm of each valve guide, all are identical.
2 of the cylinder liners turn so I will remove all 4 and reseal them.

I'm in the north east of France.

The garage definitely said " guide de soupapes "

 

Bloody hell, then the long drive was worth and the engine is better off in your hands mate!