While leaving cars & coffee I heard a little back fire and a valve train noise on the driver side. Towed home and searched the cyber web and I determined that I experienced a dropped valve seat. I'll drop the engine tomorrow and pull both heads because I used a not so hot engine guy last time. I need to search out a good heads to purchase. I don't want to repeat the same mistake. Please feel free to make fun of me or suggest a good source for new heads.

Sorry to hear of the breakdown; I had a spark plug blow out of a cylinder on a C & C trip. Going to C & C regularly is probably one of the best ways to detect problems before you do a 300+ mile trip

Before you take the engine out, pull the valve covers and check valve lash. ( a quick wiggle of the rockers will be fine ) Also inspect rocker nuts / rockers / push rods for damage

If it dropped a seat, valve lash will be huge, like 1/4"

# 2 valve lash is huge! Any advice on a head supplier? Thinking about new instead of rebuilt.
Brian

LN Engineering is the best and their prices reflect it.

Just I suspected the # 2 intake seat decided to take a .
I think I am done with old heads.

Sorry to hear,not really that often an inlet pops out,my experience with air cooled heads and machine shops has proved most don't know how to remove seats properly or how to measure and fit new ones,shops that do them all the time know but generally few understand how much of an interference fit they are.
Appears you have "no comeback" on the shop that did yours?.
I have noted with interest what McMark is doing the heads he has been sampling,give him a call he sounds like a helpful guy.
Hope you find a solution .

Might not want to blame the head builder yet (even though it could be his fault). Type 4 seats are notorious for falling out. Especially old heads. They repeatedly get too hot then cool off. The seats come loose from the heat and finally just fall out. Remember, your heads are probably 40 years old and have had thousands of heat cycles.

The question is, What should the head rebuilder have done to prevent a seat from coming out? ( Yes, I'm aware that you seem to be taking a middle ground here. )

If the rebuilder recommended new out of the box heads, I'm betting there would be those on this list saying he just wanted to make more $.

It's no wonder that some shops say no to older / odd engines.

The engine guy insured me that the heads were in good condition and he was up to speed on type 4 engines. I have hopefully learned from my mistake and with help from the 914 support group not to repeat. This is not the first but the most costly event to surface since he took over a year to finish my engine.
Just venting.
Brian

The valve seats on a 2.0L rngine should be replaced at a rebuild. It the builder did not replace them he is not up to speed on Type IV motors. FAT Performance requires customer to sign a no warranty waiver if seats are not replaced at customers request.
You don't really need a new head. Just replace all the intake valve seats.
If you do get a replacement head keep in mind the chamber volume should be matched to the other head.

Years back I dropped a valve seat three times, twice in my driveway. This was five or so years ago, it turned out that there was a run of bad seats. just a fuzz too small,and I mean a fuzz. Builder pinged and punched the seats but could not make them stay in. The engine at that time was a 2.4 l. maybe you have some of those seats that have been sitting around for a while.

Getting to the point where I don't want to use old heads anymore. Luckily...

https://aapistons.com/collections/bare-cast...oled-round-port

My understanding is that Len Hoffman will deal with these new castings.

Probably worth every penny since the heads are probably the most important component on a type IV.

Just my 02.

Did the engine seize up?

We have a type-4 guy in Ohio last guy I would have trusted with this died a while ago.

Link to the 2.0L heads

Len at LN would be the guy I would send them to.

That is if you want to keep it a type-4, you do have options if you want to explore