[denisond3]

My understanding is that the valve seats can be replaced - but by a machine shop. It requires boring the valve seat recess oversize, to take a new oversize valve seat (which has to be pressed into the recess), then the new valve seat has to be ground/honed to be concentric to the valve, as well has having the right seating angle.

And since the head is off the car, I would plan on having a valve job done, involving all new valve seats (hopefully of a better metal than the original), all seats reground, and for a head that was high mileage, maybe new valve guides, and anything else taken care of. (I havent had any core plugs in an Escort head replaced, as they seem to corrode much less than the core plugs in the engine block).
The last head I had rebuilt was because its bottom surface was warped more than was allowed (which is sort of normal too): So they milled .006" off to make it flat again. I also asked them not to re-assemble the head, as I wanted to do that myself. It came back with the box of loose parts: camshaft, lifters, lifter clips, rocker arms, rocker arm bolts, and the valves and springs and valve keepers. They had all been washed in some cleaning solution, and I found that the cleaning solution had removed all the oil from the roller bearings on the bottoms of the lifters. I had to dip those in oil, and spin the rollers with my fingers, to make CERTAIN they turned freely.