Jump to content

Blown/Seeping Head Gasket?


onespiritbrain
 Share

Recommended Posts

I’m looking at my old engine block and there is no cylinder wall damage at all.. and I can turn the crank by hand. I remember when I got it home it would start and idle normally until it got up to normal temperature then it would screech and make these horrible high pitch grinding noises along with RPM dependent thuds and eventually seize and stop. Then I could let it cool down and break the crank free by bumping the starter a bunch and it would repeat the cycle.

 

I have this rotten gross feeling inside that says all I would’ve had to do was change the bearings in the bottom of that motor, maybe polish or possibly grind the crank, and it would have been just fine............. I definitely should have taken that motor apart. ?

 

Also the fire rings on my old engine’s head gasket are split in several places. I am wondering now if that is something that commonly happens when taking the heads off, those head gaskets were about to go themselves, or the stress of being severely hydrolocked was the cause..

 

7e26845dc003fff93f6c59f538ee4b6d.jpg

 

d4b26cce5a21730c085d9830d02d042a.jpg

 

This box is its home now.. a far cry from the adventurous vehicle it once powered. I feel like such a jerk.. poor thing. If there was a good way to make that motor into a powerhouse I’d take it home and give it a new duty. Or maybe even put it in a buggy or something.

 

Anyways I won’t be working on anything for a couple days. My best friend who gave me a car to drive during all this has stage 4 cancer and I’m going down to see him in the hospital, they are finishing up his last bone marrow transplant and he has extreme cabin fever. His name is Calvin Weeks if you’re praying, remember Calvin. Then my daughters birthday is tomorrow and the weekend will be spent celebrating her.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, onespiritbrain said:

Wow man that sucks and I hate it for you. I really do... what are you going to do?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've checked it out really good and can't find any indication of a head gasket leaking! For that much coolant to get in a cylinder, it would have to be a pretty good leak. I let it sit 2 days with the plug out and no coolant collected in the cylinder. It runs perfect and no bubbles in radiator or blowing coolant out. Every time I check the radiator it is full, not loosing any coolant. Not sure how all that coolant got in that cylinder but i'm starting to think foul play! I'll have to start parking it where my security cameras can see it. I'll try running my dye tester on it and if it doesn't show anything I'll start driving it again and see what happens. I'll always be nervous when I first bump the key now!

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm.. well that’s strange. I wonder if it is a crack in the lower intake manifold that only opens up in certain conditions or something. I am interested to know what you end up finding.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, JamesRich said:

I've checked it out really good and can't find any indication of a head gasket leaking! For that much coolant to get in a cylinder, it would have to be a pretty good leak. I let it sit 2 days with the plug out and no coolant collected in the cylinder. It runs perfect and no bubbles in radiator or blowing coolant out. Every time I check the radiator it is full, not loosing any coolant. Not sure how all that coolant got in that cylinder but i'm starting to think foul play! I'll have to start parking it where my security cameras can see it. I'll try running my dye tester on it and if it doesn't show anything I'll start driving it again and see what happens. I'll always be nervous when I first bump the key now!

James

Maybe bad intake manifold gaskets? The oem ones are beasty metal things. The aftermarket ones I put in felt cheap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, adamzan said:

Maybe bad intake manifold gaskets? The oem ones are beasty metal things. The aftermarket ones I put in felt cheap.

I thought about the intake leaking but the coolant passes on each end, and the middle cylinder on the passenger side is the only one that got coolant in it. I have the modified TBI intake with a carburetor on it. I've been starting it morning and night and it runs fine. After I get my dye tester I'll start driving it again.

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I took one bearing cap off and it literally looks brand new. Almost too new.. unless these things don’t wear over time until there is a problem. This engine was at 121K when I got it, I think.

 

I was going to ask if I should even look at the mains or not since the rods look so good but I guess it’d be dumb not to just do it at this point..

 

I did find this though:

799e939c50e7966fae7dfd4bae342a5d.jpg

 

And there’s no telling how bad it got before all this work. I have a feeling that all the crazy valve train noise I had that day may have been a clogged screen..

 

More pics coming

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

d587528afda1d5cd82055069653e8841.jpg
6f76f544fa5ff9754ffc464b43047491.jpg

They look amazing.

So I dropped one of the bearing cap nuts and it literally vanished as soon as it hit the ground. I searched on my knees for two hours, rearranged every single part out there, even looked thru the grass surrounding the garage, and could not find the forsaken nut anywhere...

My mind keeps telling me it must have fallen down inside the motor and became lodged.. however I heard it hit the ground.

Very very frustrating. I have a magnetic tray so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen but I wasn’t using it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good lord. My motor with 450k km on it had nearly nothing on the screen. One flake of something and nothin' else

 

FWIW here is my 95's head, the motor has about 100k km on it (was a JDM import motor)

 

32331933_10156349003189233_1420423453760

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man.. these things are so dirty.

eac21faa17263ac41b7c32f7d8ccb35f.jpg

4dea65d89af6207a37e1d79883a9c19e.jpg

Before I killed this engine it was seeing 17mpg. My current engine was getting 12-14mpg. I’m not sure if my tires are playing that big a role or not but I did change to mud terrains right after the new engine.

The new engines exhaust valves were scorched white and were very hard to clean. The valves I just removed from my old heads were fairly cleanish and were not scorched at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like you found the squealing noise! I think those heads will clean up, and it sounds like they're in much better shape than the clean ones. Maybe the brownie crumbs on the pickup are the crud that got washed out of the heads? It looks a little milky in the crevices, though, so maybe coolant had something to do with it.. Good to hear your bottom end bearings are alright on the new motor.

 

I've read that overheating can cause buildup on valves. Maybe that's got something to do with the white crap?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I keep seeing all these videos of people resurfacing their own cylinder heads and I feel like it’ll cost me close to the $90 the machine shop wants just to get a good setup to do it myself..

I was in the QA lab here at work last night using their super sharp tweezers to remove a splinter and I realized they have a giant Starrett Granite Surface Plate in there! I am going to secure some 400grit sandpaper to the plate and gently move the cylinder heads back and forth until they’re perfect.

I also found the missing 15deg head for our pressure washer this morning. Looks like I might stay late tonight and get these bad boys ready to go!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used one of my other heads as a guinea pig to see if hand surfacing was an option and I am almost certain it would work but I don’t like how shaky the whole thing was... and it took a ton of patience with the tiny little circles and almost an hour just to get what I got..

 

c6a11a3f92758ec1724540153ad4c4bb.jpg

That’s the setup. I couldn’t find any long pieces of sandpaper today and I think I’d have to order it from McMaster anyway and it’d cost way too much. So on I went..

 

Before:

9632220efa564c266412cb272de7055c.jpg

After:

2209bc99cc22aaf4649f834c0e7e70a6.jpg

 

I used 320grt paper and wetted it with water and a small amount of detergent. Then it was tiny circles because long movements back and forth were causing the sandpaper to buckle and the seams were catching.

 

8b7dc54a071981bfa85599d3d877bc14.jpg

421c337a1c75573bbf9f6384b71aecb1.jpg

 

I mean dang... it actually looks to be good enough for me... I just can’t imagine having to do all of this all over again because I wanted to be cheap.

 

What do y’all think? What would you do??

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FWIW I did a lot of head gaskets on Ford's 4.6L and 5.4L, probably 2-3 a month for about a year and a half. The accepted practice to clean them was a die grinder with a scotch Brite wheel. Warranty would only allow it to go to a machine shop if it came back. I never had one come back. The finished surface looked about like yours did after the sanding. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I totally agree. Resurfacing is the best option if you can do it. I just wanted to point out that the other way would have been fine too. If you can, go with the best way though. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lapping the valves in now!

 

Exhaust valves look terrible.. I guess they were sealing though because this engine was running great before I killed it.

7c36c76a40bda869c962d2e81829353f.jpg

5ad68a39ad3ec0dcad8c54cf2ce71c8e.jpg

14a8be727239e2c8e23c9df64582ec37.jpg

 

Intakes look great. I’m lightly lapping them anyway.

b8890fb0659c7c53a3c1bf770c926341.jpg

26247b4cea84fe8ff86adde7fdbe4b2e.jpg

This is the stuff I use at work for the mating surfaces of our extrusion screws. I figure it’s at least as good as the stuff they sell at the parts store. I did buy some of the permatex stuff too.. the permatex is 180grt and this loctite stuff is 240grt.

d11aee646e661147e407638ab7ccad38.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m blowing all the oil passages out and there is a ton of metal from the machine shop all in these heads. I am worried I’m going to miss a piece or two and it’s going to wreck the motor.

 

I know the metal that makes it back to the sump will be filtered out but not before hitting the oil pump.

 

Kind of wishing I had just sanded these things by hand.....

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am destroying these valve stem seals.... how am I supposed to be installing these things. I’m on the intake side and they just don’t want to go down all the way. I’m using a 10mm socket to drive them but it destroys them each time (2 times so far.....)

 

Please help.

 

bbcc30667108d02592acb09fa0948f0e.jpg

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well for anyone who reads this in the future, I don’t believe the valve seals go all the way down. The exhaust seals definitely do not.

 

Also, the metal jacket seals are for the intake. Why? I cannot possibly imagine why.. Metal jacketed seals are used for a much cooler application and the full rubber ones are used for a much hotter application?

 

Anyways.... that was a bummer today. I have to go get seals tomorrow for $26! Dang it. Also the machine shop gashed the crap out of the heads... one place where the valve covers will be sealing and another on one of the exhaust manifold sealing surfaces.

 

I knew I should’ve taken before pictures. I’m going to use silicone on the valve cover and hope for the best on the exhaust.

 

Here’s the valve cover one after I filed it down and went over it with a honing stone.

4ea1ed1465de72c0065bf33c83c8471d.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...