DarylJ

I do. Was running hot and I nursed it home a couple days ago. Oil pressure was getting to the scary low side of the gauge. Dipstick looked like a milkshake.

I just drained the "oil" - got a good stream or orange then the oil came out.

So what's my best option on figuring out whether this is the head gasket or the oil cooler? If its the HG, I'm doing the cooler anyway, because it's easy and I've already got the stuff. But if there's a reasonable chance it's not the HG, I'll just start with the cooler.

Any ideas?


Also, what will I need to replace to do the HG besides seals? Exhaust studs/nuts I think are a given, but what about head studs/bolts? I've never done this job before, and just looked over the clark's procedure - didn't mention replaceing any head hardware that I saw.

Also - what's the while I'm in there list - other than getting the cam tower and distributor parts powder coated, which is a given? 179k miles, belts/pump/rollers changed 3k ago.

FRporscheman

get the whole HG kit, with all the cambox seals, valve seals, etc and get those all installed
AOS o-rings
intake hoses where needed
vacuum tubes where needed
dipstick o-rings
new cam bolt (that infamous cheesehead ****)
new cap/rotor/plugs/wires (optional I guess)
think about resealing the BS housings... or at least that rear plug on the top housing
good time to buy one of those "complete coolant hose kits"
injector seal kits (maybe send them out to witchhunter to get cleaned too)


Go outside right now, and spray PB blaster onto the two allen bolts in the front of the head, right below the water neck. Spray PB on it every day until the day you go to actually remove the headgasket. Those 2 bolts always seize up and snap, and ruin your day. Once they are fully removed, replace them with Stainless Steel M8 studs and nuts.


Can't think of a way to distinguish water cooler failure from HG failure for sure. Check around your head for leakage/wetness, and do a compression check. Those might tell you if the HG is bad.

Maybe you can just go do the cooler seals, then drive the car and check for milkshake. On an NA it shouldn't be too hard to do the cooler seals with the head on. Good Luck.

DarylJ

Good ideas. BS housings are done already along with the cap/rotor/wires.


Already did the before I started taking the headers off Good idea with the stainless studs. I'll do that.


As I got into this today, I see coolant in the galleys under the intake on the top of the motor. I'm just gonna go for replacing it all.

I don't want to jinx myself, but the exhaust nuts came off real easy, and I've got all but 2 studs out (I'm dropping the entire exhaust and bringing it to the shop to get a new o2 sensor bung put in as well as a new tip - so I might as well).

I need to check on sizes for the allen bolts that I see all over the head and the right size for the cheesehead and get my order placed at my buddy's gas station for when the Snap-on guy comes by next week. I've read horror stories with cheap cheese head sockets and I'd like to skip that one outright.

Thanks a lot for the information. I'm just glad it happened on this car and not on my truck. I hate working on that thing.

Calmchaos

I think thats the best Ive ever seen anyone handle a blown head gasket you seem almost happy about it... lol

DarylJ

The car is my daily driver, but I also have a pickup to drive, and I also have a 2 bay pole barn sitting next to my house with a lot of tools - no lift, but other than that I'm doing pretty well.

I like working on this car. Compared to dealing with an F150 with a 4.6L (which, by the way has the back 1/3 of it in this little tunnel in the firewall) this is cake.

I wouldn't have bought this car if I didn't expect this to happen. I picked up up for almost nothing, figuring I'd part it (it was in 3 floods, at least 2 of which got water inside). Turns out after de-crapping the engine compartment and changing the plugs it started running too well for me to not drive it. So any time I get to is just a bonus. And now I have a terribly unhealthy attachment to it.

The plan was to learn how these things work on this one, make a few bucks and then buy a turbo. Now I'm keeping it and adding a turbo at some point in the future. I'm having way too much fun, I know. But whatever - I consider this part of owning the car.

nh7cy

Daryl, I love that signature, its hilarious

Yabo

Hahah, I agree. that sig is the best I've seen. It is good that you have that attitude. Having a car for fun is supposed to be that. Fun. Every part of it. It shouldn't be a major stress. You are taking it the right way.

Like arash said. Spray up those bolts on the front water outlet of the head. Besides that the headgasket job was quite easy.

FRporscheman

Oh, another couple of nasty bolts that often snap - the two regular bolts that hold the narrow water neck on the very back of the head. This waterneck has that little 2-nipple vacuum plug on the top of it, and it is located right beside the AOS assembly. Spray those bolts a lot too.

Overall, I say replace all bolts with stainless if you don't mind the extra cost. I figured stainless steel won't corrode and seize to aluminum, right?

Will Feather

whats the best way to check for milkshake anyways, check the oil fill neck for milkshake/bubbles?

nh7cy

Its usually pretty apparent. When my head gasket went, all one had to do was take a look at the dipstick. Of course, I'm not sure if it would be that noticeable with a very small leak.

DarylJ

Listen for you car sounding like it's got 0W-2 Kool Aid in the crank case, and pull the dip stick to see nice mochachino looking bubbly stuff on your dip stick. Of course, mine was a pretty massive failure.

DarylJ

Exhaust is off, intake is off, broke 1 bolt (the short one) on the water filler neck. The rest woke up and came out really well, but look super crappy (not that I wasn't going to replace them anyway).

I ended up taking the fuel rail out attached to the intake because it really didn't want to come out - followed the Clark's procedure, but I was afraid to pull any harder. Not a big deal for now, but any advice on this one? I probably want to send the injectors out to be cleaned, but I definitely want to at least replace all the seals. I already set the car on fire once (minor - heating a bolt and caught some sludge on fire back before I really cleaned it) - I don't really want to do it again.

DarylJ

I've got the cam tower off now. OK...where are these dreaded cheese heads?
Are the supposed to be to 10 bolts that hold on the head (5 under the cam tower, 5 visible under the intake)? If so, somebody has replaced them with a stud/nut (I'm nearly positive this head has been replaced/repaired before - when I did my belts/rollers/water pump I found a very scary looking chunk of cam belt behind the belt covers that just screamed shredded belt - and it wasn't off of the one I was replacing).

DarylJ

After some scary creaking bolts, I've got the head off. Only broke one allen in the water neck (previously mentioned) and one allen through the front of the head in the block. Neither of these should be much hassle to deal with - I actually have some left to grab on to, and even if they won't come out, they're in easy spots to fix.

Oh...and there were no cheese heads. I still don't know where those are supposed to be. But I had none. Add that up with the next picture and I'm sure this thing has been apart before.

Now I have some questions. First of all, what the hell do I have here? Looks like valve relief cuts in the pistons:



Second of all, what should I be looking for as far as a failure of the head gasket. It looks pretty much good to me. Can these failures be subtle? The only time I've changed one was on my 1974 F250 with a 390 in it. It was obvious what was wrong there - you could see part of the gasket missing where the oil had been pissing down the back of my motor.





Also, anything scary looking here? What should I be looking for other than putting straight edge against the came tower and head mating surfaces?

DarylJ

Yes, replying to myself yet again - since the exhaust valves are steam cleaned on 2 and 3, I guess that's where I should be looking for the damage. Does that make sense?