xschop

The metallurgy of the 944 block/head material is brittle (alusil). If the head is warped and you stick on a new HG, it will soon after have a nice crack.

Look at some recent threads where the bolt threading on these blocks are starting to break off. The heat cycling of this alloy for it's years in service is approaching it's life expectancy.

Ben951S

All that headwork that kev suggests is only necessary if you over-heated it. It's a good idea to have the head refreshed/rebuilt, but it shouldn't need milling/level work if the head gasket blew and there was no overheating.

He's right in terms of safe over sorry.

kev951

All I have to say is that the heart and soul of our heads is in the valve guides, and they don't last for s@#$. You loose compression and power, and use oil because of worn guides. They are made of bronze, after about 10 k miles , they already have signifigant wear. I'm not saying change your valve guides every 10 k. But if you have the head off, and it has atleast 30 k miles since its last refresh, put new guides in to get your power back. guides are cheap, valves are not.... well at least for a turbo they are not cheap. put new stem seals, save the oil you are using. Get clean combustion . be happy!

xschop

And another design flaw pointed out by Kev that haunts the 44 owner's in the smog **** states.

impulse

Just found this thread while looking for posts concerning head gasket replacement. I have an 85.5 NA with an '89 engine in it. It is primarily used for autocross. In the past few months I have had an overheating problem which I have pretty much determined is a head gasket problem. Have gone through the exercize of pressure testing the coolant system, looking for leaks etc. Used a test kit to test for combustion gases in the coolant and the fluid turned yellowish/green. So, I've been researching to find out what kind of a job a head gasket replacement is. Looks to be a rather significant task and some of the posts about what you should look for and do once you get the head off are kinda scary. I'm not a mechanic only a DIY'er on most anything on the exterior, suspension etc. I can't see putting the money in the car to have a shop do it but one thing that makes me hesitate to try it myself is that I have no idea how many miles the engine has on it. After a round trip to the track (about 100 miles), if you let it idle the temp gage will climb up toward the red rather rapidly. After cooling down It will take a quart to a quart and a half of coolant to top it up. I don't suppose that any one can answer this question but what are the chances that I would only need the head gasket replaced? I'm trying to screw up enough guts to tackle this. Any helpful suggestions would be appreciated.

John_AZ

The answer has already been posted --correctly.

If you have a decent set of tools and know how to tension a cam belt you can do it.

A quart and a half of coolant is a lot to lose.

I think you may have waited too long and you might have more serious damage to the piston skirts and cylinder walls of the engine. The coolant might have removed the required oil film on the cylinder walls as you drove on the track.

Pull the head your self.
If you take it to a shop and the work costs more than the car is worth, you will need a tow truck to bring home the pieces.

John

No HTwo O

I'd recommend Fischer Motors in Lake Barrington. 847-304-8822.

impulse

Thanks for the reply John. Yes, I had read that post by kev951. That was one that was giving me second thoughts about attampting the job myself. Like you suggest, I guess I will pull the head myself and take it to someone that knows what they are doing. I can always part it out as a last resort. But darn, I like this car.