Rob Edwards

Bleed 1/2" off the hydraulic cylinder at a time until the engine stops drooping and the chains go slack. Then remove the chains. If the engine doesn't fall off the stand, you did it right.

Just be careful when rotating the stand with the gear drive, it's pretty top heavy. Go slow until you're comfortable as far as knowing where the 'tipping point' is.

Rob Edwards

Here's the stand position on the to-be stroker motor, yours looks good to me:

jeff spahn

You guys gotta stop posting these pornographic photos!

Emickelsen

Yup Rob, looks about the same. Thanks. Got about 80% of the gunk off today. I can actually see the engine now. I got the work area ready, ready to start pullin' parts. Quick question. Does the water pump gasket need gasket sealer ( or silicon, I forget what I used last time I replaced a WP about 30 yes ago) like you used to have to do?

Rob Edwards

Lots of opinions on this. My vote is dry, but use a factory gasket. Others will recommend yamabond, or some hi-tack Permatex in a few spots to tack it in place. I think the biggest thing is to get all the old gasket off so that the sealing surface is nice and flat.

Antiseize on the WP bolts!

Rob Edwards

EDIT: dp..

Emickelsen

OK, back to work. Heads are finally off!! I'm a little displeased with the color of the pistons. Seems quite dark in there. And there is a heavy carbon deposit as well. Should I clean those off at all?

One thing I learned is to pull the headers off first, so the valve towers won't drain oil all over them. Also, be careful pulling the cam tower off, so as to not allow your hydraulic lifters to spill out all over the floor. As I was pulling the headers off, I found several bolts were not even finger tight!!!! Thus, I assume, the source of my exaust leak AND my smog failure.

Spent most of the day cleaning parts. I'm just about to head down the other side of the moutain, and start putting everything back together. Now all I have to do is get the old gaskets off. Is there a trick to that? I'd really hate to take a razor to it. I tried soaking it with some of the break cleaner, but that did nothing. The Head gaskets came off fine, its the valve tower gasket and the intake gaskets that are extremely hard and wont budge.

Also, the last picture is of the water pump roller. It appears that it wasn't moving at all. I was not able to turn it by hand. You can see where the belt was rubbing in just one place. I wonder if that had anything to do with the tensioner being all off wack? (next post).

Emickelsen

So now for the tensioner. Cleaned it and the air pump off real good. I won't know if it's aligned correctly until I put it back in. It appears it should be fine. I am not familiar with that kind or clamp though. is there a special tool for that, or do I just crimp it with a pair of pliers?

Emickelsen

Item #3. Rob, this is the exaust pipe I was telling you about. It moves almost freely at the arrows. Is that normal? My plan at this point is to put a couple of exaust clamps on it there and hopefully it will keep it from moving to much.

Rob Edwards

Eric-

For the tensioner boot clamp, there's a couple kinds of pliers that will work, the best would be Knipex 1099a's (should given you my pair, sorry) but a large pair of end nippers would work fine as long as you stop when crimped and don't cut the metal.

As far as cleaning the piston tops, scraping carbon in situ would be a major PITA- I soaked a set of pistons one at a time, a week at a time, in Berryman's and even then there were deposits in the valve reliefs. And I'd be worried about leaving gunk in the nooks of the cylinder. I think I'd put the engine back together and have it Seafoamed to clean them.

Dunno about gasket removal, tho CRC makes a gasket remover in a can that worked pretty well on oil pan gasket schmutz. Hopefully someone will chime in.

namasgt

You Don't need to clean the piston tops, its normal for them to have carbon buildup on top of them. I would be careful using a razor, you can go in an angle for big gasket chunks or perpendicular for small very thin left over gasket material but with very light pressure, gently, don't rush it. Before you go with razor, have the surface soaked in break cleaner or gasket remover using a nylon brush (old tooth brush) several times. Do not use any scotch brite. You may have to use new razors several times, during the cleaning process the cutting edge gets damaged and it will make small scratches on the surface.

did your head gasket have any holes in it? The surface looks pretty good on the block side.

Landseer

Exhaust pipes are rusted through.
Water gets trapped in the asbestos wrap beneath the shields.

I've had two sets repaired.
You can cut away the heat shields, through away the wrap (wet it).
Then have an exhaust guy cut the pipes out and replace with stainless.
Mine were done on the car, with the bell housing cover removed, for alignment reasons (its own jig)

fraggle

I have a bunch of PLASTIC "razor blades" that go in my scraper. Work great for scraping off gasket goo without the worry of nicking the aluminum. There's also some gasket remover spray stuff that will soften it up.

Rob Edwards

CRC 05021 Gasket remover:

http://www.amazon.com/CRC-05021-Tech.../dp/B000M8IE6W

SteveG

I don't know how much carbon build up you actually have and I don't know the critical number in mms, but it has been established that carbon can make a non-interferance engine (yours) into an interferance engine, i.e., a belt/timing problem in the future could result in valve contact w/piston = bending. I think if I had the engine out, I would get that carbon removed (and do a leak down test before putting it back in).

Gregg, anybody have suggestions on doing this with pistons in place or out?