123quattro

I would have the heads skimmed, change the valve stem seals, and put it back together.

Simon928

This was actually my original plan...I was just wondering if shaving the heads was something I should avoid if possible. I'm inclined to just have them skimmed while they're out for my own peace of mind.

Five-8

Hey Simon
Best of luck with this, hope it all goes really well. Would be happy to come pass ya some tools but just don't have time right at the moment. If things change, i'll let ya know, if nothing else i can follow directions :-)

Cheers,

69gaugeman

Don't machine them unless they need it. You should invest in a sharpening stone ($10 at canadian tire) and then clean the surfaces of the heads. You can then take them to a engine re-builder and they can check it for straightness. Use WD40 while making circular motions with light pressure on the stone. If the heads are straight then just get new head gaskets and put then back in. Changing the valve stem seals is a good idea but requires the disassemblely of the head. You can borrow my spring compressor to do the job.

Hydro lock is when there is more fluid in the cylinder than space at top dead center. The engine stops rotation dead and can bend conrods. You didn't have hydro lock.

Simon928

Thanks again for your generous offer! I'll get those heads cleaned following the directions you gave me and bring them to a machinist for measurement. And I guess it's good I didn't hydrolock my engine, but that means I had another starting problem that is now undiagnosed. Who knows, maybe all of the problems will go away once I get everything put together! Haha.

Simon928

Thanks Adrian! You're always welcome at my place, and doing work is never a prerequisite! Opening up the engine is really quite interesting, so if you do want to take a look you should drop by. Hopefully the engine won't be open for too much longer.

Simon928

I just started cleaning my pistons with some Permatex Gasket Remover (which works wonders by the way), and as I removed a bunch of carbon from cylinder #8 I noticed what you see below. As I was removing the spark plugs I noticed that the spark plug on that same cylinder had no electrode, so I assume that was the cause of this. Is this something that I definitely should replace, or does it not matter too much in the grand scheme of things?

Simon928

...and here's the corresponding head. Damn it, it looks like I will definitely have to get it machined.

j.kenzie@sbcglobal.net

I would not be so worried. I think it looks worse than any bad effect it will have. It is inside the sealing area and if you dress off the head with a stone, it will look much better. I don't think the damage is great enough to cause cracking, but maybe someone else knows otherwise.
Good luck,
Dave

69gaugeman

Nope. Not going to be necessary to machine the head. Take the stone and flatten off the raised areas and you will need to do the same to the piston. Unless you are trying to extract the last fraction of a horsepower out of the engine it will run just fine.

Keep in mind that it has been running with it like that for a while. It does go to show that you should check your plugs once in a while. The coils on these cars are so strong that they will fire through almost anything. Spark plugs aren't forever.

Simon928

That's a relief...thanks guys. I bought new plugs awhile ago, but I never got around to installing them. Now I know better to procrastinate. It never occurred to me that this could happen. I bought the sharpening stone yesterday so I'll put it to good use on these divots.

It looks like I'll also be spending most of my time this weekend cleaning off the cam tower gaskets. Holy crap, that's a time consuming, pain in the *** job. Those things seem fused to the metal. I got a pair of Greg's gaskets for replacement, so hopefully they stop the leaks.

Simon928

Making some progress this weekend. I'm jumping around between different things that I need to do on the engine, and one of the things I just did is remove the oil pan. I understand that when there is coolant in the oil it can lead to rod bearing damage. I carefully checked the oil pan for metal shavings and I didn't find any. I even drained the remaining oil into a funnel with a filter and went over the filter with a magnet--no evidence of any metal. Ran my finger throughout the oil pan and no evidence of shavings there either.

Here are some pics of the interior of the engine...any red flags?

Simon928

What exactly do these connectors do? This is beside the oil filter and looking from underneath, btw. The red wire was off completely and the ground wire was barely holding on. Do these look broken to you or do they look okay? What negative effects are there when it isn't hooked up properly? I have a feeling it hasn't been right for awhile.

BRB-83-911SC

That looks like the oil pressure sending unit, feeds the oil pressure gauge. Did your OP gauge work?

Simon928

Yeah, it did work...I can't attest to its accuracy though. It would be topped out when the car is started and then after awhile it would settle in the 3 range. I hear that's kind of typical, so I guess it was working.