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head gasket replacement...is removal of engine necessary? i am able to do alot of things in tight spaces and am familiar with engine etc
several years ago removed engine to do lots of replacements including t belt hoses etc etc....but now i think i have a head gasket problem. i did not replace head gasket at that time.
It can be done in car, just more challenging IIRC.
Mostly its the human aspects of in-car compared to on a stand, and getting the bolts out and in..
In fact..that might be it, I dont recall which is nearly impossible, early cars raising heads over the studs, or later cars room to pull out the bolts.
If you plan to do both gaskets, you are well into the "pull the engine" realm. Could you do it in place? Yes, but... working on it in a stand is much better than leaning over the fenders.
Curious. The pain comes from mainly where when replacing head gaskets? I plan on replacing both but I'm going to try and isolate which area is breached first.
I can remove all intake. Etc I assume all front end comes off to get timing belt off etc
I would do the job in-car as removing the engine is a lot of extra work.
And yes, you will be stripping the engine down to a short block.
You should consider rebuilding the heads while they're out too. Also, it is a perfect time to check and possibly replace your knock sensors, hall sensor, and crank position sensor.
Piling-on some more, check you throttle position sensor and idle stabilizer. And you might as well buy a new timing belt and water pump while you're at it.
With all that said, if the motor mounts are shot, just go ahead and pull the motor. Once pulled, you can easily clean the carbon off the piston-tops and the area above the top-ring on the cylinders. It will also make it much easier to carefully scrape the old gasket material off.
Finally, you can consider refinishing the intake and valve covers.
I would do the job in-car as removing the engine is a lot of extra work.
And yes, you will be stripping the engine down to a short block.
You should consider rebuilding the heads while they're out too. Also, it is a perfect time to check and possibly replace your knock sensors, hall sensor, and crank position sensor.
Piling-on some more, check you throttle position sensor and idle stabilizer. And you might as well buy a new timing belt and water pump while you're at it.
With all that said, if the motor mounts are shot, just go ahead and pull the motor. Once pulled, you can easily clean the carbon off the piston-tops and the area above the top-ring on the cylinders. It will also make it much easier to carefully scrape the old gasket material off.
Finally, you can consider refinishing the intake and valve covers.
This is really good advice. Especially the part about rebuilding the heads. Exhaust guide are likely out of spec and will add to oil consumption and likely decrease power. Heads are likely pitted anyway, so they will need to be decked, so might as well have the guides and seats done too.
The greatest part of engine removal is the ability to access every area in the compartment to clean. A dirty engine compartment is no fun. Some guys on here can work on their cars without getting their hands grimy thanks to a thorougj cleaning.
heres update....was able to diagnose better since weekend....
87s4 ...possible head gasket
i pulled plugs and found a lot of oil on #1 #5...by alot i mean oil was dripping threads and soaked.
my family member told me smoked on startup no rough running at idle as symptoms....i never saw the smoke till today...blue smoke not white as was initially thought...
i started engine and blue smoke then got less but still trail of smoke from tailpipe...i watched coolant reservoir not bubbling and no severe pressure after engine warmed up...
newworld,
is it possible that there was oil in the plug hole before your removed them and this oil is what covered the plugs, threads and made its way into the combustion chamber?
Often the seal at the top of the plug hole leaks and lets oil in to fill up the hole.
07-12-2017, 08:10 PM
87 s4 head gasket replace
