TRACKIN951

Hi all,

I am in the process of replacing my head gasket, water pump, front end reseal. I was able to remove the head yesterday and have a fwe scores on my cylinder walls. #4 looks to be the worse, but #2 has a few as well. You can catch a finger nail on them and I am wondering, bases upon experience what kind of issues they may(if any) cause my motor. I'm not really looking to do a rebuild...

Also, quick question:

Paragons Complete front end reseal kit, does it include the seal for the rear distributor housing. I want to remove the housing to chrome it and want to make sure I have the seal.

Also if you could help me analyze this head gasket I would appreciate it greatly!

Thanks,

All photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27466789@N04/

Thom

How did the engine perform before taking the head off?

If it worked well and i you don't want to rebuild the bottom end (overbore+ new pistons) then I would say leave it as is.
If oil consumption was beyond the tolerable and if it blew (too much) smoke then you may still need to rebuild it.

Cory9584

That doesnt look that bad, just clean the carbon off the pistons and blow everything out especially by the rings so it doesnt get any worse.

carlege

How would you go about cleaning the pistons while in the engine?

brrgrr

How many miles on the engine ? Looks pretty typical, I wouldn't rebuild unless you have lots of smoke, etc as was stated above. That head gasket was in pretty sad shape - must have been the original ?

M758

They look fine with the exception of this one in the 4 O-clock position.



I can't tell if that is shadow or rub?


The other markes look fine. Since you have it a part I would do the following.
1) pull the crank had it inspected. Cranks can bend if the #2 spins.
2) Pull the cylinders and put in fresh rings.
3) if there are nicks is bores get some 2000 grit sand paper and light knock down the high spots. The idea is to take of high spot, but nothing else. You do not want to change bore size, but do want to make sure their are zero high spots. This will tear up the bores more.
4) take the head to shop and have them do stock valve job, weld up any corrosion holes and true the surface.
5) clean pistons tops.
6) fresh bearings & gaskets.

The head gasket looks like any old headgakset. That corrosion and holes are in fact pretty common

TRACKIN951

Hi all,

The car has 115k on her. I have no previous records of the head gasket being replaced so chances are this is the original. Are those coolant ports not supposed to be open on the head gasket near cylinder #4? Rebuild...I'm not going to go that route right not as it was running great prior to. I would use one quart of oil in between oil changes. But I assume this mostly due to the turbo. Zero shaft play but I do get some oil in my hard pipes.

Thanks for input

Tom M'Guinn

Cylinders don't look too bad. I put thousands of miles on worse.

You might want to polish that timing cover, rather than chroming it. You can get it to shine almost like chrome. If you do chrome, be careful not to disturb the area the seal sits in. Also, beware there are two size seals (and related cam end pieces) -- so either buy a matching set or make sure you buy the right size seal.

Looks like you got some miles out of that HG. Be sure to use distilled water with your coolant, rather than tap water. Tap water has minerals and things that can promote corrosion and pitting.

Might be worthwhile to have the head surfaced by a good machine shop (and valve/seats checked) so you can get a good seal. Careful use of scotchbrite on the deck and cylinder tops will do wonders there -- just be careful not to get the dust in the cylinders.

Suck to oil/coolant out of the stud wells with a shop vac and drinking straw.

TRACKIN951

Side note, I am in need of a coolant resevoir and was wondering if anyone has a decently white one for sale?

Side note #2: While removing the head, I broke one of the nipples off of some vacuum port that comes off with the head.



What is this part called? Can I tee off the other nipple by chance?

V2Rocket

go to pelican and this is the part number
058131851A

rlm328

While you have the head off I would drill and tap it for a steam vent line (you can plug for now if you do not want to use it). Most of the problems with these engines revolve around over cooking the #4 cylinder. This will give you the chance to at least set the head up for the vent line.

TRACKIN951

This is a 924 part#, is it the same piece?

Are the any directions floating around on how to do this?

Maybe I should do some of my own searching...sorry

joeytoad83

go to lindseyracing.com and look up the steam vent kit. they have the directions in there tech section.

Olli Snellman

+1

that's typical overheat damage.

TRACKIN951

Give it to me straight guys...how big of an idiot am I??? Trying to remove the rear distributor housing with a rubber mallet and this happens...






Was there something holding this on that I didn't see. I need a new cam right?

Another bad part, I don't know which position the cam was in as It spun when trying to remove the cover