bradthebold

Ran into a couple more issues. I resealed the lower balance shaft and everything went fine. I forgot to put the bracket that holds the oil level sensor wire, so I took that bolt out and tried to put it back in and it stripped the threads out of the hole before it even got snug. It's only 7 ftlbs, can I just tap it to an M7 if I can find the right length bolt, or should I helicoil it? My only concern is there is a hole in the bottom of the threads that connects to an oil pan bolt maybe? Would the helicoil covering the hole be an issue?

Then I tried to reseal the crank front and could not get the seal in straight. I could barely get it started straight and as soon as I would try to tap it in, it would go sideways. My socket wasn't quite big or deep enough, so I placed the old seal over it as a spacer but I just could not get it to go straight and ended up destroying it pulling it out 25+ times that it got stuck crooked. I haven't tried the balance shaft ones yet because I don't know which are which. Pelican's seals aren't labeled with a part number or direction like the stock ones, so I'll have to call and see. The only difference between all the seals is a single number on it.

Edit: Looks like there are a couple M5-M12 helicoil kits on amazon for less than the cost of 2 individual kits, so I'll probably do that since I have 4 other broken bolts I need to deal with too.

bradthebold

Drilled out the broken water pump bolt and helicoiled it and the stripped BS cover hole and it wasn't too bad.

This BS seal went in 100 times easier than the crank seal, but how far are these seals supposed to sit? Should it be seated all the way, like I did, or just flush with the edge of the housing? Most pictures don't look like they're seated as deep as I did, but I can't find anything specifying. Are there any seals that shouldn't be fully seated until they stop?

bradthebold

Does this need attention? I'm 95% sure I didn't cause it; I noticed it before I started cleaning the top of that cylinder, I don't think my razor could have reached that far if it was when I was cleaning the outside of the deck, and I probably would have noticed if I had been that far off on angle and gouged it twice. I can feel it with my fingernail though, but it's hard to catch. It almost looks a little dented there too. Otherwise leak down was good prior to this.

neunfünfeins

bump. sorry that you're having all of this bad luck... and that answers are slow coming.

Tom M'Guinn

Well, that's not an ideal place for a scratch, but I'd give it a try since fixing it would get pretty involved. I'd use a widefire gasket, since it will extend out beyond the scratch and will crush into place to some extent. I'd be surprised if it causes issues, but always hard to say from internet pictures.

neunfünfeins

It was bugging me, too, that the scratch/groove extended the whole width of the original sealing ring. Widefire sounds like his best chance.

bradthebold

Yeah, that seemed like the worst place for it. I have a widefire gasket already, so we'll see. I've only been using a razor blade backwards and green scotchbrite. I would have had to gouge it hard just setting the blade back down for my next backward stroke, so I'm guessing it was there where I started and I don't think it could have happened just taking the head off.

Otherwise I'm guessing I'd have to remove the head studs and crank/maybe girdle to mount and deck it, which yeah, is much more involved. It would suck more if I get it fully assembled and installed to have to pull it again though.

And yeah, it weirdly extends just the width of the stock sealing ring. Not sure how it happened. Maybe something was sitting there when assembled and crushed the dent in?

bradthebold

More damage uncovered, a little crater. Not sure what could possibly cause that. Hopefully nothing leaks after all of this.

bradthebold

Just got my head back and there is some questionable damage to the exhaust ports. I asked him to make sure they looked good before he did anything and he told me it was completely fine, not abnormal for a 30 year old head, and he would have no concern that pieces would start flaking off. I have a feeling you guys might not agree, but the work is done now. Is it good to run or should I find another head?

Edit: looking through pictures, they're a ton better looking than some chunked ones people wanted to run. And it's probably hard to guarantee you get a non-cracked one unless you buy a rebuilt/hot tanked one. And Lart's is the cheapest available to ship on ebay for $450 stock.

951Dreams

On these cars, especially the turbo, I wouldn't go any other route than LR on the heads. Nothing replaces experience! Plus I firmly believe in supporting what the Lindsey boys are doing for our cars.

If you have questions about the head work, you could always have them check it out. It would be cheaper than having to take it all apart again!

They did my head, and were great to work with. And Mike spent a lot of his time talking to me on the phone and emailing!

I just don't trust un-experienced shops working on these heads or blocks. Too​ many horror stories, and the turbo heads and the blocks on these can be tricky.

Too​ late now on the heads for you, but that's my .02 cents for anyone else thinking about it.

bradthebold

Yeah, I'm just going to go with it and see how it goes. Lindsey was going to cost like 3 times what I paid with shipping, which is why I didn't use them. Plus he said he's done a bunch of them. The deck is clean and ready to put the head back on, so we'll see. It sealed fine before, so as long as I didn't make it worse it should be ok.

Humboldtgrin

I wouldn't use that head. I would use a N/A head with turbo exhaust valves over that head. The exhaust ports are ceramic as we all know and crack into the coolant. Not a good thing! And those look like there in bad shape. I threw away a turbo head that had less cracking then that one does.

bradthebold

Well, that's not encouraging, I just torqued it down. Unless it's just an absolutely terrible idea, I'll probably run it. Sourcing and machining another head looks like it would be getting close turbo rebuild cost, if mine does happen to fail. I would imagine most liners are starting to crack by now and it looks like it would have to have another catastrophic fracture to actually break a chunk off? But maybe not. My luck with parts hadn't been great.

bradthebold

I sucked it up and bought Lart's 43k mile head with "perfect liners" for $380, the only shippable head on ebay, short of rebuilt ones for twice the cost.

I currently have the head half torqued down, at the first 90˚ torque. Can I re-use the head gasket and stud nuts?

I just talked to the machinist and he said no problem, he'd take care of me and swap my new springs and valves over, should be able to re-use the guides, and would order new seals. So that's a relief at least, hopefully Lart's head doesn't have any hidden cracks.

Humboldtgrin

He gave you a good deal.