blown head gasket, chocolate milk!
popped the valve cover yesterday to R&R the head gasket. To my shock there was rust already attacking 2 cam lobes and cam cog! WTF? bright orange rust in patches. It wiped off with 00 steel wool but it did leave a little stain and just the lightest bit of corrosion that I was able to buff out with 1000 sandpaper. That was pretty fast considering it was only in there for a week! Mind you it was still incredibly oily in there, the oil/water sludge was still everywhere but these few places. Removed the gasket and looked at it for obvious tracks of coolant to the oil ports and didnt see anything obvious. Cylinders looked fine, no steam cleaning or smoke out the exhaust. I think it was all head gasket between the fire rings. Checked the head AGAIN for flatness and could not find any flashlight sneaking under a straight edge. Put new Felpro gasket on and will finish up today. Damn, I just want this thing to work, taking the head off this OHC is a ***** as you got to address a ratchet style tensioner that is behind the water pump and crank pulley. stupid design, you remove the cog off the cam and the chain will relax a little and the tensioner will extend, not to reset unless you get in there and trip a lever while forcing the chain against it. There is no easy way to do this without taking the tensioner out and manually resetting it , then propping the lever back to lock the thing wiht a nail and then placing it back in its hole like a game of operation. If the thing springs open and the slipper/spring falls into the pan, your F'd. Other than this design issue, the motor was untouched for 220,000 miles. The tensioner should have been hydraulic. I may drill a 3/8 hole in the cover and put a plug in it so I can get a tool in there to pop the ratchet lever once its all back together. water pump sits right above it and the cover plate is behind the crank pulley. Oh yeah, forgot you have to reset the chain guide strip BEFORE you pull the pin on the tensioner or it will spring past its designed 7mm travel limit. Good times! I pull the entire head, intake and exhaust manifold as a 60 lb unit. Way faster than pulling the intake and exhaust off seperately.
popped the valve cover yesterday to R&R the head gasket. To my shock there was rust already attacking 2 cam lobes and cam cog! WTF? bright orange rust in patches. It wiped off with 00 steel wool but it did leave a little stain and just the lightest bit of corrosion that I was able to buff out with 1000 sandpaper. That was pretty fast considering it was only in there for a week! Mind you it was still incredibly oily in there, the oil/water sludge was still everywhere but these few places. Removed the gasket and looked at it for obvious tracks of coolant to the oil ports and didnt see anything obvious. Cylinders looked fine, no steam cleaning or smoke out the exhaust. I think it was all head gasket between the fire rings. Checked the head AGAIN for flatness and could not find any flashlight sneaking under a straight edge. Put new Felpro gasket on and will finish up today. Damn, I just want this thing to work, taking the head off this OHC is a ***** as you got to address a ratchet style tensioner that is behind the water pump and crank pulley. stupid design, you remove the cog off the cam and the chain will relax a little and the tensioner will extend, not to reset unless you get in there and trip a lever while forcing the chain against it. There is no easy way to do this without taking the tensioner out and manually resetting it , then propping the lever back to lock the thing wiht a nail and then placing it back in its hole like a game of operation. If the thing springs open and the slipper/spring falls into the pan, your F'd. Other than this design issue, the motor was untouched for 220,000 miles. The tensioner should have been hydraulic. I may drill a 3/8 hole in the cover and put a plug in it so I can get a tool in there to pop the ratchet lever once its all back together. water pump sits right above it and the cover plate is behind the crank pulley. Oh yeah, forgot you have to reset the chain guide strip BEFORE you pull the pin on the tensioner or it will spring past its designed 7mm travel limit. Good times! I pull the entire head, intake and exhaust manifold as a 60 lb unit. Way faster than pulling the intake and exhaust off seperately.
