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Nothing better than pulling the head&proving gasket bad
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Posted by Chaz [Email] (more from Chaz) on Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:49:47 Share Post by Email
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There is nothing happier than having a car with a smoking engine, pulling the head, and finding that the cyliders are perfect and the head gasket has torn. There are even carbon burn marks were the ring in the gasket warped into an oval before cracking. As soon as I pulled the valve cover I could see the protrusion of gasket into the timing area. From that point on I was pumped.

I have a few tricks too. The dowel method is awesome, with a variation. Use 2 round dowels, 18 inches and the thickness of chopsticks. Pull up the head on one side and insert dowel. Then do the other side. Then pull those dowels 1 by 1 while replacing with 1/2 inch diameter dowels. Use round dowels. From this point on removal is just a matter of tracking down wires and stupid turbo plumbing hoses that you forgot to detach from the head. Once you have pulled the f'ing turbo oil line bolt hidden behind and under the head you are good to go.

Trick 2. I have bright red and bright green tiny zip ties. They might be 1/16 of an inch wide. I did not want to lose my timing, so once the engine was at TDC, I placed these tiny zip ties through the chain, next to the sprocket at the camshaft TDC marks. These can't rub off like paint. I then used larger zip ties to lock the chain onto the sprocket, so the 2 become one. Even if the sprockets come free, the red and green zip ties show the timing position of the cahin where it needs to line up with the marks on the cam sprockets. It makes removal and replacement of the head fiddly, but it absolutely assures that you will NOT lose timing. That saves up to an hour of time.

Third tip, if you are looking for an easier way to find TDC. I use an 8 inch long 3/8 inch socket extension. You can use a long thin pencil, rubber side down. I remove plug #1 and gently and slowly and carefully insert the extension small side in until it bottoms out. Using a 30mm socket and a breaker bar I rotate the engine until the extension comes up maximally. It seems to hover, so you need to spin the engine back and forth to reach the middle of the 'plateau'. Then pull the valve cover. If the timing marks on the cam sprocket are UP and the cam timing marks point to the marks on the cam bearing marks, you are cool. If not, you are 180 degrees off, so just spin the engine 180 degrees. Now you are at TDC. Quick, simple, easy, and no looking for timing marks in the flywheel, etc...

Fourth tip, if you look into the timing area and see the gasket pushing it's way in, you have a headgasket problem.

I think that the fact that the head gasket is torn buy the cylinder 1/timing chain protals confirms the turbo is good as it feels good when I turn the impeller and pull and push the impeller with no play. I am told the turbo was rebuilt 6 months ago.

I also noticed that some squirrels were there before. The 2 bolts from the timing area to the underside of the head were missing. I wonder if that contributed to the failure and the mild oil leak from the side of the engine.

It got cold and I got lazy, so I pulled the head and left the replacement for tomorrow, as long as I can redrill and re-tap the sheared off exhaust manifold bolt. I covered the piston sides with Vaseline to prevent all the crap I scraped off the top of the short block from getting into the cylinder. Unfortunately, some got in as I loosened the head. Not much I can do about that as it gets stug in the tiny channel b/t the piston and the cylinder. Hopefully it is just Carbon, but you never know...

After scraping crud, I covered the short block with a plastic bag held flat by the Vaseline and by strong magnets. I then covered the protruding chain/sprockets with 1 gallon Ziplock sandwich bags.

I can't believe how the alternator is hidden on these cars. Even with the head out, it will be an annoyance to pull and rebuild and replace the VR. Might as well do it as it seems like it will be impossible with the head re-installed.
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