Got the head off yesterday. I didn't "see" anything wrong with the gasket, but I am new at this stuff so that doesn't really mean much. Here's what I did see:
2 of the head bolts had spotty surface rust on them at the thread end but not in the threads. I presume this is the gasket rupturing coolant into the passages 3 of the head bolts were coated in oil. I presume this is the gasket rupturing oil into the passages. Apparently I didn't "blow out" the cracked insulators on a couple of the spark plugs about 80K miles ago. The flat portion of the combustion chamber in cylinders 2 and 3 are marred with about a thousand little dimple-gouges. There is significant build up of crap in all of the combustion chambers and on the faces of the valves. A straight-edge shows no warping no matter which way I place it. Not as accurate as a true run-out gauge, but it looks pretty good to the untrained eye. I guess this gets to be the new rebuild head. Looks like I'll be using the other head for the replacement gasket. Questions: Front and rear t-stat housings - Do I need new gaskets or will permatex work? Intake manifold gasket - flaking paint but flat. Re-use or will permatex work here too? The replacement head is complete but "bare" - it has cams and valves but no accessories. Obviously I'll move the accessories over. Anything I should be looking at specifically on the new head? The valves don't seem to lift as high as the old head when turning the cam - I presume to associate this with deflated hydraulic lifters; correct or not? Again, thanks all!! _______________________________________________ Miatapower mailing list [email protected] http://list.miatapower.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/miatapower
