I've finally succumb to all the peer pressure (*** IH Scout ***) and decided to take the plunge and dive into the inner-bowels of the beast...yes it's time to tackle the head gasket job or at least remove the heads to see where all the water is coming from. Fingers crossed it's just the gasket.

There are enough excellent threads already active on the subject so I won't boor anyone with my version but I may post unique questions and/or solutions to problems others haven't had or mentioned already.

I like how light the hood is, had it off all by myself in just a few minutes. I drilled a couple pilot-holes in the hinges so I can line it up again when the day comes (sometime after Christmas likely).

Other than that it's been very straight forward. Almost every vacuum line and hose has been found cracked and/or fallen apart while trying to remove it. I can see why the sticky on major service says to buy a couple feet of the stuff.

Thanks for all the support so far...I'm sure I will be needing a lot more before this is over! Matt

 

Pictures. Good idea to document as you go along. Careful with the MAF, check the price and you'll see why....

 

Short-cut the intake system removal (if you want) by removing from the intake manifold up. It's lighter than you might think. If you take the long way you'll need an new ram housing gasket. If you decide to see what you have than by all means take each component apart piece by piece.

 

Decided to bust open the ram housing as everything was very dirty looking down the throttle body.

Got the PS pump off and AC moved to side (remaining attached). Removed AC compressor-idler asbly. Disconnected about a million sensors, etc. Everything is very dried-out and brittle.

Also got the intake off and valley pan out. Everything looks pretty good internally so far. Even looking down the intake passages it is pretty clean. Next I'll work on removing the exhaust manifolds and of course the heads.

My intake manifold bolts were not tight at all. They were a bit more than finger-tight. The valsve cover bolts were extremely loose. Likely a result of not having the proper tool to tighten them. I was able to use a section of fuel hose to fit over the end of the bolts and basically just twist them out. I will need the thin deep-well to reassemble though. I would say this looseness was certainly contributing to the 'Exxon Valdiz' status of the lump. She is certainly one oily mess!

 

I don't blame you for knocking it down piece by piece. You said awhile back that you'd get into it to find out what's needed and to be honest it's good to know the shape first hand.

So the push-rods look dark brown, rusty brown or brown but shiny?

Almost every new owner has the same issues. We always pick them up dirt(y) cheap....

Valve cover gaskets and oil pressure sensor are two large culprits for the BP spillage. You'll get those in the top end gasket set if you order as a set instead of individual. The intake bolts off the top of my head are around 28 ft/lbs, that's not much to begin with. Loc-Tite blue will hold em in place longer.

Speaking of brittle....how's the interior plastics?

The crankcase breather being semi bunged is also another wonderful spewer of oily goo.

 

Is the oil seperator all clogged up? That hose is one dimension at the valve cover and a larger dimension at the point where it connects to the intake. I first tried just a piece of tubing there, but it leaked, so I ended up ordering those two hoses from AB.

 

94/95 have a breather I believe. Ours use the oil separator (squiggly doohicky thingy). When my hose collapsed I used a piece of copper pipe for the vacuum hose and two pieces of rubber hose. It will never collapse again......

 

man i have to do this soon, dont want to but have to

 

I'd rather work on my engine than shovel snow any day.

 

Push rods are dark brown and tacky. They are all straight and the ends look good along with the lifters.

I didn't spend a lot of time on it today but managed to get the driver's side exhaust manifold off. I'm down to the last two lower bolts on the passeger side now. They appear to be a different size and there is stuff attached to them. They will be a bit of a challenge I think.

Once I get the pass side head off I will know how much farther I will be traveling down this road. That is, if the block is cracked or damaged that will likely be the end for me. With the othe work I've done I think I should be able to recoup my $303.39 investment.

Any idea if the head gasket kit (with bolts, etc) comes with all the top-end gaskets I'll need?

Re interior plastics...good. The dash is starting to curl up near the base of the windshield. Everything else s in good shape. The leather seats up front are in the worst condition (aside from carpeting of course). The driver's side is livable but the passenger side is coming apart at the seams on the bottom cushion. I'm starting to think about some seat covers.

I don't have the squiggly thing...I have the breather assembly with what looks like steel-wool packed inside. It's pretty gooey.

Speaking of snow...we had about an inch a couple days ago...mostly gone now. I can see outside while working on the LR so it's motivating me to get this done before Old Man Winter gets fully entrenched!