Hey there just a little update after a long wait the gasket set will finally be here tomorrow, but due to rain on Wed-Friday won't be able to tear into it till prob next week.

Haven't forgotten y'all and hope ya are having a great time

 

Heyo so the planets aligned today got the manifolds off, and went to start on the heads, and had a random thought.. since I am pretty much pulling the whole top of the motor off would it be any sort of a good idea to just have the motor rebuilt while its that far apart? I know it will mean throwing more money into it but figured it didn't sound like a horrible idea.. any thoughts? would be greatly appreciated for input.. and thanks again

 

Definitely not a horrible idea, I would take these things into consideration tho.
If you are not using oil, engine has never overheated to the point where any of the liners are slipping, I would recommend only doing the heads and removing the front cover and replacing the cam chain and gears, and inspecting the oil pump for cracks and grooves in the front cover where the oil pump rides against it.
If you are going to overhaul, it is highly recommended to replace the liners with top hat liners.
total overhaul is going to be considerably more expensive and time consuming, but the end product would be awesome.

 

Before you tear off the driver's side head could you do one more compression check? You don't know if it was a valve leak or rings causing low compression on #6. Shoot a few squirts of oil in #6 and see if the compression comes up. If it rises then you know it's rings and if it doesn't, it's valves. This would help you decide.

 

Already did a lil while back, can't remember if I posted the results or not lol, but when I did the compression stayed the same. So pretty sure rings are good, well as good as can be for the age of the rig.

And as far as the losing oil, and overheating, no to the overheating not even in the 100+ summer we had here in So. Oregon, the oil yeah it loses some, but that is mostly due to the oil pan gasket being either bad, or the fact that the bolts were all basically hand tight. Gonna put a new gasket on just to be safe once done with the heads.

And thanks again for the input am thinking that it really doesn't need the full rebuild since only issue ever had past having to replace o2 sensors is this and am fairly certain (80-90%) that it's something to do with the valve on no 6.

Will keep y'all updated as gonna hope for no rain tomorrow and pull the heads and what not off, and thanks for the suggestion on the cam bits, and oil pump check. Will give em a once over and make sure all is well and will be well for awhile.

Have a great weekend.

 

So after much money and a mass of work (some fun some not) got the issue figured out. There was a burned out (looked that way anyway) spot between cyl 6 and cyl 8 on the head gasket. So now I know why it was doing it now it's just a matter of putting it all back together with the new gasket and heads. Not sure if I am going to go all out into the head gasket set or not cause there is a bunch of stuff in there not sure if I really need to tear into to do.

But thank you once again for everyone's thoughts, and help it has meant a great deal to me and makes me realize just how awesome people can be.

Bobby

 

Let us know how it goes when you fire it back up.

 

Well success after many days of not being able to work on the beast due to rain or body being a butthead. Got it thrown all back together, and started up. Ran a little rough at first then purring like a kitten, and smoking like a chimney :P. But I would smoke also if I had antifreeze and break free all over my manifolds also. No leaks and runs smooth.

Now just have to get a new radiator bolt for the top. When filling it back up over tightened and it snapped the head off. But past that all good.

In closing THANK YOU ALL for your input, advice and understanding. Even though it turned out to be nothing more than a head gasket this has been a great big ol adventure and learning process. Thank You once again

Bobby

 

Brother, if you ever even think somebody else may have the same problem you'd better chirp before I send em your way. I wanna see you post up more often, you have now gained more experience than 99.2% of the rest of the forum and audience (chickens).

I'm very glad you saw this through to the brighter end.... AWESOME!!!! Not many would have stuck to it and you'll not be disappointed in your now newish motor because of your hard work......lol. Let us know what your MPG are when it settles down eh.

 

Oh feel free to send anyone who needs any help my way, will try to do my best even if I don't always remember to check the thread every day :P.

So I got the new brass radiator fill bolt and put er in. Was purring like a kitten with a slight sounded like belt/pully high pitched sound but nothing that sounded to me like big trouble. Also for whatever reason even when warmed up to norm temperature was only blowing cold air through heater. Am thinking it's needing a bleed/flush to get the air out of it. Hopefully lol.

Yeah it was a great adventure, and a ton of work but well worth it I think. And will throw out a message once have gotten her all settled and let ya know the new mpg. Before was anywhere between 12.5-15 depending on where we were driving (15 mostly on freeway trips).

Almost did give up at one point, but then remembered in my younger days(a few years back lol) Gave up on a 79 Firebird I had, and my 88 Honda Accord and decided I love this Rover just as much maybe more than those, and I am through giving up on cars I care about.