Hey folks,

Today was day is initiated the head gasket repair of 04’ D2. The UPS man delivered the Head Gasket Kit and other goodies from AB.

I work from home, and the urge to rip apart my engine was too much for me to focus at all.

After researching valve spring and seal replacement I have decided that with the proper tool it is a doable job to remove the springs and old seals before I send the heads to be decked if they need to be.

I gave up on work and was able to start the tear down at around 4PM today.

My previous experience tearing down the engine got me down to rocker cover gaskets and removal of the intake manifold so I have done up to the lower intake twice.

This time around I decided to bag up and label all of the bolts. I have removed enough bolts in my life now to have learned that it’s just easier to label and move on rather than remember where they go.

Started at 4PM and kept going until about 8PM. I stopped after removing the Lower Intake Bolts as it was getting dark and I did not want to whack the lower intake off in the dark.

As I have done this before and recently I did the coil pack relocation, I was able to break all the bolts and get down to the lower intake from memory.

I have gone 6 bolts deeper into my engine and I am feeling pretty good about the experience so far. Knock on wood.

I disconnected the fuel rail in the back as I had room with no coil pack back there and what I thought would be a little leakage of fuel turned into a nice buzz and as a result I reconnected it.

All that is left to remove the heads is to pry up the lower intake, disconnect the fuel line, remove valley gasket (2 bolts), remove the rocker covers (8 bolts), remove the rocker arms (8 bolts), remove the push rods, remove the lifters, unbolt the cats from the exhaust manifold (6 nuts), unbolt the heads (20 bolts), unbolt the braided tether on the driver side, disconnect the crank position sensor, reattach the rocker arms, and lift dem heads boy!

My plan is to remove the exhaust manifolds on the bench. Fingers crossed there wont be any broken bolts but I anticipate at least a few broken studs during the cat removal, meaning I am going to be getting experience drilling out studs.

After the heads are bare I am gonna clean them up, check for any warping, remove the springs and seals.

I am really hoping the heads arent warped so I can save some coin as in 2023 I was quoted 800-1200 sight unseen for a resurface and valve seal job (5.5 to 8 hour job). I figured if I bring the heads to him after removing the springs I can save some money and just resurface them and I will be able to handle installing the seals and springs after decking.

Pretty stoked about this as I this is my first time doing a complete tear down of the top end of an engine. However, I am weary because I really hope if the heads are warped they arent warped too much and the external head gasket leak at cylinder 8 and 7 is the only issue. I took the truck to my local mechanic to get their opinion and verify that it was indeed a head gasket issue and their feedback was that there was oil and coolant everywhere and that it is leaking coolant out the back and in their experience if it was a slipped sleeve or cracked block the shop would be smoked out and the vehicle would run like crap. The vehicle doesnt run poorly and it doesnt smoke at all.

Fingers crossed. I will post pictures of the old Head Gaskets, and top of the cylinder sleeves.

If all goes accordingly to plan and there isn’t any glaring evidence of a cracked block or slipped sleeve the progress will continue. The lifters will all be disassembled and cleaned of their gunk and old oil. At some point I will be redoing the front cover gasket, oil pan gasket, crucifix seals (if they arent too hard), engine mounts, transmission mounts, and transfer case mounts.

More to come.

 

You’ll be fine. It looks like you know what you are doing. Just follow the rave.

a note: my machine shop removed my valve stems and replaced those seals as part of the service of checking and fixing the heads…irc, it wasn’t anywhere close to 800!!

I think I paid @400

 

No in the US but..

Just had my 4.6 heads at a shop.
They washed, took them apart, changed all springs, stem seals and valves, also one valveguide and some machining to one valve (seat?), dont know what, and took a -0.1mm slice off them.

It was quite even 300 euros. And it's not a cheap shop as they mainly do military and marine.
I did have to get the parts for them, so that needs to be added to that 300.

 

Resurface, clean and valve seals 300 CDN tax in at the local machine shop

 

800-1200 for surfacing and valve seals is steep. I would make sure your shop know exactly what you want to do- because there is a difference between the valve guides, the valve seats, and the valve oil seals. Do you have the V8 rebuild manual (different from the RAVE) It goes through all of this stuff step by step and is super useful. Renewing the valve guides and seats requires special tooling and time but the valve oil seals are just a "pull out and push in" deal for the renewal and you don't need to pay anyone for that. I don't think you need to go as far as doing the seat and guides but it's worth doing the seals if you're gonna take the whole thing apart anyway to bring to your shop. After that I would get some valve lapping compound ($8 on amazon) and a lapping tool ($9 on amazon) to ensure the valves have a good seal and put it back together.

As a matter of fact, while I'm typing this it occurs to me, do you even need to take the valves and springs out to get the head resurfaced? I honestly don't know because I've only done it once and it was a full teardown so it was all apart anyway. It's super easy (assuming you have access to compressed air) to check the valves for a good seal if that's what you're concerned about. Ooh, last thing- if you are going to take the whole thing apart I found that a cheap ultrasonic cleaner to be a crazy good use of money- put your parts and cleaning solution in press the timer and come back to clean parts, or at the very least, parts which are way easier to clean.

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On both my P38 and D2 I did not remove springs, but had the heads surfaced

 

Make sure to number the ziploc bags and put each lifter in its own. Use a paint marker, not a magic marker so the number does not rub off. Do not mix those up where they go. I would remove the manifolds in place, heads are much lighter without those attached.

How many miles on the truck? Unless it is very high I wouldn't worry about the valve stem seals. Three over 216k and no issues. Only seal on a disco that does not leak. Mostly because the design of the rocker arms does not flood the valve stem with oil like say a SBC.

 

She’s clocked 112k miles. I am picking up what you’re putting down with the seals.

Got the exhaust manifold disconnected from the cats today. Broke all three driver side studs, but got all 3 passenger side nuts off just fine. Also I got the lower intake off.

I had to attend a funeral for an extended in law family member in the afternoon. After removing the lower intake and disconnecting the cats from the manifolds clutching the last clean shop towel and rag I reviewed the progress made visually and decided against going further down as it was a good stopping point for cleaning.

Currently, as a result of the HG coolant leaks and previous oil leakage, dried coolant and oil residue are all over my bay, pan, frame, front cover, bell housing top, and essentially everywhere behind the engine. To ensure internal engine components don't get contaminated, my plan is to do a clean up of everything before I commence removing the rocker covers, heads, timing cover, and oil pan. In addition to reducing contamination risk I despise being elbow deep in a grimy gritty environment, rolling around on the ground getting muk everywhere, contaminating everything you touch with your dirty dick beaters. With no more towels or rags I metaphorically threw in the towel for day.

Heads are coming off after sufficient clean up. I am going to start inspecting for obvious signs of head gasket failure, cylinder warpage, sleeve slippage, and combustion/coolant remnants on the block face.

I am going to try and remove the heads with the manifolds on them. Never have I disconnected an exhaust manifold and with little confidence in my bolt drilling/extraction capabilities my preference is to be comfortable and go slow on a bench. I am going to remove the rockers sequentially, and reattach to them hand tight and rag pull them out. Imma big boi pulling my first head. I am going to respectfully ignore your advice and I’m gonna lift with my back in a jerking motion in an awkward position. I’m a man damnit and I will be stubborn until I’ve learned my lesson or until my back gives out. Seriously though you’re advice is sound and I appreciate it, but I am scared of breaking a bolt. Let me get these out comfortably and experience what it’s supposed to feel like for the first time. Babies First Exhaust Manifold Bolts. On the second time around I will get whacky and try removing them in situ. Actually, I have a D1 awaiting exhaust manifold removal so that works out.

If the heads are warped significantly or the block shows clear visual evidence the entire plan will need to be reevaluated.

But if the heads are good with either no warp or minor warp, the cleaning and disassembly of the heads will commence.

I found a better place in town that will resurface the heads for $100 in a timeframe that works within my timeline. However, I gotta bring them a cleanish bare head in order to fit into their workload. Which works for me as I don’t want to wait 2-3 weeks to get the heads done. So the plan is like you said, after I pick up a valve spring compressor, I am going to methodically remove springs and valves, bagging and tagging everything accordingly, clean the heads the best I can and drop em off to be decked. Any work other than decking moves me down the line and costs more. This machine shop is where the local shop guys around town send their customers heads to be resurfaced. The machinist prioritizes his time machining, and it cost triple to disassemble. Makes sense, if the bulk of your work is to machine heads for mechanics in a timely fashion. The mechanics disassemble and clean them because well you know… that’s their job, and they would rather pay themselves to do it instead of the machinist. So I figured might as well disassemble the springs, learn that I am over confident in my abilities, pop a few keepers into oblivion, and remove the valves to be cleaned while the heads are in the shop.

In terms of the seals, it might be a late game decision. I am going to leave seals on when the heads in, and if every other task becomes an ordeal then swapping seals may be getting nixed for sanity’s sake. Thanks for letting me know they will probably be all right. That is helpful to know they are stout it will be fine. The goal is to service what is required, do odds and ends, and clean up engine components.

Tasks left to do are replace cruciform seals, timing cover gasket, transfer case mount, transmission mount, engine mount, clean back passenger O2 sensor connections, clean lifters, drill out broken front member bolts, drill out broken exhaust manifold studs, clean cylinder valves, clean intakes, replace throttle cable, and replace oil pan gasket.

I have an extra set of qualified hands so it'll be the Audi Land Rover Gruesome Twosome ripping bolts, huffing fumes, and popping keepers for the next few days. Forecast for Mother’s Day 2023 in my neck of the woods calls for two greasy men getting wet and wild with loosely assembled 19 year old Land Rover accompanied by ZZ Top’s First Album.

We’ll get er done. More to follow.

 

Never had a d2 exhaust manifold bolt snap off, and I have probably removed in excess of a dozen sets. Exhaust pipe, ever time unless you kroil them for two days in advance and even then it is a crap shoot, but not the manifold bolts. Steel in aluminum typically does not corrode sieze. I would recommend trying to break them loose and see what you get. They are typically not even that tight (a little difficult to keep tight honestly due to the different expansion rates of steel and aluminum).

At 112k you are wasting time and money on seals and disassembly and risking losing a keeper, but obviously whatever makes you feel good. Do you have an 18" straightedge and a set of feeler gauges? Unless you overheated it bad I doubt they are even warped.

I would actually separate the two jobs and finish the top end before moving to taking the pan off. 90% of your leaks is probably the heads. The two jobs are only connected in that you are going to get dirty.

Be sure to inspect the lifter valley for walked cam bearings. You probably don't have an issue, but now is the time to look.

 

Well I’ll be damned you were right those exhaust bolts were like butter. That is great news for this job and the D1.

Yup, I do have a machined straight edge and feelers.

Like I said I can be swayed about the springs and seals.

They came with the kit. Seemed relevant. But maybe you’re right, one thing at a time.

My thought would be able to clean as much as possible will increase the longevity. But I am not expert.