@Extinct @entjohnson Sorry I missed the only 8 bolt removed part of the post.

 

Just wanted to say, 20 years later, I wish my Dad had wanted to tackle a project like this with me regardless of success or not. My Dad's great, but just wasn't handy and the apple didn't fall far from the tree. But I wanted to work on a car together, and he wasn't up for it.

So, yes, there is a monetary cost and you've already decided to give it a go, but also look at it as an investment in your relationship. Sounds like your son has come around, and that's awesome.

Not to disregard money completely on your journey, obviously, but this is an awesome thread to read.

 

We finally had a little time where our schedules lines up and we removed those last 4 bolts....Can't believe we made it that far without any issues and then missed something so blatant, but I'll take it.
As everyone else expected....the heads came off with ease now that all the bolts were removed. This is the first time i've ever looked at the cylinders, so it looks fine to me, but now I'm looking for guidance. One of my biggest fears has been a slipped liner. However, I don't see any cylinder that looks steam cleaned and none of the cylinders had marked the gasket any more notably than the others. The gaskets were not stuck to the block or the heads at any spot and came off effortlessly. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing. Going to try to post pictures. I don't see obvious bad spots in the gasket, but I had multiple coolant leaks at the corners of the block and I did't see any thing above the block that appeared to be leaking. Anything particular I need to be looking for here? I'm afraid to get too excited, but it looks like the block may be in good shape. Removing the heads spilled fresh coolant all over the place which makes it a little harder to tell what was already there.



Is the coloration difference between the back 4 and front 4 typical?

This looked pretty rough. Noticed that the back two ports were clean (except for spilled coolant) while other ports were much dirtier.





Bottom side of each gasket ring looked consistently similar. Small indention around the ring, but none more than others.

 

@entjohnson your upper intake looks weird, all my ports were dirty those back 4 look way too clean to me.

• Looks like some kind of stop leak was run through your cooling system the jell looking stuff in the head cooling ports
• As well your gaskets look pretty good are all the pistons black ?
• And you do not need RTV on the upper intake gasket

 

Normal worn out gaskets, how many miles? Did you get all the valve cover bolt bushings? I would recommend replacing everything not metal in the cooling system, last thing you want after this work is an overheat due to a failed hose or plastic part. I also highly recommend the inline thermostat mod. The PCV mod is a must do. If you have the radiator out, now is a great time to replace the front crank seal.

I like to clean up the whole thing before I pull it all apart, but you can do it when you put it back once intake and valve covers are on. Check the oil feed holes in the rocker towers for sludge, be careful not to reverse the shaft relative to the towers.

I scrape the heavy grease sludge off the block, then clean it with oven cleaner in the heavy spots and purple power in the light spots. Did you pull the exhaust manifolds? If you did now is the ideal time to put in a new starter and CPS. Wrap the CPS cover in aluminum foil to protect it from heat. While everything is out, rewrap the entire wiring harness in new tape and new wire loom covers. It will prevent future wiring issues. Check all the idler bearings, if you feel any wiggle replace them.

Now is also a good time to replace the power steering pump rear gasket.

Do all that, and your son will have it in good shape when he graduates college.

Good luck , and let us know if you have questions.



I like to run a tap down each head bolt hole, lube the threads and underside of bolts with extreme pressure grease to get even clamp load.

 

The back 4 intake ports are a bit confusing. Perhaps a bad valve seat? It might be worth laying the heads out and filling the combustion chambers with alcohol to see if any cylinders drain out abnormally faster than the others, indicating a bad seat. Otherwise that block looks pretty much the same as mine did. I kind of agree with Extinct here with regard to cleaning it, however if this were mine I'd pull that engine out of there and clean it up, it's giving me the heebie jeebies! It will be a lot easier to identify any leaks down the road if you start with a clean engine. The cooling ports do look a bit gelled, that could be the effect of swapping to green coolant without draining all the Dexcool. The good news is that the old headgaskets don't look too bad. A slipped sleeve will leave an indent in the gasket so inspect them carefully. The pics don't look too damning and I don't see any breakouts where coolant was getting into the combustion chambers.

How soon do you need this on the road? As long as your frame is solid and you have the time I think it's worth going a little deeper here. You've already proven out the driveline to some extent by driving it around so it's not like the vehicle is a total gamble.

 

So a lot of cleaning to be done. I'll be digging back through the posts as I recall seeing some detailed cleaning instructions along the way.
I noticed in one of those gummed up coolant ports there was also a piece of metal (see pic). Can't tell exactly what it was, but it looks suspiciously like it might have been one of those rings from the valve cover gasket which I had done when we first acquired the vehicle. I'm thinking the water pump just moved a notch up the priority list.

Heads - It is my understanding that we need to have them checked by a machine shop to ensure they are not warped? Do we need to clean them before we take them in or take them as is? I am noticing that the recess that holds the valves stick up higher around the edges than the surface of the head which would make it difficult to determine if the head is flat or not.

It looks like my multiple leaks were most likely from the coolant ports to the outside of the block? See pics.

Oh...and both of the oil ports on the back side of the block appear to be completely gummed up.

I'm sure this is a fairly sensitive topic, but thoughts on where to buy parts? I didn't want to order anything till we got it down and could see everything we needed. AB would be my first choice, but when comparing their non-oem prices to some online vendors, the price in some cases can be pretty significant. Of course no money saved is worth having to redo the whole thing, but we are on a budget and want to take care of as much as we can while we are in here. Also, sounds like the ARP studs are preferred over tty bolts, but the price difference is significant there as well and a little bit of extra time and caution with the tty bolts may be the way to go.

cleaned the trash out of the coolant port and found metal bits.

Metal bits found in port....possible valve cover ring?

 

@entjohnson On the heads take them in had have them checked and most likely machined (decked). They will clean them up but I think they can do a hot tank on them, as well.

I had the shop do my valve seals and a vacuum test, to check the valve seating, I was golden on the second set of heads. Most of the gasket kits come with valve seals.

The problem with the TTY bolts is you need to absolutely exact in your turns, you can not fudge it. That is why I went with ARP studs, it is a simple torque setting no 90's.

Lucky 8 or AB are your best bet, do not skimp on the head gaskets good quality really matters.

 

I put a paint stripe on the top of the head bolts and on my socket so I can get the bolts torqued to spec. I don't think the studs are worth the extra $$.

Most of the economical sourced parts are fine, I have never seen a demonstrable life difference in anything other than the obvious DOA oxygen sensors.

Have the heads checked, they will tell you if they need to be decked. I think I pay around $80 here for decking.

 

So who would have ever thought getting your hands on a bottle of rubbing alcohol would be difficult? I have some denatured alcohol in the garage. Would that work or is there another good substitute?