well, that's not a good photo. that texture you are seeing is the layer of oil crud broken up from spilled coolant. I was asking others about all of that burned oil in the cylinder and lower intake runners. the very upper plenum has fresh wet oil that pulls up as I leave it set upside down. that's a lot of damn oil in there. I replaced that plastic valve piece on the passenger side valve cover. I don't know where/how else all of that oil would get in there, you know? truck has been running rough since the summer but I thought it was just a little coolant running into the back cylinder from a bad head gasket but I see now that my intake was full of motor oil WTF..
I will remove the cyl-heads tonight and post some crappy night-time pics via flashlight and i-pad of what i find underneath. Watch, probably nothing even wrong with the head gaskets.

 

Damn hopefully it won't be bad.

 

Well got a little more done finally. My wife is getting pissed. Go figure.

 

This may have been addressed and if it has I apologize. After I had my head gasket job done my rad started leaking. The rad was fine before the HG job. My mechanic said it could be because the engine is working much better now that the rad could't keep up . Regardless I replaced the rad and also the water pump, it's been fine since. that was 4 years ago.

 

that looks amazing! I got my heads off last night and dropped-off at the shop for reman. they are going to wash the lower intake manifold too, extra $20 well worth it b'cause they couldn't look any worse if they were hit with a meteorite and then glazed in Gorilla Glue before being dropped into some unrefined petroleum.


I was looking for a new D-1 thermostat housing so that I could have the lower manifold machined to accept a traditional stat, but I came up empty. I could go search for a SBC housing and see if I come up with one today but I would still need to make a LOT happen tomorrow in order to bring this mod to fruition as I need to begin reassembly ASAP.


Other than trying to fulfill this fantasy I have had for over 1-year now, I didn't see anything alarming with my block. There was no obvious damage to either head gasket. I could see where some of the factory red sealant was missing from the water-jacket end so unless coolant was seeping from there, then it was coming from the front of the lower manifold or engine cover, running down the valley gasket, out the back and down the rear of the engine.


PS: what is the best way to get the crud out of the valley area? In the end, I forgot the 2 ground straps on the back of cyl-head and paid the price for that including what looks like an engine flush and oil-refill due to the extreme amount of debris that I allowed to fall in the middle.

 

Looking good. I know so folks might cringe at this but I pulled the lifters (put them back in their correct order they were removed) and sprayed it down with brake clean real good. I didn't have a lot of gunk build up so I didn't have alot gunk to scrape(with a plastic scraper of course) and then wiped it down real good with a lint free rag soaked in sea foam. I then wiped it all down well with a lint free cloth and then poured clean oil over everything and replaced the lifters. After complete assembly, I'll fill with oil and drain it all before I ever turn it over.

 

The shop vac was my best friend. I used it to remove all the coolant and then sucked up all the loose debri I could with it. After I do get it all assembled, I'm gonna drop the oil pan and make sure everything is out and clean it up real good.

 

And that extra $20 will be the best money spend. They charged me $25 to do the upper and lower but they looked brand new when I got em back. I had em powder coated and then I cleaned em up real well just in case there was any sandblasting residue left over in them. I used scotchbrite pads and pb blaster to get some crud off. It loosens just about anything up. Where are you located at?

 

i cleaned mine pretty well and hope I don't have that problem. It seems like it has been replaced before but any advice is greatly appreciated man. I would rather have it addressed though.

 

sigh, sigh, sigh. I really do need to change the oil after this catastrophe. That was the last thing I want to do but I believe its highly necessary. If some jerk hadn't used the same torque as the head bolts for those (2) almost inaccessible 13mm grounding bolts I would have avoided this catastrophe. I decided that I'm going to apply the usage of K&W copper coat for most of the gaskets.


I'm in Dallas.