I know there are some variables, especially on someone's first time doing a job like this. Anyone have a rough estimate of time involved to complete this job? I'd imagine it is a 2 day job, letting stubborn manifold and heat shield bolts soak overnight. And turn around time for head work to be completed. I thought I saw reconditioned heads for close to 1000$ was I looking at the wrong ones or does someone have a link to a site that has reconditioned heads for 500?

 

pros get 12 hours of labor for the job. I'd expect a first timer to take 20-30 depending on your skills, if you have an extra set if hands, how fast you can bag, mark, and take pictures of stuff quickly, how much 'extra' stuff you will do while in there (timing cover, oil pump, water pump, drop the oil pan, check oil pickup, etc, etc) and the work environment (fully outfitted shop or shade tree).

 

I ordered the head gasket kit from AB, thermostat and a couple extra gaskets they recommended. I tore down the top end Saturday. I took my time and plenty of pics. I kept all parts/pieces bagged, labeled and organized. After pulling the heads the problem was pretty apparent. The hg completely blew out on 2 cylinders and wasn't sealing on a 3rd. The failure was leaking exhaust under the valley pan and had partially blown it upward and deformed it causing the seal on the front and rear holding the pan down to leak. That allowed oil to escape from the front and rear of the engine, and leak like a sob. The hg appeared to have been replaced recently but every bolt that I removed wasn't torqued down and I'm sure the proper head bolt sequence hadn't been followed. Here's some pics of the block and gasket. My concerns are why the new hg failed so quickly and where it failed it looks like there pock marks on the block. I'm going to clean that are up better and see if the spots are burned into the block or just pieces of old gasket that can come out. Any tips are appreciated, I know not to use anything that would remove or scratch the aluminum

 

We started at noon on saturday. I had one of the electrician's helpers that works for me that is very mechanically inclined help and we had it torn down and and the heads ready to drop off at the shop in just over 3 hours. I can see another 3 hours cleaning and prepping everything and probably double the breakdown time to reassemble. Hope I'm not being too optimistic, everything seemed very straightforward and we ran into no snags at all.

 

 

If the head bolts were not torqued properly, this could happen rather quickly.

From the pictures, which can be deceiving, it appears most of the residue on block is head gasket material...but then again...it's hard to tell until you clean the area up.

You are doing a bang-up job so far, always feel for you folks that do this type of job outside. Keep up the good work, just go slow and don't rush the reassembly.

Brian.

 

I'm going to do some serious cleanup work during the week while I wait for the heads to come back from the Machine Shop. I also need to find a straight edge to check the block for any warping. If the previous owner replace the head gasket there's no telling if the first time it blew it overheated or not. This time it was only an exhaust leak, the only information I got from him was that ten or fifteen thousand miles ago when he acquired it he did engine work