Sigh,.......... Another day of paddling in a circle.
The last update had me vowing that come Hell or highwater, I was gonna find some additional sealer to augment the spray-on copper coated head gasket currently hanging in the garage. This morning started w/ me googling "The best way to seal a copper head gasket" and I followed every link to see if I could find a "sho-nuff" solution to the problem.
Yellow bullet was where I ended up. For the sake of brevity I determined that I was gonna find some Permatex Super 300, and use that brown-black goo to do the job.
So I set out for the local mom and pop auto parts store to buy it.
They don' got it.
I get in the car, drive ten miles to Advance.
They don' got it.
Instead of chasing my tail, I call O'reilly's, and Autozone.
Neither do they.
I get back in the truck, and while I'm driving, call stinkin' Permatex corporate. For the next 35 minutes, I explain my situation to one of their "technical product specialists" to find out why in the hell that stuff is so elusive.
He listens,...... asks me all sorts of questions about my engine, ponders for a second, and tells me this:
I don't want Super 300. That product is old school. (Good, cause I can't find that crap)
He has a much better product recently developed, that is way better suited to my application. (Problem is, I can't use it in combination w/ the now copper coated head gasket.(
That is not a problem, that stuff wipes off with lacquer thinner.))
"What's the name of your "way better product"?" I ask, "and where can get it?"
"It's called Permashield, and you can get it at Advance
"What tha, I just leftstupid Advance, and now I'm walking into Carquest, will they have it?" I ask. "Yep", Permatex Expert Dude replies, "You can find that stuff at every auto parts store."
Perfect.
They have it alright, they also have every Permatex sealant under the sun there INCLUDING Super 300. But I follow dudes' advice, and buy the tube of Permashield.
I really don't pay attention to what makes it so special, but when I get home I take it out of the bag to open it.............Huh, whad'ya know....... It's Permatex's alternative to Hylomar.
I already have stinkin' Hylomar.
Submit it for your consideration. This is the EXACT same stuff as what I spent the better part of 90 minutes trying to find.
I actually found it kind of funny after the fact.
To the guys at Permatex, the formulation that equates to Hylomar is "new".
To the guys at Rolls Royce,...they've been using that s hit since the 60's. Hell, the engineers at RR came up w/ Hylomar as a solution to seal the synthetic lubricants used in their early jet engines.
No matter, It only cost 8 bucks. I was home, I had what I needed, and I proceeded to start wiping off the three layers of copper coat off of the head gasket.
Followed by a liberal smearing of Hylomar, uhh
Permashield on the head, both sides of the head gasket, and the block. It's weird junk,..consistency of snot when applied straight outta the tube, and doesn't want to stick w/ any consistency. But let it cure a couple of minutes, and it sticks to the stuff you smeared it on, and can actually be "managed". You can drag your finger across it, and create a film, (which I did).
I installed the head, followed by the studs (head sits too close, and at an angle to the firewall, gotta sneak it against the firewall to get it there), then the washers and nuts.
Torque 30, 60, 80, ft lbs.
If stuff is gonna ooze outta my engine, I prefer it to be something like this.
It took the rest of the day to do what shoulda amounted to an hour, (and I'm still not done) I decided to install the pushrods, and rockers, and lash the valves.
The Problem is the machine shop that originally drilled and tapped the studs for the rockers, drilled them at wonky angles. The studs were originally intended to be 3/8 coarse in the head, but I had to have them redrill and open up the thread size from the original 3/8 inch to 7/16 inch to fix their screw up. Unfortunately, the guide plates that I had to build for the head were built to the original wonky stud angles. Three of the six guide plates were so screwed up, I had to cut them back apart and re-weld them. That took the rest of the day.
This pic was taken at end of day, 11 of the 12 rockers are right, I'm gonna have to take the last guideplate off (again), and cut it (again) because it's still wrong.
Once i get that guide plate straightened out, I'll focus on putting oil through the engine via the pump.