Heads Are Off.........images And Thoughts On Piston

from6to8 said:

what you think about my last post Hoopty?

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revhead347 said:

I'll respond. I think he needs to work on basic sentence structure and grammar. After he has mastered that he can move on to learning a few things about mechanics, and then possibly give advice on engine repair. What he wrote is ridiculous. The hone is good enough on that short block that it's visible in a low resolution internet picture. Oil burns on to a cylinder when a ring fails, or the engine is run with very little oil in it. This engine has no signs of that at all. The bores are clean with a good hone pattern. You took the head off because of a dropped valve right? Am I missing something here?

The water has to come out of the cylinders. Suck up the majority of it with a shop vacuum, then wipe the rest out with a rag. Re apply some motor oil to the cylinder walls to keep them from rusting.

Kurt

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I think what Kurt said is right on. Although for a second, I thought Kurt was referring to my post before I read what you posted haha.

You pulled the engine for a broken spring, not a broken ring. If you had enough blow by to cause an issue, you'd have known long ago. The hone looks fine and yes, the cyl walls will be oil soaked. People have run motors with BROKEN pistons and not known anything was wrong until they pulled the head for an unrelated issue (although both problems may have the same cause).

If everything ran ok before, fix your head and keep motoring.

Tricks and tips...

Intake manifold
My favorite trick that saves time and effort is the stay in place gasket. Be sure that you scrape (don't use a wire brush) all the old gasket material off, then clean all the surfaces with acetone or MEK.

When the surfaces are clean, use weather strip adhesive on the head to manifold surface, and on the side of the gasket that mates to the head. Follow the instructions on the tube or can and when it gets tacky, press the gasket down on the head.

Clean the area where the rubber rails mount to the block in front and in the rear with more acetone or MEK and do the same trick with the weather strip adhesive that you did to the heads.

Coat the rubber seals and the gasket area around the water passages with Blue Silicone gasket sealer and put it together. Whoopee! no leaks, and no gaskets that shifted out of place.

Get a tube of anti-seize and coat all the bolt threads and under the bolt heads. That will help insure even torque when you tighten the manifold bolts. Plan on re-torqueing them after a week’s worth of driving

Diagram courtesy of Tmoss & Stang&2birds


The bolts are torqued down in a 3 step process.
Step 1 8 ft/lbs
Step 2 16 ft/lbs
Step 3 23-25 ft/lbs

Cylinder heads
The cylinder head bolts are reusable, but some new ARP bolts are a better plan. Be aware that the ARP bolts have a radiused shank under the bolt head. The ARP washers have a matching radius machined into them. Be sure that the machined radius of the washer is fitted next to the machined radius on the ARP bolt heads. Forget this little fact and you will never get the head bolts to torque down properly.

Coat the underside of all bolt heads with anti seize and the threads of the long bolts. The short bolts thread directly into the water jacket and need a different treatment. Use Teflon Pipe dope on the threads of the short head bolts. It will prevent any coolant seepage from around the threads. You can get the Teflon pipe dope from the hardware stores, Home Depot or Lowes.


Fuel injector seals
Fuel injector seal kits with 2 O rings and a pintle cap (Borg-Warner P/N 274081) are available at Pep Boys auto parts. Cost is about $3-$4 per kit. The pintle caps fit either injectors with a pin sticking out the injector end or 4 with more tiny holes in the injector end. The following are listed at the Borg-Warner site ( BWD - Home ) as being resellers of Borg-Warner parts:

Parts Plus - Premium Auto Parts & Accessories or Auto Value / Bumper to Bumper Quality Parts & Service - Home of the Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance Group or Tires, Auto Parts Stores, Brakes & Automotive Parts | Pep Boys or Federated Auto Parts - Automotive Aftermarket

Most of the links above have store locators for find a store in your area.

Use motor oil on the O rings when you re-assemble them & everything will slide into place. The gasoline will wash away any excess oil that gets in the wrong places and it will burn up in the combustion chamber.



Putting the distributor back in is fairly simple.
Pull #1 sparkplug, put your finger in the sparkplug hole,
crank the engine until you feel compression. Then line up the TDC mark on the balancer with the pointer
on the engine block.

The distributor starts out with the #1 plug wire lined up at about 12:00 with you facing it. Align the rotor
to about 11:00, since it will turn clockwise as it slides into place.

Align the distributor rotor up with the #1 position marked on the cap, slide the distributor down into the block, (you may have to wiggle the rotor slightly to get the gear to engage) and then note where the rotor is pointing. If it still lines up with #1 position on the cap, install the clamp and bolt. If not, pull it out and turn 1 tooth forwards or backwards and try again. Put the #1 spark plug back in and tighten it down, put the clamp on the distributor, but don't tighten it too much, as you will have to move the distributor to set the timing. Note that if it doesn't align perfectly with #1 position, you can turn the distributor until it does. The only problem is that if you are too far one way or the other, you can't turn the distributor enough to get the 10-14 degree optimum timing range.

At this point hook up all the wires, get out the timing light and start the engine. Set the timing where your car
runs best. Don't forget to disconnect the SPOUT jumper connector when you set the timing, and plug it back
in when you finish.

The HO firing order is 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8.
Non HO firing order is 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

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To the OP, before you invest one more penny on that motor, get the deck surface clean and lay a straight edge on it. If it is not level, you need to pull that motor out and have the deck milled or it will never seal properly. Same for the head surface. If not level, take it to a machine shop and have them give it a very light mill.

As mentioned by others, you need to get all the surfaces squeaky clean- block surface, pistons, heads, bolt holes. That is the #1 cause of gasket failure. I would try and deburr that one piston relief to avoid a hot spot or a valve hitting as it appears to be raised a little. One more thing I would say- in addition to thread sealer on the top head bolts, use ARP assembly lube or molu lube on all the head bolts. I like the Felpro 9333 head gaskets.

For the valve springs, you can get the upgraded TFS ones or call Ed @ TFI. His springs are much better but also double the price.

For painting the headers, I've had good success with VHT ceramic header paint. It leaves a nice durable silver surface.