some technical head re-install q's

vladasap

Member
Apr 26, 2006
294
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16
nyc, ny
hey guys

anyone wanna throw some tips at me as far as reinstalling heads and the intake??
things like:
(1) do i put any rtv on the head gaskets or install dry?
(2) revhead347 already told me to use thread sealer for the arp head bolts when installing
(3) should i drain my oil before the install and change it after i start the car up so it can pick up loose dirt or drain it and just put new in prior to start up ??

things of this sort i dont know or tend to forget, its the little things that you tend to forget but they are of great importance

and when reinstalling new lifters, should i soak them in oil??, anything to prelube them??
same for p.rods and rockers

thank you guys
 
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Don't drain your oil until it's all done. Inevitably, when you pull that intake off, some trapped water and crap is going to drop down into your oil pan. It much easier to just change it once the intake job is done. Otherwise it's harder to get the water out of the oil pan. Just make sure you change it before you start the engine back up. After you drain the oil, you might want to pour a quart of oil or so through the engine to wash down any water lingering around.

Head gaskets are always installed dry. Unless they are copper head gaskets, which I'm sure you are not using.

Kurt
 
but deff do not even start it with the old oil in?

as per recomendation of my buddy, i was going to leave the oil in there, drive the car 5-10miles and only then change it

and about the lifters rockers n p.rods...anything special i need to lube them in or simply pour some oil on them prior to the install
my main concern are the lifters since they do operate on oil - whats the procedure there??
 
Just lube the lifters and drop them into their bores. You should prime the oil pump after disassembling the top end, so the priming process will pump up the lifters with oil. Change the oil before the initial startup, since you'll probably get some coolant into the oil, and you don't want to circulate water through the engine.
 
Measure/adjust lifter preload

I would take the opportunity to cc the heads and measure deck clearance, and take some photos. I've learned the hard way that I want the information months later. :doh: It's like a chess game, you've gotta keep thinking moves ahead.
 
Measure/adjust lifter preload

I would take the opportunity to cc the heads and measure deck clearance, and take some photos. I've learned the hard way that I want the information months later. :doh: It's like a chess game, you've gotta keep thinking moves ahead.

please elaborate what does "cc"ing the heads mean??? and deck clearance?? i know i sound like a retard to some here but im just inexperienced, please bare with me :shrug:

and also i prime the oil pump simply by crankin the car by key right? and will the lifters get high enough so i can grab'em n just pull them out by hand?
 
CC'ing the heads and deck clearance are measurements used in calculating compression ratio.
I'm not very good at explaining things so here are some links:
How To Calculate Compression Ratio- Car Craft Magazine
This one is from Mondello's porting school, it's great:
How To Measure Combustion Chamber Volume - Circle Track Magazine
Burettes can be expensive so I use a small graduated cylinder.

Prime the oil pump with a drill and a dummy dizzy shaft tool, don't turn the key:
Summit SUM-901011 - Summit® Oil Pump Primers - summitracing.com

I'm confused by the comment to drop the lifters into their bores, since they are held in place with a retaining-bar-and-spider. I think maybe we're skipping a few important steps here?

Again, it's important to adjust the lifter preload since you've milled the heads and swapped cams!

That's an interesting combo you're building there - interested to hear how it turns out. Oh, BTW, how much have the heads been milled?
 
only 2 thousanths

wow, it seems like i have no idea what it is that im getting into here

(1) technically i dont need to check the deck clearance or compression, it'd just be nice to know that, right??

(2) i know the lifters are held by a "spider"...now will i be able to just pull the lifters out once that spiders off or what?

(3) how do i use the priming tool??? put it my drill, slip into the dizzee hole and then....does it connect with something or what happens??

(4) how do i reinstall the lifters back in and adjust the lifter preload ?? (im reffering back to Touring23's comment since i had no idea i had to any of that)

(5) is this something that someone whose never done it before (who obviously has limited knowledge) should even attempt or no?? :shrug:


thank you so much guys, you really have been a great help so far (and you deffinetely saved me lots of $$$ preventing me from going ahead and ******* things up)
 
1. correct: "nice to know".
2. yes. This pic may be useful. It's not mine, I can't remember whom to credit. Hope they don't mind if we use it to help you.
3. yes. The tool mates with the the oil pump. Then, you can turn the oil pump without turning the crankshaft.
4. Re-installing lifters: see pic in question #2.
Adjusting preload: Search. The procedure is not complicated, but I don't feel like typing it. .002" isn't enough to worry about, but the TFS cam may require longer PR's(?).
5. Is the engine in pieces now, or are you still in planning, or what? Good that you're asking questions. :nice:
 
well its either a lifter or a rocker that took a dump, and the car is at my buddies house - its all together - drivable other than the misfire
i parked it there till i get all the parts (it'll all be here next week)

heres a video clip where you hear the knocking that im suspecting is a collapsed lifter - let me know if you think otherwise (once again - it is misfiring which im not sure if that'll affect ur answer to this)
YouTube - mustang knock.avi

as far as the pr's, i reused my stock ones so i just ordered a set of tfs chromemoly 6.250" which should be stock size (im assuming the stockers are the correct size since they did work for 6 months or so)

thanks for helping me out here touring23!!!!! :nice:

btw i think it was you that asked how much pwr it made - well very untuned - lol - i mean with a/f at 14.8 @ wot it made 280 n 314
so with a proper tune/chip im hoping it'll be at 300 - (the knock developed b4 i had a chance to tune it n run it again) :mad:
 
280 with GT40s...wow. Excellent.
OK, scratch what I said about cc'ing heads. I misunderstood, thought you were assembling a new project.
That misfire might be incorrect lifter preload; I had to go to 6.300" PRs for my Steeda cam. You might want to measure the preload first, before pulling the heads and intake; save yourself some time and effort. If you can fix it with a PR swap then you won't have to worry about priming the oil pump, pulling the intake & heads to swap lifters, cc'ing heads, blah blah blah.
Glad to help if I can, but don't thank me yet! I'm not the best mekanik in the world. Maybe it's something else. Let's see if we can get some second opinions.
Anyone else want to jump in here and help Vlad?
 
If it was incorrect preload, it would have been knocking from the start. Since the heads have been off, it's entirely possible one of the rockers has backed off. Sometimes you don't get them tightened down enough. More likely the lifter has crapped out though.

Kurt
 
i guess i did explain it wrong in the beginning touring23 so i deff see how you thought it was a whole new project i was putting together
and im really hoping to hit 300 NA with the gt40s n a tune
:nice::nice::nice:


back to the issue at steak:bang:
at the first instance i thought it was a loose rocker but after thinkin about it some, i figured a loose rocker would be noisy thru the entire range of rpms not just up top, while a lifter may be fine under light loads but once the oil pressure builds up it cant load properly and it starts bouncing around causing the knock

could you guys inquire anything more from the video from the last post?
the quality is not great but i think it was sufficient to hear the knocking