Well pulled the head today...

Pics speak for themselves:
I still need to stick the striaght edge to the head and see why there is 60psi in the 1st piston...









My question is... will piston two able to be driven? Or is it time to take apart the block?

 

Pistons are fine, but you gotta get all that carbon out of there, a shop vac wil do it.
I've NEVER seen an intake seat drop, it's always exhaust due to the heat. This is a very rare occurence, truly unlucky! The only way I can think it'd happen is a badly reconditioned head......
There does seem to be a very light discolouring between two fire rings on that head gasket, that and the 3/4 fire ring area looks suspect too. I think your head gasket was about to go, or had already partially gone. There's also a chance teh seats on #1 are gone too, causing a combustion leak.
Thinking back, mine gave symptoms for months, but they were very subtle. Like an occasional misfire idling etc.
Make sure you use new head bolts, or if in your budget, ARP studs when replacing the head. It's just cheap insurance with more boost than stock.

Regards, Andrew.

 

bad photos taken at night with a flash.

Thanks for the info Andrew,

Yes, everything is going to get a good clean up, and ARP studs are probably going to get looked into. we still need to look things over when the daylight is out, then, i need to talk with my friend about a head.

at this point... I would love to take out the block and do a full rebuild.

Edit://
we did check codes before the head removal, and got 3-1-2 (i think i poseted this early). Thinking maybe knock issue???

 

I don't see any evidence of detonation on anything there, fuelling looks like it was good too, if anything a little rich, just like my car with teh chips.
The exhaust valves are a nice brown colour, if the engine had been running lean for any length of time, they'd be white.
Detonation won't affect valve seats, it really is just a very unlucky thing or bad workmanship in the past.
Code 312 means there is no signal from the knock sensor (knock enrichment disabled) but with Fred's chips, and looking at those photos, it was not an issue (but you should fix it).

Regards, Andrew.

 

cool. thanks for the info.

Now I just need to talk my friend into selling me his head and I can start driving the car again.


BTW, how's yours running?

 

Here is piston one (before cleaning):


Here is the crack in number 1:


Here is the crakc in number 4:


Here is piston 2 after fixing:




Everything is looking pretty good. Just need to get a new head and finish cleaning things.

 

Hopefully everything goes well and fast for you.

 

thanks tech. me too.

 

WOAH, DUDE, YOUR MISSING A CYLINDER!

Haha, what was all wrong with it, just poor compression on cylinder 1?

PS: Your doing a lot better of a job at taking pictures than I am. I fail.

 

Look at the pics on the top of the page. The valve seat came loose from the head.

 

yep.

Need to find a good head now.

BTW...macro settings are your friend on cameras

 

Like a train! It's got a brutal spread of midrange torque for a 2.3 four banger, it constantly surprises me. I need to replace transmission mount and centre bearing bushing though, but normal wear for an older vehicle.
I see teh cracks in your cylinder head, that explains the dropped valve seat.
I would be thinking about any overheat events the car has had, or perhaps been low on coolant and driven for some time. You have to REALLY overheat a cylinder head a lot to get those cracks. And you might not really have noticed it either, you can have decent steam pockets in a cylinder head and not really have any indications, if driving normally.
Your cylinders, you should thoroughly clean them to get rid of all the cleaning residue. I like to use paper towel and some spray oil like WD40 (WD40 dissolves the carbon nicely too). Hose the bores down with the oil, wipe UPWARDS with the towels. Move to next bore, repeat. Always turn piston to BDC when doing this, and go through them all 3 times. This way, as you rotate the engine over, the top piston ring cleans up all the light carbon etc and deposits it up high on the cylinder walls. Stop cleaning when the paper towels keep coming out clean, then oil the bores with engine oil and stuff clean oily rags into the bores(stops corrosion).
It may be a little paranoid, but carbon is very hard and a good chunk can score a bore easily.
When you have your cylinder block deck clean as you think it can be, get yourself a wood chisel and scrape it with that. I guarantee you'll get more gasket etc off. Use the chisel pointed away from you, in good long strokes and with a shallow angle to the head. You won't mark cast iron with the chisel, it's good and hard.
I also clean the cylinder deck twice with lacquer thinners and clean rags just before the gasket goes on, leaving it oiled until that stage. I also find scrubbing with coarse steel wool and lacquer thinners brings the cylinder deck up really well. Don't worry about the lacquer thinners in the bores, it'll evaporate or burn off first couple of power strokes.

Regards, Andrew.

 

there is no crack on number 2 though... the only cracks is on number 1 and number 4.

My mom did overheat this head, many, many, many years ago. the car was never the "same".

We are talking with some people about new heads, so hopefully we can get one in soon.

 

i was wondering how much did it cost to do your interior?

 

I bought it off of a guy I know. I got the whole interior for ~$175!

Oh, the headliner was done by a prof for about ~$220.
Junkyard should have parts for cheap.

 

Started to clean up everything in the bay, and replace some things that really need to be replaced.

Slightly polished a few of the parts while cleaning them. ran out of engine degreaser...





Cute little turbo...
found some cracks in the exhaust housing. luckly it still seals great. upgrade in the near future.




Throttle body was pretty clean, but had to clean it just because.



Got in a bunch of parts to finish the 740. still waiting on the head to get in.
Also got in the 240 brakes stuff. everything is going to be new, along with SS brake lines.



Happy Thanksgiving fellow Brickers.

 

Cool on the parts. Glad you are making progress!

 

Thanks tech!

Could have had the car together by tomorrow, and running. But now Jonathan from RSI took this week off, so the head sits at their shop.
I am tired of driving my mom's car. I miss this beast....

BTW, how's yours riding?

 

Mine is doing pretty well lately. Still need to get the exhaust manifold and get that fixed.
Might Dyno it in a couple of weeks but not sure yet.

 

cool! Post up that results!