It had a 3 piece metal gasket. I didn't notice any markings on it, I'll have to look when I go out there. That spot pointed out was the only area not uniform to the rest of the head. As best I can determine with what edges we've got the head seems straight. Head bolts killed 1 extension and 3 sockets.

little brother brought over a da to clean surfaces with... :rock:

lacking motivation, today... can't get going to get it ready to go back together... ugh.

step boy sat the new radiator on top of the old one and dinged up the fins pretty good.. :bang:

waiting on my lil ones to get home, and gotta go back to the parts store and get the oil pressure switch I forgot to grab earlier.

 

I don't understand what would cause head bolts to be so tough to loosen. The other guy, the one with the long post who ended up replacing his head gasket, had the same problem. They should have been only tightened down to 72 ft/lbs, and it's not if they're exposed and get rusty.

I wonder if during a prior HG replacement the bolts threads weren't cleaned or the block holes weren't chased or, maybe, the mechanic replacing the HG figured that if 72 ft/lbs is good, then 125 ft/lbs is even better! Who knows?

 

Yeah I'm going to hit them with the engine cleaner, blow out, sacrifice a barrel cleaner, and rehit with cleaner, and blow out and drop some oil. Clean up the bolts good too.

I checked the old HG for markings and couldn't find any to indicate if it was original or had been re-done.

I don't think I'll be getting to it tonight.

 

Got it all back together. car runs fine. adjusted the valves, and sounds like I'll have to pull the valve cover back off to do some more on #2, but at my leisure.

In addition to the exhaust stud that broke on tear down, broke the one next to it on re-assembly. No worse for wear, and not loud enough for me to jakk with right now. it's the 2 right behind the ps pump, so they are gonna be fun to get to.

the middle part of the belt covers there on the top was all jakked up... the top cover seemed to cover most of the area, but it seemed that the middle part that goes up behind the cam gear was riding the cam gear and the plastic was all boogered up.

radiator hoses no longer look like the are going to burst. temp doesn't move at all now, fans cycle on and off after it gets up to temp. going to track down some coolant tomorrow once I verify all is well. gonna top it off in am and run the kiddo downtown and back and get some antifreeze going in, barring any leaks of course, but none have shown up at this point.

also gonna keep an eye on the little puddles of love oil, I replaced the oil pressure switch that was blamed for the leak, so we'll see if that does it, or if a pan gasket will be in order...

I elected to not take the cam set off. we were able to man handle the timing belt back on and I tightend the tensioner all the way back up so I'm assuming thats all good.

My sincere thanks to Roader and Jim for the input. I appreciate it.

 

When a seal behind the timing cover leaks - front balance shaft/crankshaft/rear balance shaft gearbox - the oil makes its way down to the oil pan and gets pushed back to the rear lip of the pan while driving. If one of those seals is leaking and if the leak's not too bad then replacement could wait until the next TB/waterpump.

 

Really need to get the exhaust taken care of. A leak there is going to throw off the O2 readings.

 

Yeah as cheap as the studs are and all I can't imagine it will be that way long, less I forget about it... I got a o2 sensor to be replacing anyhow (downstream) so I'm thinking bout the same time...

finally got to top it back off to see what mpg I'm getting. pre job with lots and lots of idling we managed 23mpg, so coming from 14mpg trucks I'm pleased.

thanks again all for the input...

 

Day 2 since HG done. put some universal coolant in last night, level seems just fine. 2 drips of oil from what I'm betting is just run off, or seepage from the end gaskets (front and back) but definitely not leaving the little puddles of love it had been.

running it out to my little brothers shop this afternoon to get a directional tire thats mounted backwards corrected. Might go ahead and try to balance all the wheels. while we're at it.

 

I don't know if anyone has suggested this, but have you done a leakdown or compression test? Both will tell you if there's a cracked head, burned valve, etc etc.

As far as the headgasket goes, consider letting the engine run until operating temp, then pull the oil fill cap. If the inside of the cap looks like a milkshake, then you have a blown headgasket. AKA, coolant in your oil likes to evaporate and collect at the highest part of the engine, typically the fill cap.

And for future references, from what i've learned working on 22R's, if you take a spare bolt, cut a notch in it perpendicular to the threads, then gently screw that into the block head bolt holes. It will clean the threads out, but it won't try to cut new threads.

 

didn't get to the leak down because I went thru the whole cooling system and after it was as it should it gave me the definitive shooting water out the radiator and hard to start conditions. after it started giving me that I knew it was at least a HG.

The block test was total failure. I won't be using that method again, I've been told by a trusted source they tend to be inaccurate more often than not.

I cleaned the threads out with air/cleaner as best I could, I didn't have a bolt I could sacrifice.