Blown Head Gasket repair w/pics

[Spudboy]

Originally Posted by Bill UK

Oil pressure sender unit.

Thanks Bill.
How the heck does that wire connect?

[yama1]

my bad, I didn't realize there were many more replys after the crank pulley removal. Whoops

[88Tsupra]

hey how much does it cost to resurface and lap both top and bottom block...and one more question my idle is funny i know my timing is off because the last owner retarded the shit out of it..but i got it to idle at 900rpm buh on cold nights itll idle around 1200-1100 im thinkin my HG is going bad now


Just to say the last previous owner is a machanic and he said he replaced it with a metal gasket but my concern is that hes lieing

[IHateHacks]

yama1- Thanks for the input (about 2 months too late lol) thats exactly what I did, prybar in the flywheel worked so F'ing good. The intake manifold was off so it was easy to stick a prybar in there and see what the F*ck I was doing.

88Tsupra- I paid $200 for all my machine work (if you cared to read this entire thread and see my price break downs) which included a valve adjustment, cleaning, checking for cracks/warpage, planed, and welding and rethreading exhaust manifold stud threads. If you just get the head cleaned and planed it will not cost more than $80, $100 MAX any shop that charges you more than that for a plane and cleaning is ripping you off. Block is a totally different story, I have no clue how much it would cost but if you are going to have a machine shop hit the block surface, since the engine will be out of the car and completly stripped, you're better off totally building the engine: rods, pistons the whole 9.

My only advice to your other problems is to set your base ignition timing and maybe start your own thread, no sense jacking this one as it is 15+ pages long and I'd bet not half the people that look at this thread read EVERY post word for word.

[IHateHacks]

Little update: I was washing my car the other day, vacuumed the whole interior, and detailed the exterior (inside of the doors, under the hatch, etc) and when I was done I just, for no particular reason, looked under the car to make sure nothing was leaking. And sure enough, my downpipe is completely covered in oil. At first I thought it was water since I just washed it, but nope it was engine oil. At first I started flipping out, panicking, trying to think where it was coming from while I dug out my hydraulic jack. So I climb under there and its getting on the downpipe via the downpipe brace. So I further climb under there and I pinpoint it to the turbo oil return pipe, where it bolts to the block. Now I distinctly remember torqueing those 2 nuts to 108in/lbs, just like the TSRM and the Haynes manual said. It was a bitch to fit a torque wrench down there, but I did, and I remember doing it. So I proceed to take the turbo heat shield and dipstick back out so I can try and tighten them a little more. And those motherf*ckers turned another 1/4 to 1/2 of a turn!! TSRM is a lying piece of crap. I was so pissed. The TSRM says in bold letters on page EM-37 "Install oil pipe, 9ft/lbs" Now that is for the oil pipe to turbo nuts, which I did and that wasn't leaking at all. Then on page EM-38 for the oil pipe to block: "torque the oil pipe union bolt and flange nuts" Bolt 25ft/lbs (I did that and it was fine no leaks on the feed line) Nut 9ft/lbs which is WRONG. It should be: torque "as tight as you can get it". Because actually I tightened them once, drove it and it was still leaking so I had to get in there again and I just gorilla'd those f*ckers as tight as I could. Needless to say its fine now. I think I'm going to write my own TSRM with torque values for those nuts, the water outlet housing, EGR bolts and nuts, ECT sensor and a real life solution to how to get the crank pulley off. It just pisses me off that I spent $125 on a manual for this car and it 1. doesn't give you all the torque specs and 2. on the ones it does, half of them are wrong. A little side note, the O2 housing to turbo nuts, the TSRM says 38 ft/lbs and the Haynes says 32ft/lbs. Then, it gives you the torque spec on the turbo to exhaust manifold nuts, 33ft/lbs, Yeah I'd like to see anyone get a torque wrench on those nuts. Its impossible. Maybe if you had one of those torque wrench adaptor wrenches (like you use on dirtbike engines) and then you would have to do all kinds of calculations to find out what to set the torque wrench to, to get 33ft/lbs. So they give you torque values where you can't use them, but where it matters they just leave you hanging. I can go on and on with pointing out the TSRM's flaws but I'm sure you are all sick of my bitching so I'll stop now.

On a lighter note, it was a beautiful morning and I just loved how the light hit my car so I just had to take a pic and post it. Makes me thankful for what I have.

[MA70-3.0GT]

Originally Posted by IHateHacks

no sense jacking this one as it is 15+ pages long and I'd bet not half the people that look at this thread read EVERY post word for word.

Well I for one AM reading the whole lot, makes for interesting reading (jackers aside ) as I'm halfway through doing my own HG job at the minute, that & the weather/lack of funds mean I'm waiting to get it back together now...

EDIT-: FECK ME, I've just read the rest of this thread from the point at which I posted. Dude this needs locking & all the hijack crap deleting 'cause otherwise it's gonna ruin an otherwise informative & interesting thread on ONE MAN's HG replacement... Mods, can we do this? How come so many complete morons can afford to buy such a lovely car & then ruin it?

EDIT#2-: By complete morons I do not mean the likes of Tony or Devicehead (how's that coming now D?) by the way, so don't go thinking I'm trying to flame people for asking pertinent questions on your own HG jobs. I'm thinking more of people who come on here & say things like "your impact guns are sh1t" or "Grab a punch and a pound hammer. Tap a couple of times on each head bolt " etc. without even taking the time to read into what they're replying to or verifying that what they're saying is not potentially going to cause someone to ruin their engine...