Head Gasket Trouble - Pull Engine

[stang89bidges]

I dropped off my block and cam bearings with machine shop. I'm running out of time decided to have them help me out a little.

1. Hot tank block
2. Install cam bearings

I ordered a ford racing billet steel flywheel from latemodelresto but it went backorder till may 1. At only 220.00 I was getting a deal I thought. Due to time constraints however I canceled that order and went with the RAM billet steel for 290.00.

It should arrive by Saturday so on monday I will drop it off at shop with my harmonic balancer, crank, rods, pistons, rings, and bearings.

3. Complete balance job with crank polish
4. Check bearing clearances, journal clearances
5. Check dropped piston
6. Install rod bolts (went with ARP)

I also broke down and bought ARP main bolts and a new ARP oil pump shaft for 19.99. 1 piece oil pan gasket. So now I have full ARP replacement bolts from heads down and everything I need to put this thing back together.

I will probably finish my heads this weekend and take them into machine shop as well to make sure my valve seats are still ok along with my valves.

You guys ever hear about taking your clutch pressure plate in for the complete ballance job?

 

[stang89bidges]

I forgot to mention they will be honing my cylinders too. They were still in good shape with some crosshatch left from factory but the piston skirts had a little wear on them so I decided to go ahead and rehone the cylinders for good measure and have the pistons checked.

 

[89oem]

That'll speed it up

 

[stang89bidges]

Yeah I couldn't see paying the price of good micrometers and cylinder bore only to be rushed in learning how to use them properly in conjunction with learning all of this other stuff at same time... I certainly wasn't going to buy cheap tools that may give me false readings either. I'm going to pay a little more than I wanted but in the end I will feel better about the rebuild.

Again I want to tear her down for upgrades again in 3-5yrs but you know this will ensure I won't need to go all the way down. Maybe just a new cam, lifters, push rods, springs, valves, rockers, fuel injectors, TB, and mass air. Then later I install new heads and intake. That's my 10yr plan... We shall see how that all turns out in time.

So. Here is what I read. I want to know if I need to do this with my new exedy clutch???

Ford muscle dot com:
A good machine shop will balance the pressure plate separately and give you all the balance specifications so if you need to replace something down the line you can reproduce the balance of that component.

 

[stang89bidges]

Brown tuck this weekend while i was gone. Its like when you get up to use the restroom at a restaurant and your food is waiting on you when you get back only way better




On a different note.

I recently(December) bought a 97 Dodge RAM, 5.9L Magnum, 22in aluminum rims, limited slip 2 wheel drive, 4sp auto. It's my new daily driver , love it. The mechanic side of me normally would never have let it go this long before I tore her apart looking for all the hidden secrets the PO lied about but the weather has me by the balls and of course my stang takes precedence even if it is a cool big block truck on 22's with blue racing stripes...

Anyways this weekend was beautiful so I decided to camp out at the garage all weekend and get my heads finished on the stang and maybe do some small maintenance to the truck. Saturday morning I wake up and start draining the oil in the truck, then I flush the coolant system and find tons of rust... So I replace all the heater hoses and am doing a 3 day flush. Then I decide to drop the tranny pan and change the ATF and filter. I ended up adjusting the bands while I was in there. Turned out to be a non-stop weekend of work.

I basically spent the whole day on the Dodge. Then as I was putting all the old fluids from oil change in old jugs I layed the ATF filter to the side and as it drained itself in the sun it revealed a nice little message that I was pretty happy to see, wish I would have thought to do this myself!




Here's a picture.

 

[stang89bidges]

Progress.

Visit to the machine shop at lunch today. Dropped off my crank, pistons, rods, rod bearings, new rings, harmonic balancer, and flywheel for a complete balance and polish. I dropped off the block and cam bearings last week. They already hot tanked and cleaned my block. They said the cylinders looked good and all they will need to do is a hone. That made my birthday.

I should receive my new rod bolts and main bolts today via brown truck so I will take the rod bolts to the shop tomorrow to finish up the balance and have them install those bolts for me.

I really thought this wouldn't take but a few days but I was wrong. Guy told me it would be about 2 weeks before they can get it back to me. But that just gives me more time to finish up my heads and intake porting. I'm pretty wore out on these heads I gotta say. It's taking forever. I hope its going to be worth this effort. Haven't even started on the intake and headers yet...

 

[A5literMan]

Progress.

Visit to the machine shop at lunch today. Dropped off my crank, pistons, rods, rod bearings, new rings, harmonic balancer, and flywheel for a complete balance and polish. I dropped off the block and cam bearings last week. They already hot tanked and cleaned my block. They said the cylinders looked good and all they will need to do is a hone. That made my birthday.

I should receive my new rod bolts and main bolts today via brown truck so I will take the rod bolts to the shop tomorrow to finish up the balance and have them install those bolts for me.

I really thought this wouldn't take but a few days but I was wrong. Guy told me it would be about 2 weeks before they can get it back to me. But that just gives me more time to finish up my heads and intake porting. I'm pretty wore out on these heads I gotta say. It's taking forever. I hope its going to be worth this effort. Haven't even started on the intake and headers yet...

Great job on the rebuild so far! As far as all the head work being worth it, that all depends on your expectations. Probably not going to come close to flowing as well as an aftermarket aluminum but you definitely will be better than stock. Also you'll have the experience and pride of knowing you did it yourself.

 

[stang89bidges]

Status update. Finished my heads! I also finished my headers and I'm 4 ports in on my lower intake. Feels like it's all coming together

I got my last brown box yesterday with ARP rod bolts, main bolts, oil pump shaft, and I forgot to mention I ordered a 1 piece oil pan gasket. Dropped off the rod bolts at shop so now they have everything.

Here are a few pics I took tonight.

MAC shorties. Pretty nasty thick welds.






And here is the after. I didn't want to take to much of the welds away so they may not look all pretty but I ended up taking all of the lip on the insides away and smoothing them down pretty good. These pics are only after I used a carbide bit and 80g sanding stone.








More pics of heads and intake coming later. Time to get some

 

[stang89bidges]

Hey @tmoss , am I correct in my thinking that in the direction of flow, from one port opening to the next, it's better to have the feeding port opening smaller than the receiving port opening?

Example: the "head" exhaust port opening should be smaller than the "header" port opening(or same size) so that I don't cause disturbance in flow?

Question 2: If that is correct, is there much difference between making the port openings match compared to having the feed opening slightly smaller?

And lastly. What kind of problems would be caused if my head gaskets are even with the combustion chamber opening if I took too much material away? I know detonation can occur if overhang but what about being dead even with the opening?

Can this be fixed with gasket modification if it's a problem? Like carefully modifying dowel pin holes so the gasket moves slightly in the direction needed to hide the gasket from CC chamber?

 

[stang89bidges]

More progress tonight. Working on my lower intake. Got the "head" side ports completed. I didn't take too much out of the port opening to make sure I didn't go larger than the heads port opening. They are close though so they should either match up nicely or be a hair smaller. I'm still taking into consideration that the "feeding" port opening should be smaller than the "receiving" port opening.

Here are a few pics. I didn't get very good shots of the before...

Before:




One of the places I removed the most material was the inside bank that @tmoss talked about in his write-ups. Making the opening a "straight shot" rather than a blocked pathway results in a better flowing port. At least that's how I understood it to be.


After:

 

[A5literMan]

Looking good!

 

[stang89bidges]

Looking good!

Thanks, let's hope it proves a positive result.

 

[hoopty5.0]

I guess I missed it - are those P heads, of E7s? What are the expected gains from porting? 10-15 hp?

 

[A5literMan]

I guess I missed it - are those P heads, of E7s? What are the expected gains from porting? 10-15 hp?

They are e7's and should see a little more than that. What's going to hold him back is the small valves. I would guess that porting the heads and intake should net around 20-25 rwhp. Maybe a little more.

 

[hoopty5.0]

Really! I have some E7s and an explorer intake laying around. Need to get on that!

 

[A5literMan]

Really! I have some E7s and an explorer intake laying around. Need to get on that!

He also has a blower so that's why I'm guessing the 25 number. I'm going to show my age again. Oh well...back in the 80's this was a common occurrence. There were no "good" heads so out came the dremels lol. If done well a lot of people picked up a few tenths. I personally never did see much of an improvement on mine. But I didn't do much to them other than a gasket match and a little bowl smoothing(I did say smoothing not smoking-I don't roll that way.) But for chits and giggles and a lot of effort/time I say go for it.

 

[hoopty5.0]

He also has a blower so that's why I'm guessing the 25 number. I'm going to show my age again. Oh well...back in the 80's this was a common occurrence. There were no "good" heads so out came the dremels lol. If done well a lot of people picked up a few tenths. I personally never did see much of an improvement on mine. But I didn't do much to them other than a gasket match and a little bowl smoothing(I did say smoothing not smoking-I don't roll that way.) But for chits and giggles and a lot of effort/time I say go for it.

I'd have nothing to lose by doing it. I don't want to put any money into the 302. If it picks up a 10-15 hp from the intake and heads, then I'd call it a win. I have a bigger TB too, would just need a MAF to run with the injectors is all, those are very cheap. May get 20 HP for very close to free???

Sorry for the hijack, carry on

 

[barnett468]

I'd have nothing to lose by doing it. I don't want to put any money into the 302. If it picks up a 10-15 hp from the intake and heads, then I'd call it a win. I have a bigger TB too, would just need a MAF to run with the injectors is all, those are very cheap. May get 20 HP for very close to free???

Sorry for the hijack, carry on

if you use premium gas and have less than around 9.0 compression, you can get some "free" hp and tq thru the entire rpm range by increasing it . . i would see how far below the deck the pistons are and if need be run thin head gaskets to get the quench/squish clearance between .036" sand .043" then mill the heads if you need to get even more compression . . i would run around 9.5 on iron heads.

 

[stang89bidges]

I would accept those numbers for HP gain! Yes, these are my stock E7 head's and stock intake I'm porting. I am a big fan of DIY and this project has been a true experience for me thus far. I have learned more about cfm's, fpr's, tps's, maf's, CC's, blown intakes, friggin air filters and anything else that helps a engine breath better than I ever knew there was to learn! And I'm lovin every HP I'm gonna get out of it

I've probably got close to 25 hours into the porting alone. Several hours are me just going slow because it's my first time attempting this kind of work.

I started out blowing head gaskets, so I decided to tear her apart to check both my heads and block for cracks. Which then turned into a full engine rebuild(on a tight budget), so I decided to spend the $80 for a porting kit and go to town on my heads while I had it apart and waited for parts to arrive and nice weather to finish her up. Here I am, several hours later over a months time, still spinning a die grinder

If the dam thing runs when I put it back together I'm gonna call it a success... But if I gain any horses in the process I will be a happy camper. Like A5literman and a few others keep telling me, I will have some self gratification, less it blows up on me haha.

So if you decide to pull out the die grinder for better flow I highly recommend you only polish the CC's and read read read tmoss articles!

Its worth it to me. I did this. I spent $80 and bled 20 extra ponies out my own street rod. Hellz yeah.

 

[barnett468]

with proper porting and the correct cam, headers and intake and compression etc, you can get maybe 80 more hp from e7 heads.

if you have a nearly stock cam and 1.6 rockers, you can get more hp by using 1.7's if the heads are ported.