Radyota

On both mine and my dad's trucks ('92 V6 4x4 extracabs) the valves burned due to no maintenance. Adjusting the valves/shimming would've extended the engines' lives. I wish I had known that a few years ago. Anyway, my dad's truck burned exhaust valves #2 and #4 the worst, due to worn valve stems/guides. I left the cams in the heads when I pulled them, and the #2 valve (blowtorched) was open, so I checked for endplay. I grabbed the head of the valve and moved it side to side, and it was sloppy! #4 valve wasn't much better. When all was done, I think it needed 3 new exhaust valves, 3 of the other valves from the used heads we bought, and had to convert the spare passenger side head casting to drivers side. Moral of story: don't trust barnyard mechanics!

now, my heads needed 4 new exhaust valves, but at least none of them were blowtorched. Before I pulled them, I checked the valve clearances to get an idea of which valves might look the worst. Cylinders #2 and 4 were a little tight, but #1, 3, 5, and 6 were way too tight! The minimum thickness guage wouldn't even fit in! There was clearance, just not nearly enough. When the heads were rebuilt, those were the cylinders that got the new valves. When you factor the valves that burned with the exhaust layout, you can see that everything directly associated with the crossover pipe is what failed. That's when I decided the crossover pipe will not be reinstalled when I assemble the engine.

On a similar note with exhaust temps, it's been mentioned by engnbldr that shaving the heads slightly to increase compression helps to reduce exhaust temps. Also, that Weazy2k's new cams' ability to let more air into the engine may have the same effect of raising the compression slightly, and thus reducing exhaust temps.

Sorry for the long posts, but I hope this information is useful!

tasthree

Looks like I've ended up in the same lame boat as everbody else and I'm going to be responsable for yotas lack of it.I have nerver had to work on this eng but have heard that its a pita to change the HG.I thought I read somewhere that its easier to do one side at a time and leave the exhaust hooked up on the opposite side.Could someone enlighten me as to if this is true or not.I'm going to pull the #6(blown side) side first and check that head.As I have said I might go diesel and don't want to soak a lot of $$ or time into this repair

engnbldr

>>>*Well, yes, I happen to know. I was at a Superflo conference in Colorado somewhere around a jillion years ago. We were talking about the Hondas, now you folks with the 3.0L are rank amatuers at eating head gaskets,, those 1800's just went through them like flapjacks at an Elk's club breakfast.

A bud of mine named Steve Norman, yea THAT Steve Norman, (the guy who wrote the bible on porting the 351Cleveland Ford 4V heads) and I were sucking on some suds when the problem came up. *Yep, full diabetic, blind as a bat, crazy as they come and he climbs in a Mustang with 800 H/P and heads up Pike's Peak....Yea....(Want a ride?... Steve LOVES to give rides....heehee)

*Only man I ever met that can talk me to the point where all I can say is...*Uhhhh...

*We all hated to even work on a Honda, the things made it maybe 1500 miles and our customers came back crabby, *bout 90% of the time..

Anyway, I mentioned the manifold stand bracket, he said no, probably asbestos and the finish. So once back home I changed the drive on my mill to 3500 cuts to the inch, one inch per minute, a finish so smooth it is like glass.

*Bingo! Less problems! (Still a few, but 50% was better than 100%)

I called Steve, he said we needed a head gasket that let the head slip when it expanded, I said some thing like a.... SLIPPER PLATE? He laughed and said it sounded cool, hey! What can you say back to a guy who uses a spinning reel upside down to catch Trout, and throws up watching the wife and I eat Crab?...*LOL**..*Guess there ain't any Crabs in Colorado. (I do know i dang near pass out trying to get up his stairs, heck, he lives at 6700 feet.)

*Pat me on the back, my term....Slipperplate™.....

ACL came online and beat us to market because I called a half dozen suppliers, Rockproducts was a bit slow but only by 6 weeks.

But out now, by golly it works and is so simple. All it is is a steel facing, now even a sloppy machine shop can surface a head and it will slip on the gasket if the finish is under 30 microinch. We did it for the 22R head gaskets, too, so far proving excellent.

*More than that will bite steel, too, and yep...It WILL fail.

The early factory gaskets were the laminated design, they proved to be a weak link on not only the 3VZE but the poor Neon?....*Lord....Please let me never ever see another one of those...

*Another point is the head bolts, the manual says reusable. Go ahead,fine with me. I just got sick and tired of hearing "PING!" and knowing another head broke off a bolt and went flying. Once was a flaw, twice was an indicator, there just ain't any third time around my place, I am lazy and I HATE doing something twice!.

So I went and had some made. The book says reusable, like I said, fine with me. Just try and break my bolts.

*Slipperplate™ huh? I wants my bonus brownie point!....*LOL**......*EB