thefishguy77

iTrader: (1)

Can I chase them with the head will sitting on the block?

SoCal4Running

No it all has to come apart again unfortunately.


Were any of your head bolts rusted?
I've seen a few before that will rust between the 3rd and 4th cylinders and have had some that are so bad it literally takes hours to get them free from the head. Their is so much rust build up on the bolt it will not come out of the head.

Granted I absolutely would do a compression test before anything else though.

thefishguy77

iTrader: (1)

No my old ones were clean And I used new ones when I put it together.

osv

don't chase the head bolt holes with a tap and die set, if you can help it, because it'll remove metal.

take an old head bolt, and cut a groove in it vertically... i tried to put as close to a 90 degree angle on the cut as i could, on the side of the cut that was facing the direction that the bolt turned... not sure if it made a difference, lol

keep going in and out with that, you should be able to pull some junk out of there, use a strong vacuum cleaner, if you are doing it while the block is in the car.

Philbert

iTrader: (2)

I did that when I swapped a new head on my 22RE. Took my old head bolt put in a vise, and touched the side with an angle grinder to create a shallow groove that ran perpendicular to the threads. This way, when you thread it into the block, the crud the bolt dislodges will find its way into that cut channel - and you can back out the screw and use compressed air to blow it out and try again until it comes out clean. After this, I also used compressed air to blow those block holes out for any moisture or other crap - do this till nothing but air comes back out.

You want your block and head gasket mating surfaces to be 100% clean - razor blade on the block and acetone help a lot.

But, as others have said here, pressure test it in the cylinders, and pressure test coolant system if you can too - before you tear it apart.

I went with the ENGNBLDR 268* cam/street RV head when I did mine recently, since I had 270K on the head and it was only a couple hundred bucks more for the new cam/head.

thefishguy77

iTrader: (1)

Well just did a compression test and the #2 cylinder had 30# of compression 1-3-4 were zero. Guess I have to roll her in to the garage and start taking it apart.

thefishguy77

iTrader: (1)

Well it looks like I am going to do a long block swap. The parts truck is a pretty fresh crate motor. Where a mine has 200k. So I think I am going to pull the 89 motor and do a timing chain oil and water pump. Then put the long block in and see.

SoCal4Running

Ouch, well at least you know what to do now

thefishguy77

iTrader: (1)

Yea this stuff never happens when it nice and warm out. Why is that. It's like water heaters they rarely break before the warranty is up the go out with in 6 months of expirations.
I guess the question is do I do the timing chain by pulling the oil pan or do I do a head gasket on this one as well. I am a little gun shy at the moment.