Some of you may have seen my thread about the top end rattle I was having. Now that I have torn it down, and identified the problem, I came across another issue. The head bolt between #3 and #4 exhaust rockers was badly rusted. It was locked in there tight enough to nearly take a cheater on the end of my 1/2" breaker bar to get it loose. Once I got it out of the threads I had to wait until I got it on my workbench to pound the bolt out. The other 9 bolts were all normal, with a bit of oil on them from removal but no concerns.

My question is if this is a sign of a possible crack in the head, or if it is a leaky head gasket, or if it is even a concern? This is on a 90 4x4 pickup with the 22re. If it isn't a concern I can swap in the new cam and rockers and put it all back together, if it is a concern then it is going to take some time before I will have the cash for a new head.

 

106 views and nobody has an opinion on this? Should I be concerned with the rusted head bolt or not?

 

If your swapping in a new cam and rockers you have to unbolt the head, taking the pressure off of the head gasket. If it is the stock head gasket then it probably won't be long before it goes. Besides, you will have that oh so fresh and clean feeling when its back on the road.

Oh and pickup some fresh head bolts and clean up all of the threads in the block.

 

Got new bolts, new gasket, and new rockers and cam. Going to start cleaning up the gasket surfaces tomorrow and then get the cam installed and start putting her back together. I will grab some pics of the rockers, it may be possible to see this issue with the head still on, but it isn't easy.