blown hg

i have a blown hg or cracked head or intake gasket, something there is coolant in my oil. so i have started taking it apart a little bit to fix it, could somebody give me some suggestions on what to do to it while i got it apart that far, how to seal the intercooler hoses back up, torque specs, or any other general info on taking it apart that far and putting it back together. anything will be helpful thank you

This may not be what you wanna hear, but i would pull the engine and at least put Rod and Main Bearings in. You may get away without doing this but coolant is not good for the bearings so if you just do the top end you may take the bottem end out after it's running and end having to do more than just bearings. As far as torque specs and such, get a manual! you have to tighten the head bolts in a certain sequence not just to the right torque. Also replace the head bolts, have your heads surfaced or at least checked. The last thing you want to do, after getting it all together and running it for a while to get to normal operating temperature, is REPLACE THE O2 SENSORS. coolant destroys oxygen sensors, but run the car with the old ones for a while to make sure all the coolant burns out of the exhaust before you put new ones in.

thanks

thank you for your reply, yeah that is not what i wanted to hear. what kind of other problems do you think that i will have if i dont replace the bearings? also i see that you have a 72 gmc, if you have any parts let me know, i have a 69 chevy shortbed 4x4 and i need a few body parts to finish her up. thanks again for your information.

I just did my hg and the worst part is sealing the tubes of the intercooler. I bought tbird88's gaskets and it made life a little easier. That one bottom intercooler tube is a sob all around.

Other things to do: port heads and get them decked, gasket port exhaust manifolds, gasket port intake, Use felpro gaskets and consider arp head studs instead of motocraft bolts. You have to get new ones either way. Big thing when you take it apart mark everything. I had seperate baggies that had bolts and nuts marked from everything that I took apart.

Good Luck, for special tools get your self a 15mm stubby rachet wrench and a 13mm stubby rachet. helped out a lot.

Eric

Manual is very helpful for torque's etc.

darin it depends on how much coolant got into the oil and for how long. You may be fine just to drain the oil and put fresh oil in and do the head gaskets. All i was saying is if you take that chance you may end up having to pull the engine anyway. As far as parts for your truck, i dont have any extra parts, im gathering parts myself to make my truck new again.......i've owned it for 23 years so it looks like i'm gonna keep it......

along with the above replies. You may want to also consider flushing your oil a couple times in a very short period of time. This will help clean out some of the coolant that may still be sitting in the bearings and such.

best of luck to ya, and hope everything goes well

I am on day 30 of this job and I started by saying i'm just replacing head gaskets but I'll tell you, when you get everything torn off you may as well do it all. I did water pump, engine mounts, pulled engine and will be doing rod and main bearings, timing chain, clutch, egr, radiator, tranny mount, head job (milling),all new felpro gaskets and head bolts, plugs, wires, belts and the list goes on and on. If you don't do it ALL now you will be pulling half the motor apart in the future just to do a simple job. Oh, and engine mounts are a MUST!

If you're not certain that it is the headgaskets that are letting the coolant mix with the oil, one thing to check while you're tearing it all apart is the oil cooler. It is sandwiched between the timing chain cover and the oil filter and circulates coolant. I've seen one go bad before, so it wouldn't hurt to check it out while it's off.

I see that you're in Kirksville. Give me a yell if you ever need any SC parts, and I may be able to help you out. I'm in Imperial, about 30 mins south of St. Louis on I-55.

-Rod