So I'm pulling my heads off and now I'm thinking

mattyblazer

Registered User
Should I go for a rebuild? I don't know much of the history of my car, how it was maintained, driven etc. So before I go to the trouble of changing out the gaskets I can't help but wonder if I should get a rebuild. The car has 125,000 on the clock (I think), any thoughts?
 
Take a look at how much oil build up and slug there is in the top end. What the cam looks like from looking at the top down on it. Is there a lot of carbon build up and how does the rest of the motor under the heads look.

The big one is how did the head gaskets blow as in did you have coolant in the oil.

hope that helps you some.
 
I had that same thought when mine blew in December.... it's slowly getting torn apart in the garage. I have to rebuild mine now, but before I decided that, I figured it has 130,000 on it, and it wouldn't hurt to start over here. Now, the gel composed of oil and coolant in the block makes me NEED to rebuild it. Why do things take so long? and so much money? Oh well..... leaves room for performance parts to be put in place of many things when I put it back together.

Anyways, if you're up to it, i'd say go for the rebuild and then you know what the engines been through and it'll have another 200,000miles or so blown back into it.

Nick
 
I'd say leave it for now..If you really want to do a rebuild get a spare motor on the side..Gaskets a a drop in the bucket compared to a full rebuilt time wise
 
Damon has a good point because a full rebuild is going to take at least twice as long as you've probably planned on if not more. There's alot to gather and coordinate just to build that engine right.
But I will say this, make your mind up which route you're gonna take and get started as soon as you can. I've torn down 2 of these engines that were meticuliously maintained, both engines had between 125,000-130,000 and both engines already had the upper crank bearing shells wiped into the copper base. 100,000 miles is alot for the bearings in these engines even when very well maintained. The damage done to these bearings is because of the considerable upward strain on the crank end from the accessory belts and tensioners, cold startup of the engines(cranking until oil pressure builds) and that belt pull on the crank is what wipes them. You cannot avoid this from happening with the factory oil pump setup. Total prevention of this problem could only be solved by using an electric oil pump system that you can turn on before cranking. That kind of system would have to custom fabricated and be very expensive. Rebuild the engine you have if you can do without the car long enough to do the job properly, if not get another engine to build and put the HG's on your present engine so you can drive until you're ready to install your new engine.
Thats the advice I can offer.
 
DamonSlowpokeBaumann said:
Advice #2...Get some aluminum underdrive pulleys....Less strain on those bearings for sure
I thought those weren't being made anymore. I guess I'm wrong? :confused:
 
It's in the works allready

DamonSlowpokeBaumann said:
Advice #2...Get some aluminum underdrive pulleys....Less strain on those bearings for sure

I have taken care of that with U/D & 5% O/D. ;)
 
I'm hoping this cold weather breaks

I have a 40 X 40 garage with most tools that you would find at a good shop and I dropped the ball getting the Bird in there before the cold weather. Now my dash is out of the car and the steering column is laying on the floor mat, so I need to get everything inside the car where is belongs before I can even move this thing. Right now it's 6 degrees here, with a wind chill of -13.
 
Yesterday

I was trying to take advantage of the warm weather, so I switched the fan motor inside the car, and came against a brick wall trying to get the clamps off the heater core. Due to the limited space I decided to remove the blower and throttle body with the upper intercooler tube attached. I unbolted the blower top and removed the retaining bolts on the I/C tube and then removed the bolt hiding under the tube by the fuse block, then a few more clamps and gently lifted everything out. The rotors in the blower were mostly clean with just the slightest carbon depostis on the exit side, but aside from that they where very clean.

If there is no rain this afternoon I will continue the march and dig down to the heads. If there is rain then I will put the dash back in the car and stay dry.

Reading these boards made this job a lot less confusing as I almost knew what to expect as I removed each part.

-Matt
 
One last thought, What dose the car look like? Is it going to be worth keeping or are you going to get rid of it in the near future? A full rebuild will costabout 3k, depending on where you get your crank because a new one from Ford is about $1200. to $1300 new. A reground will be a lot less but for a performance standpoint most dont like the reground. Mabe a short block, well prices vary but take a long look at what you have and what you want out of it. Maybe your like me you just love the car well you can`t put a price on love now can you. :D
 
scbird1 said:
One last thought, What dose the car look like? Is it going to be worth keeping or are you going to get rid of it in the near future? A full rebuild will costabout 3k, depending on where you get your crank because a new one from Ford is about $1200. to $1300 new. A reground will be a lot less but for a performance standpoint most dont like the reground. Mabe a short block, well prices vary but take a long look at what you have and what you want out of it. Maybe your like me you just love the car well you can`t put a price on love now can you. :D

I got the car from a kid (spoiled) who wanted an old hot rod, the kid had the car for 1 month and had a very nice paint job done (not mint but a 90 out of 100) no dents no dings the car looks great for it's age.

Next the kid puts a radio in the car, drives the car for 3 or 4 weeks and blows the H/G. Daddy tells kid "take this shiny new honda, and forget that car"

I approach the kid and offer him $500, kid cries about paint and radio. I tell kid to take the stinkin radio and rip it out of the car, he does and I get the car at night.

Next morning I wake up very excited about my new baby, and I look in the passenger window and find out that the kid followed my instructions and ripped the radio out (through the side of the enclosure), I never noticed when I picked it up.

The car had been adult owned before this kid, and by the looks of it the motor has a rebuild at some point, so for now I'm going to take my heads and have a valve job done and some porting with as little milling as possible.
1 underdrive pullies

2 overdrive S/C pully

3 mpfmic with push fan

4 scp cool air intake

5 BHG dampener

6 Mike 38sc's radiator

I have all this stuff either in my posession or ordered, I also have a low miles back up motor lined up, so if worse comes to worse, I'll blow it up and start over, and since all this stuff is bolt on it can be reused. Ans as I mentioned earlier the car still looks pretty hot, so I'll stick with it.

-Matt
 
Thats great Matt, Maybe just have the heads resurfaced and just for good mesure use felpro head gaskets and ARP studs. In the past there have been a lot of repeat blown headgaskets due to people re-useing the head bolts. thats a no no. Only thing I have seen go on the heads is valve stem seals and they come with the new gasket kit so you can save some money there.
Sounds like you go a good deal on a great car. Enjoy,they are fun to drive.
Mark J.

P.S. do a serch on ARP studs. There is a chevy kit that cheap from summit that fits out cars to a tee.
 
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