25 replies to this topic

[shepworldwide]

7 VII 7, on 01 July 2009 - 05:28 PM, said:

How bad was it to do and how long did it take for you to do your headgasket?

it's been a week since i started. not really in to much of a rush because i have 3 cars.
i'd say a total of 10hrs being my 1st time and all.

the best advice i could give is ziploc bags and alot of them!
by taking my time and labeling the bolts it made to job super easy going back together.
most of my time spent on this job was labeling the bolts

[raven_850]

oh well. The smoking while idling is reduced by it looks like the rings are shot...

[erikv11]

I don't know what you are trying to say.

Did you consider bad valve stem seals? That is very common on these cars. Bad rings is not.

[Gilhuly]

If you miss 1 or 2 teeth nothing will happen other than the car running like crap, but you should be able to see whether or not you have everything lined up before trying to start.

Be sure the crank and the cam gears are where they belong per their marks before proceeding and then cut the TB off and don't disturb those gears while replacing tensioners etc.. Follow the Bay 13 order for the belt replacement. I did and it worked fine. I also found that backing the crank gear off about a half a tooth makes the crank gear to cam part go very easily. The teeny bit of slack alows you to get the belt on without disturbing the cam gear. The slack is taken up when you have everything on and hand rotate the crank 2 revs. This made the process very smooth for me and it was perfect the first time.

Read the procedures until you can visualize the whole process. If it takes 15 times, it takes 15 times. Understand before you start and follow the proceedure.

And, yes, if you're doing the waterpump be very anal about getting light in there and making sure that all the old gasket is gone. I could see this being a problem if one assumes they've got it without a thorough inspection.

Does anybody have a good technique for getting the new water pump and gasket on? I did find that to actually be the biggest PITA and I'm sure there is a bettertechnique than I used.

lcc014, on 01 July 2009 - 08:37 PM, said:

I have never done any TB job before, so this is very challenge to me. If I miss 1 or 2 teeth, then the whole engine will be toasted !!!

Ching-Ho Cheng

[erikv11]

glad someone chimed in about the teeth, that previous comment was silly

Gilhuly, on 03 July 2009 - 02:13 PM, said:

Read the procedures until you can visualize the whole process. If it takes 15 times, it takes 15 times. Understand before you start and follow the proceedure.

+15, this made all the difference for me. I was nervous about it so I read Bay 13 and Haynes for a week then when I went to do it, it was so easy.

Gilhuly, on 03 July 2009 - 02:13 PM, said:

Does anybody have a good technique for getting the new water pump and gasket on? I did find that to actually be the biggest PITA and I'm sure there is a bettertechnique than I used.

Taking out the serp belt tensioner (one easy bolt like 2.5 extra minutes) opens up more room in there for your hands, made maneuvering the water pump a lot easier. I would always take out that tensioner when doing this job, it is trivial to do and just opens up some space. Plus you can inspect it.

[raven_850]

erikv11, on 03 July 2009 - 03:05 AM, said:

I don't know what you are trying to say.

Did you consider bad valve stem seals? That is very common on these cars. Bad rings is not.

Valve seal are bad too, but I have #4 cyl that is at 90psi...has to be rings.