[engine_work] Novice Attempt At Head Gasket Change

[Obey_R 23]

After finding out my running problems were down to a blown HG I had two options. Leave it with a garage whilst I'm on holiday next week to get just the head gasket done for £300. Or take it off the road and do it myself, but at the same time doing cambelt, tensioner, water pump and refreshing the head at the same time.

 

I've so far got the headset inc bolts, cambelt kit, water pump and a few essential tools for £105 inc VAT. Shims for the valves if I need them are about £2.50 each from Pug, and valve stem seals will be done for the sake of 49p each! I plan to spend about £30 getting the head skimmed.

[Obey_R 23]

I'm using the Haynes manual mainly, backed up with into on this forum. It will be the first time I've done anything this drastic on my engine, so far I've only changed and alternator and stripped the inlet mani. off.

 

So first job was to drain the coolant. Whilst it was doing that it was off with a wheel and up on axel stands to get better access to the timing sprockets.

 

I've removed the battery, AFM and a few water hoses to get better access.

 

Coolant drained and removed the bottom hose from the rad to get better access, off with the alternator belt which came off nicely as it was only new about 2000 miles ago.

 

 

I then spent a while trying to get the pulleys lined up, and finally got them locked off with a wishbone bush bolt, and a 10mm drill bit. Bit fiddely as I wasn't quite sure what I was doing but got there in the end.

 

 

 

Then removed the cover on the side of the gearbox, I plan to get a hefty screwdriver in there to jam it whilst I remove the bottom pulley.

 

 

I also noticed I don't have a top or bottom cambelt cover, are these hard/expensive to come by?

[kyepan 291]

pm baz about the cover, he should have one.

 

get stuck in I say,

 

It's probably worth find an engineering place to do the skim, clean and pressure test on the head, choose somewhere local, that has been going for ages.

 

also, be careful not to disturb the liners, if you want to be extra safe, get some big washers metal tube(to sleeve around the head bolts and hold the washers down) and torque the liners back down in place, if they move on the seals at the bottom you could be in a more sticky situation.

[Anthony 1,003]

Be very careful leaving that bolt in the bottom pulley when you undo it, as it only goes into a weak bit of alloy casting and it will break if you end up turning the pulley should whatever you end up locking the flywheel with slip. I'd personally take the locking pins out, lock the flywheel and undo the crank pulley bolt (which can be very tight) and then if needs be re-align the pulleys.

 

Oh, and when you come to refit the head - MAKE SURE YOU PUT BOTH SPACERS ON THE HEADBOLT ABOVE THE WATERPUMP! There's one thin spacer on all ten headbolts, and then an extra thick spacer on the rear lefthand bolt that's above the waterpump. It's a very common schoolboy error to miss it and results in a nice hole in the block with coolant gushing out...

[welshpug 1,657]

agree 100% with Anthony's comments there, also I'd fit that drill bit the other way round to endure its a better fit

 

regarding the camshaft bucket tappet shims, you'll find them in XUD engines as well as the 8 valve XU's, so pop to a scrappy and whip some cams out if you're desperate

 

otherwise when I needed some I just popped to a local engine machinist who had a very big pot of spares and didn't charge much at all, think it was 50p

 

really does make quite a difference to how they behave and sound, though you'll never quieten them down that much

[Obey_R 23]

Got some more done today, will write it up in a sec. As for the comment above they're all taken on board! I was aware of the large and small washer on the waterpump end, had read it in a few places and wasn't going to forget that in a hurry! The bolts/drillbit was only left in there for the photo, they were taken out afterwards ready to take the pulleys off.

[Obey_R 23]

Got it jacked up again, removed the o/s wheel, took the bolts out that I used to lock the timing up and proceeded to remove the bottom pulley bolt. I called a friend up who came round with his 18v windy gun and a 22mm socket, which whipped the bolt off in seconds without even moving the pulley!

 

 

It was then a case of removing the pulley, but it was thoroughly seized on, so I've left it soaking in plusgas and will sort that out when I get around to putting the new belt on.

 

Next stage was to crack off the bolt holding the cam pulley on, as I figured it would be easier to do it in situ. rather than when the cam is off the head. Good job as I didn't see any spanner flats once it was off. The bolt was very tight but soon came off with a normal ratchet, and the pulley followed. Taking note of which was it came off, but it turns out there's only one way it can go on anyway!

 

 

Next job was to clear the engine bay to make room for getting to the head and rocket cover. So off with the throttle body, what a bloody state it was - that will be getting a thorough clean when it goes back on. As I'm taking everything off it's all getting labeled and put into money bags to keep it all safe.

 

So stripped a lot of coolant hoses away, injectors, sparkplugs, HT leads, dizzy cap etc. again marking the number of the leads as to which goes where.

 

Taking the injectors out I lost one of the caps from the end (AGAIN?!) but could see it sitting on the valve, so armed with a screwdriver and a bit of grease it came out, but will do something about that before it goes back in.

 

Inlet manifold came off with no issues, it was then off with the rocker cover gasket and thermostat housing. Will need to replace the gaskets and seals for everything both sides of the cam, but seeing as I'm only planning on doing this once I might as well make a job of it!

 

Then took the spray bar off followed by the things holding the camshaft down, with the last one it popped off as the springs lurched back into position.

 

That's pretty much where I've stopped tonight, I undid all the exhaust manifold bolts, a few didn't even need a spanner to come out and a few took the stud out with them. Is it okay to replace these with bolts of the right size to make things easier in the future? Saying that, I'm sure it's much easier to put the manifold back on if you've got studs there, so forget that!

 

 

[Obey_R 23]

So things to do next? Unbolt the dipstick tube so I don't rip it off trying to get the head off

 

Remove the exhaust mani. from the back of the head, it should just lever backwards enough to slip off I'm hoping.

 

I guess it's then a case of getting the head off? What are the steps for doing that? I've got a decent T55 bit, so first off loosen the bottom mount bolt but don't undo it. Support the engine, is wooden block and jack under the sump okay for these? Remove the engine mount from the block/head then proceed to loosen off the headbolts in the right order.

 

Is there anything major I'm missing here or is it as straight forward as that?

 

Once the head is off, how much should I strip it down before sending it off to the machiners? I want to relap the valves, check clearances and fit new stem seals. I've not done any head work before (should ask the Mrs!) so the basics would be good?

 

Whilst the head is getting skimmed, I'll work on shifting the bottom pulley and changing the waterpump over. New gasket with a bit of RTV silicone each side? I've not looked into it yet, but I guess changing the tensioner is pretty self explanatory?

 

That's it so far,

 

Ross.

[Masekwm 2]

This is the first big job I did 2 years ago. I worked through it like you are doing.

 

Over the next few nights get loads of Plus-Gas onto those head bolts, I soaked mine for 7 days, putting the PG on each night. They then unwound nice and easy.

 

I sent my head to the machine shop as it was removed, manifold and all. It was returned with the manifold and thermostat housing in a box along with the bits to lift it and others I can't remember.

 

Good luck!

 

It's worth noting that the cam bolt has two different torque settings listed in the Haynes, I got mine wrong and snapped it!

[Obey_R 23]

Can you remember which torque setting you used then? lol

 

Did you do any valve work when you did this, any problems you encountered I could keep an eye out for? Also any reason you didn't remove the manifold or theromostat housing yourself?

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

My guess would be the lower of the two torque settings are the ones you need

[Masekwm 2]

Can you remember which torque setting you used then? lol

 

Did you do any valve work when you did this, any problems you encountered I could keep an eye out for? Also any reason you didn't remove the manifold or theromostat housing yourself?

 

I had the valves shimmed, the clearances checked, the head was skimmed and stem seals done. I didn't know it had to be stripped to be honest so just took it as it came off the car.

 

The key point is to get the headbolts out, I used a 1/2 draper piece, a decent breaker bar and loads of plusgas.

 

I have the entire engine for sale at £80 if you wanted it to pull the head off and fit straight to yours?

[dcc 855]

I used to try tighten headbolts a little before I tried to take them out, dont know if it made a massive difference, but every engine I have ever done ive always done it, with no issues. just to break that 20 year old seal!

[wracing 19]

kl engines are good, the bored, honed decked block and skimmed my head good work. be careful not to over tighten the cam belt easily done if you've never done one before.

 

James

[Anthony 1,003]

It should be a spring tensioner on that age of car - if so, it's pretty much foolproof getting the tension correct!

[DaveW 6]

You can now see where your oil leak is comming from Ross....

[Obey_R 23]

[Obey_R 23]

Well the head off and saw the mess in the photo above. Given it a good clean up but not yet scraped away the old gasket.

 

With the head now off and inside I borrowed a valve spring compressor to get the valves out.

 

 

What a bloody job that was! I managed to get one valve out by using it properly and pulling a muscle in my arm! Because they were so tight they wouldn't compress properly, so I had to lever the handles in when it wasn't tight and slowely turn the adjustors. When it got tight enough they spring retainers popped away from the collets and they were easily compressable, but there was no way were giving up without a fight!

 

Got all the valves out and placed in order with the right tappets and springs, then took all the stem seals off, once I got the hang of it they cae off fairly easily!

 

So that's me for today - next job is to be taking the head to get skimmed which should be monday. Whilst it's away I'll change the waterpump and clean up the block mating face ready to put the new gasket on.

 

I'm learning so much doing this - I didn't have a clue what I was doing when I started (story of the whole 205!!) but as long as you use the right tools and read up about things without jumping in straight away I'm finding it to be very enjoyable! Not just because I'm saving about £200 every month in fuel!!

[Atari Boy 11]

Good work Ross, I wish I had the balls to do something like this. Nice write up too.

[M@tt 77]

Nice work

 

i also found that spring compressor a real pain to use as the handles are way too short for any decent leverage required. What i found really useful was to get a length of tube and slide it over one of the arms, this then gives you a nice longer lever to use to compress/uncompress the valve springs in a controlled manner. Made the job 100% quicker and easier.

 

Edited July 7, 2011 by M@tt

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Go round and give each top cap a whack with a suitable hollow drift and hammer, then when you use your valve spring compressor you'll find it much easier

[Obey_R 23]

I've got them all sorted now, but they were fairly stuck in!

[Luca20516VT 0]

Awsome write up.. This is exactly the sort of inspiration i need!!! Keep up the good work, i will be learning from every word on this thread!

[Obey_R 23]

Gave it a thorough clean around the valve seats and there looks to be a small crack in cylinder no. 3 (1 being distributor side?) I'm not sure if it's bad enough to warrant another head or even if it's been repaired before. It doesn't look like it's very deep and it doesn't go any further past the shiny ring that the valve leaves?

 

Any ideas...

 

 

 

More photos here... http://s1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa397/RossObey01/

[Anthony 1,003]

If it's cracked, replace the head - standard 8v heads are so cheap that it's simply not worth repairing them IMO.