jammor
Member
- Joined
- March 20, 2015
- Messages
- 32
- Reaction score
- 15
- Location
- Atanta GA (Conyers)
- City, State
- Conyers ga
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1996 explorer XLT
96 XLT OHV V6 4.0L 250K on original motor
Problem: Blown head gasket (and/or cracked head)
Question: Should I include a valve job when having the heads replaced or will having a super tight top end overly stress my lower end and cause it to fail, or fail quicker?
Condition of rings: Good compression on all cylinders. Professional mechanic did this and a leak down and said there is no more than 7% variance among cylinders. No coolant apparent in the oil, or coolant for that matter and lots of white sweet-smelling smoke from tailpipe. I've recently done radiator, H2o pump, therm, alternator, rear main oil seal, oil pan gasket- lots of sweat equity on my part and add new tires I also have a bit of financial investment here.
Mechanic recommended just doing the heads and gaskets, inspect tappets, push rods, etc. And mechanic recommends just having the machine shop pressure test heads for cracks, clean and plane them (shop cost $80 per head)- no valve job. I can get all that done for $1,050, includes all parts, plugs, coolant, oil, machine shop etc.
Or I can buy new cylinder heads (Kingscylinderheads.com , $294 each) which come assembled with new valves.
Finally, if one head is cracked and needs to be replaced, wouldn't I be buying a new head anyway- thus one side is gonna have a nice valve job and one wouldn't.
Total cost goes from $1,050 to $1500.
And yes, I do love the truck or I would be looking for a cliff to roll it off of. I plan to keep driving it, even if it becomes a secondary driver.
Finally- there's the newly rebuilt engine from Advance- and I could put that in myself- though I'm about tired of DIY on this car- and I'd have to get a quote.
Thanks in advance for anyone's insight, comments, leers, jeers- I can take it- seriously if you think I'm throwing good money after bad please advise- I won't take it personally. Glad to have the forum
Problem: Blown head gasket (and/or cracked head)
Question: Should I include a valve job when having the heads replaced or will having a super tight top end overly stress my lower end and cause it to fail, or fail quicker?
Condition of rings: Good compression on all cylinders. Professional mechanic did this and a leak down and said there is no more than 7% variance among cylinders. No coolant apparent in the oil, or coolant for that matter and lots of white sweet-smelling smoke from tailpipe. I've recently done radiator, H2o pump, therm, alternator, rear main oil seal, oil pan gasket- lots of sweat equity on my part and add new tires I also have a bit of financial investment here.
Mechanic recommended just doing the heads and gaskets, inspect tappets, push rods, etc. And mechanic recommends just having the machine shop pressure test heads for cracks, clean and plane them (shop cost $80 per head)- no valve job. I can get all that done for $1,050, includes all parts, plugs, coolant, oil, machine shop etc.
Or I can buy new cylinder heads (Kingscylinderheads.com , $294 each) which come assembled with new valves.
Finally, if one head is cracked and needs to be replaced, wouldn't I be buying a new head anyway- thus one side is gonna have a nice valve job and one wouldn't.
Total cost goes from $1,050 to $1500.
And yes, I do love the truck or I would be looking for a cliff to roll it off of. I plan to keep driving it, even if it becomes a secondary driver.
Finally- there's the newly rebuilt engine from Advance- and I could put that in myself- though I'm about tired of DIY on this car- and I'd have to get a quote.
Thanks in advance for anyone's insight, comments, leers, jeers- I can take it- seriously if you think I'm throwing good money after bad please advise- I won't take it personally. Glad to have the forum