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Another head gasket thread

Mine was really bad so I pulled the radiator and put simple green in it and ran a garden hose through it to flush it.if your isnt that bad I would think a simple bottle of radiator flush should take care of it.
 



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When I flushed a radiator with oily coolant I did similar (used a house hold degreaser) BUT I decided to kill 2 stones with 1 bird...

I hooked the garden hose up to the water heater and drained the water heater (multiple drain/fills). Then I let the heater recover and then flushed it again, through the radiator..

I figure the hot water would help get any oily stuff out.

I have a ball valve on the water heater so I can get quite a bit of volume out of it.. The factory valve may not give you that much volume so your mileage may vary on this...

~Mark
 






That's some funny **** right there. The hot water idea is exactly what the wife said!!! She gets the ninja point of the day. Cool. All I got left is the hoses (radiator), ex mans, upper intake and the heads are ready to come off. Got all the ex man bolts broke loose save for the upper rears on both. Got Lucy on the rest. They'll go just fine, I'm just gonna make it easier with some PB. Wife's getting that today. For what its worth, I'm documenting this step by step, plug by plug, so anyone can do this. I've done heads before....its the GETTING TO the heads on these x's that needs some write up. Right down to socket sizes and extensions. Should that be another thread?
 
























I did it top to bottom and then bottom to top... I don't think it really matters...

Since I had the radiator out I had the cap on and laid it down on the ground so I could swoosh around the water as it was running through it...

~Mark
 






Rocker assemblies off. 7 rockers look like the valve end have some pitting and I can feel a bit of a dip in the surface. Nothing looks wrong on the tips of the matching valves.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By6sMmGKMUzyRVRsMjBCRFNnbk0/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By6sMmGKMUzyX1hKRHo5TFI3WTA/edit?usp=sharing

6 of the push rods have what I'm calling a 'rainbow' wear pattern at the rocker end, but the other 6 are nice and concentric like I'd expect....the 'rainbow' almost looks like a lack of oil.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By6sMmGKMUzyU3F1eVdHdFhwSGc/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By6sMmGKMUzyZGNVQlpqS2Q5VXM/edit?usp=sharing

When it was running, there was NO valve train noise. Makes me think either there's very little oil pressure, or the rocker tubes are gummed up. I thought I remember there being a thread about servicing the rocker tubes... I've had bent pushrods, bent valves, collapsed lifters, etc. The only sound from the top of the engine was the injector tics. Whats the general opinion on these parts? Can I still use 'em? Iv'e got the '93 that we've decided is a parts rig so I do have access to spare parts, but then the wife is out wheels 'till I get the '92 back together. Do the oil pumps make any indication before they let go?

Also, the back passenger lifter (IN) is missing the cone thing. Problem?
 






Passenger head off. Gasket looked good, but the middle cylinder valves looked as though water was being burned......red flag #2 . Still working on driver's ex man bolts. Pulled lifters on pass side. All drenched in oil with almost no signs of wear.
 






Why has nobody said anything about the effing engine oil dipstick tube bolt?!?!?! I've broken a ratchet and two sockets and now resulting to cutting it off. And, it's a 1/2" to boot.
 






After a bunch of searching, I found this link in another thread (9th pic down):

http://www.explorer4x4.com/lifters/lifters.htm

I think I'll be ok with cleaning the assemblies and re-using them. jd, I did see a thread where you talked about the pedestals being out-of-round from being over tight.

Done for the day. Both heads off. Both rocker assemblies torn apart, cleaned, and re-assembled with Lucas. All that's left is to scrape the heads. I should be ordering parts next Friday.
 






Got the heads on Thursday. This weekend I'm stripping the old ones and lapping the valves in the new heads. The little instruction sheet says the water jacket needs to be flushed. Any tips for the freeze plugs?
 






Following this...

After staying up until 2AM to replace the blown water pump...an actual test drive today (and hard questions to my daughter about how the engine sounded once she took her headphones OUT and pulled over) is indicating I will be replacing a set of heads myself.
 






Ouch Dred....that sucks.

Update:
Heads assembled with lapped valves. Heads and LIM on. Had to punch a bit of a hole in the A/C box. My T55 socket was 3/8 drive and torque wrench is 1/2". With adapter, NO WAY it was gonna fit. Nothing huge. 1/2" drive T55 is on my need-to-buy list. Front and rear seal LIM to block is a joke. I'd love to have been there when they went with THAT idea....:banghead: Ex mans on. Rockers on. Found a few details that would help anyone that goes with those EQ heads. You need a 9/16" or 14mm Allen for the threaded water jacket plugs. I've added a few taps to my write up that would be awesome to have known ahead of time.

Don't know if I've already asked this, but does anyone know why ford made these ex man bolts from nonferrous material? I'd say stainless, but it don't look like any stainless I've seen before...just curious.

If things keep progressing as today, she'll be running tomorrow.

10 hours tonight, 3 last night.
 






I'm so pissed, I could throw stuff. Almost did.

Everything went back together perfectly. Other than my labels, you can't even tell I was in there. No spare parts.

Runs. BUT, it runs like it's on 3 cylinders. :splat:

I've been over the plug wires F.I.V.E. times (see post #9 ). I used the same plugs and wires that were in it before I tore it down. I've had the thing running with #5 and #6 wires off with no change. MAF disconnected makes no change.

The ONLY issue I had was with one of the push-rods. Back in post #28 , about a lifter missing the cone. No answer, so I proceeded. When I was putting the push-rods in, that particular one (rear passenger) seemed really low. Almost like the lifter was collapsed. When I put the rockers on it was obvious that push-rod wasn't right. I messed with it until it sat at the correct height and spun smoothly in my fingers (told me I was REALLY in the lifter). Everything looked and went fine after that.

No valve-train noises besides a very slight tick that wasn't there before, but nothing to make a guy worry.

It runs better if I pull the hose off the brake booster which tells me too much fuel. Fuel pressure regulator is hooked up. Checked for fuel pressure at schrader valve with a screwdriver. Seemed like there was plenty of pressure.

I grabbed my timing light (I have REAL issues with pulling wires by hand while its running) and first just did a quick check that all 6 were firing. They are. Upon closer inspection, it looks as though the driver's bank is firing at twice the speed of the passenger. At an idle, you can actually see the individual pulses on the passenger wires. Driver's side makes my timing gun look like a flashlight.

It's not popping through the intake or exhaust and no backfires. I can bring the RPM's up to about 2K then drop the throttle and she settles (still with the crappy idle). When I goose the throttle, she responds quite well, considering. Not the cough-spit-sputter-increase I'd expect with how she idles. You CAN feel the rough-running even at the higher RPM.

After only like 5 minutes, the heater hoses were hot and I had a blast furnace of heat from the defroster. With radiator cap off the coolant drops pretty good whenever I goose the throttle.

At first startup, while still cold, no smoke from exhaust. Once warmed up, some blue smoke. Doesn't get heavy regardless of RPM, and it's really faint, but it's there. Didn't notice that before the head job.

Sorry if this seems like rambling, I'm just trying to get down as many observations as possible. I've already searched the forums and only two have come up. Neither had a final outcome.

I have NOT pulled the MAF to clean it. Voltage out was .850 at 1K idle. Voltage in was at 14.5

I do have the '93 I can rob parts from if need be, I'm just looking for a starting point. My gut still tells me to check the plug wires.....again.

Started working on her at 8 this morning. Started her up at 12. Here I am at 4.
 






New plugs?? Last week I changed my valve seals and had brand new plugs in before the job, put them back in had a bad miss..I dont know what could have caused the plug to go bad but did..

I say check wires, vacuum leaks, everything plugged in then check plugs...even switch them side to side and see if it feels like it changes
 






What about the timing light flashlight? Thinking about it, if they were in fact firing faster, wouldn't it pop through intake and/or exhaust?
 






What about the timing light flashlight? Thinking about it, if they were in fact firing faster, wouldn't it pop through intake and/or exhaust?

They cant be firing faster..both sides share a coil..there is three coils..not 6
 






New plugs?? Last week I changed my valve seals and had brand new plugs in before the job, put them back in had a bad miss..I dont know what could have caused the plug to go bad but did..

If I had a bad plug, the timing light "shouldn't" blink, or am I mistaken? Add to that the fact that it doesn't run differently even with two wires off...
 



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If I had a bad plug, the timing light "shouldn't" blink, or am I mistaken?

Mistaken. .that checks your wire..the plug can still be a good ground source which lets the light blink, but plug is not physically firing or firing very week..I would bet on plug or vacuum leak..
 






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