****ing Head Gasket?

[kingchicken318]

My truck started pissin out oil a about 3 days ago. Just a little tiny puddle that got bigger and worse when I shut the motor off. It started getting worse every day thereafter. Finally yesterday I came home from work, felt running fine, and I shut it off and look underneeth to see how I was doin and the thing is just pissing oil everywhere. I put a clear pan under it. Looks like coolant on top of oil, and lots of it. I noticed when I was driving my temp guage, which never goes to the middle of the guage, was all the way up at hot. I turned the heat on and it went down, then rose up again and stayed up as I drove it to my shop. Oil pressure was fine. When I shut it off, there was lots of coolant in my oil. So I'm assuming this is a head gasket gone on me? How much of a ***** is it to do in one of these things? Does the motor have to come out or can it be done left in?

I was thinking 302 swap but I dont have the money or the time to do it.

 

[rickcdewitt]

think cracked head or lower intake gasket,its rarely just the head gasket

 

[kingchicken318]

What are the signs of a cracked head? If they are cracked can they be machined or just get new ones?

 

[kingchicken318]

Sigh, I'm screwed. I dont have enough money to do the head gasket and get new heads if theyre cracked. Warped I can afford.

 

[pankodog]

Sorry to hear it chicken king. I've been there and done that. Just figuer on replacing the head (heads). If you don't have the heads magnafluxed and confirmed well you'll be doing all over again. Got mine at Ideal Heads for $217 ea. These are new with no core charge. So far so good. Good luck

 

[JTX]

If you are interested in some used heads let me know and i can pull some at the local you pull to help you out.

 

[kingchicken318]

Thanks guys, But I'm just gunna pick up a wreckers motor. The heads around here are gunna be 375. I might as well just get a motor with half the milage for 400 and swap them. Then I'll rebuild the other one and sell it when I have the money.

 

[YourNameHere]

I'm just gunna pick up a wreckers motor. The heads around here are gunna be 375. I might as well just get a motor with half the milage for 400 and swap them. Then I'll rebuild the other one and sell it when I have the money.

If you're paying a shop to do the work, they're going to charge you a hell of a lot more to swap the entire motor, rather than just a bad head(s).
It sounded like you were tight on cash in your earlier posts.

 

[yellowcat]

jtx- where is a good pick and pull in New Mexico?

 

[kingchicken318]

If you're paying a shop to do the work, they're going to charge you a hell of a lot more to swap the entire motor, rather than just a bad head(s).
It sounded like you were tight on cash in your earlier posts.

Naw I'm doin it with my friend who is a mechanic. He's got a whole shop to himself so its basically just parts are my main cost. I got about 500 to work with right now. A motor is lookin to be about $350 or 400.

 

[XLT_91]

It's not too hard to tear down the X to the block. Going to be installing new heads into my X very soon.

 

[kingchicken318]

No it isn't hard. But from the sounds of it, the heads warp or crack a lot more often than not when the head gasket goes. the price of checking if the heads are bad, plus the cost of new ones is more than a new motor.. it has 200k miles on it, so its probably pretty worn, especially since the people I bought it from didn't take care of it. For cheaper and a bit more work, I'd rather get a newer, more reliable engine. It makes more sense.. plus I can part out the old one and try to break even or even rebuild it.

Does anyone know how much you can safely bore the cylinders and the max size for oversized pistons? Probably not much.. it looks like a small v6 physically.

 

[XLT_91]

No it isn't hard. But from the sounds of it, the heads warp or crack a lot more often than not when the head gasket goes. the price of checking if the heads are bad, plus the cost of new ones is more than a new motor.. it has 200k miles on it, so its probably pretty worn, especially since the people I bought it from didn't take care of it. For cheaper and a bit more work, I'd rather get a newer, more reliable engine. It makes more sense.. plus I can part out the old one and try to break even or even rebuild it.

Does anyone know how much you can safely bore the cylinders and the max size for oversized pistons? Probably not much.. it looks like a small v6 physically.

Did you try http://www.supersixmotorsports.com they have a stage 2/3 options. They can increase the 4.0 to 4.2. Kinda curious what the performance would be at 4.2?

 

[kingchicken318]

I'm not quite sure how much extra power you'd get. Those heads are pretty expensive on there.. I'm doin this as a low budget project. I'm just a broke teenager haha.

 

[kingchicken318]

The motor is in and running. I hope I never ever have to do that again. Just gotta replace belt tensioner and a new maf sensor.

 

[pankodog]

Congrats on your work, I hope it runs well for you.I like wrenching I just don't like to have to wrench.

 

[kingchicken318]

Thanks man. It was certainly a learning experience. A painful one at that. I think the worst day was unplugging the oxy sensors above the bellhousing behind the block. That was a tricky one. I just have to flush the cooling system, get a new belt tensioner and change over my good spark plugs. Theres a little hole in the exhaust header because we had to blow a bolt off with the blue wrench.. a little muffler cement should do the trick.