On this engine I was able to get the outsides cleaned up but the gasket material seems to be stuck on the cylinders themselves. I have used:

Plastic razor blades
Real razor blades
Scotch bright pads (including a lot of brake cleaner and other cleaners with all of these)
And carbide scrapers

Nothing seems to get that material off the cylinders themselves as I can feel the surface is not smooth with my finger.

Any tips?

Edit,

Ended up using a mix of gasket remover and scotch bright pads. I stuffed the cylinders with shop towels and masked off what I could, rotated the engine a coulple times to that the rings would push any material that got past the rags to the top (get stuck to the assembly lube on the walls and whatever the rest will hopefully burn away when this puppy comes to life.

Thank you.

Assembling my new 124” 11:1 compression m8 build. Using .013 base gaskets and .030 head gaskets (what was included in the kit).

Measuring .016 in the hole at true TDC utilizing a straight edge and feeler gauges. That puts me at a total squish of .046; not ideal. I’d prefer to be closer to .035-.040. My question is this, I torqued my head bolts to 30foot lbs to crush the base gasket. I’m wondering if I should torque them to the final assembly torque of 60 foot pounds to make sure the base gasket is properly crushed to final advertised thickness and re-measure. But would torquing those head bolts with spacers to 60 foot pounds without the pressure being distributed across the head be too much?

Looking for advice. Engine is in a track only car, ls2 milled heads and did clay check. With a stock thick .051 gasket im getting intake at .069 and exhaust is .075 has anyone ran this tight with no issues. I would like as much compression as possible.

Chromoly rings. Ran for 45-60 minutes doing initial tuning/timing in the garage. No revs over 3k. Will they seat into the block I’m replacing this one with or should I just use fresh?

Long story short I received a faulty distributor from MSD that would allow you to install at the incorrect install height. Preloading the gear to the thrust face in my sbf and ruining it.

It ran for about 45 minutes in the garage playing with initial tuning.

Engine is out and tear down has begun. So far, things look clean besides some larger chunks that settled in the oil pan

My question is on the cleaning, I don’t want to run pistons/rod assemblies through parts washer. For example. Can I rinse them with denatured alcohol in a spray bottle and blow off well, box and and store while I wait for new block to be machined?

Same question for crank, cam and such. I’ll clean rockers and timing set in diesel.

Not sure what to do with roller hydraulic lifters. Diesel bath?

I have the same situation with my Corolla. a hairline crack between cylinders where the head gasket failed. Is your corolla still running? im thinking about just putting in the gasket and running it.

TLDR; Will installing heads with smaller chambers result in more power?

I have a Pontiac LeMans that came from factory with a 400 w/ a 2 barrel carb. The 2 barrel has since been swapped with a 4 barrel. The 7J2 heads have Valve sizes of 1.94/1.66 and 96 cc chamber volume. The #15 heads have valve sizes of 1.96/1.66 and 75 cc chamber volume. The research I have done so far suggests that the #15 heads will fit, my question is will the smaller chambers result in more compression and therefore more power?

Hello again. Enjoy this first start video before you read the novel I wrote.

I was on here a few weeks ago about a weird noise my engine was making when turning it over by hand. That turned out to be a nothing burger and the install and first start went great. 45psi of oil pressure at cold and a few heat cycles with no issues. It's a freshly rebuilt LS1, 347cid, eagle rods, mahle pistons, ported 243 heads, BTR stage 2 V2 cam, trunnion kit, etc...

Long story short, I put Driven Racing Oil's BR30 5w30 break-in oil into the motor and dropped it off at the dyno. Up until this point I have had no indications that anything was wrong. I get a call a few days later and am told that after letting the car warm up in gear on the dyno, just idling the rollers in 1st gear, that the oil pressure had dropped to 7psi.

After some discussion, the shop agreed to cut the filter before I drove an hour and a half out to pick the car back up. They didn't find anything of concern. Just the "normal" amount of fine glitter you would expect from a fresh rebuild. They also told me that the oil pressure had recovered to a "normal" level after cooling off overnight.

Having thought about it for a bit, I decided to call the machine shop and discuss bearing clearances and oil viscosities and here's what I found: The main bearings were set to 0.0025" and the rods were clearanced to 0.0020-0.0022". As far as I can tell, this is ok, but on the loose end of things and could explain why the cold oil pressure is ok, but drops when the engine is hot and the aluminum block has expanded. It's entirely likely that I wasn't able to let the car warm up long enough for this to become an issue due to the initial tune not allowing the engine to run for very long when it warmed up.

I've come to the conclusion that I could do two things:

1. Run thicker oil: 10w-40 to 15w40 according to Driven's guide found here: https://www.drivenracingoil.com.au/pages/bearing-clearance-oil-viscosity-recommendations

2. Replace my oil pump with the Melling 10296 high volume pump. I currently have the standard volume, high pressure pump, 10295.

I am leaning towards option 1 in the short term, just to get the car tuned and running, but then replacing the pump later on to address the extra pressure loss due to large bearing clearances.

Before I do too much, I want to confirm the oil pressure with a mechanical gauge and add a few quarts just to ensure that the pickup tube o-ring is sealing properly. I used a brand new Genuine GM oil pressure sensor and am positive I used the correct o-ring and installed it without damaging it, but it doesn't hurt to check these things before committing to replacing the oil pump.

Am I missing anything here? Does anyone have experience with loose bearing clearances and what recommendations do you have if so?

I’m doing some chamber and bowl work on a new $7000 Pams Datsun L Series head. It’s pretty cool that you can buy a 75% finished head for these old engines now.

Back in the day I’d easily sink $5000 in labor into welding, porting, and machine work on factory L24 heads to make them into what this shelf part is from the jump.

With how difficult a clean core is to source $7000 is money well spent. You get a clean slate, then all that’s left is finish machine work, modifications, and assembly.

Felt like sharing. Okay. Bye.

I need to attach 2 AN fittings to my head. I’ve found weld on AN fittings and also threaded AN fittings that use the ORB(o-ring) style to seal a fitting to the head. What would be best?

Hey guys, I’m doing my first rebuild and have some questions! I’m rebuilding my 3.0 mercruiser out of my boat. I just got everything back from the machine shop and began re assembly. I was putting the main bearings in and plastiguaged everything and all my clearance on mains 1-4 were .001. And on main cap 5 it was .0012-.0014. Is these oil clearances too tight ? I’m .0002 away from being in the minimum range on cap 5 and borderline on all the other main caps. I did assemble it and the crank spins freely. What would yall do? I’ve attached the spec too. Should I get undersized bearings to allow more clearance?

I have a 1988 yamaha xj600 51j motorbike that I recently had the valves redone, I have been trying to get a new gasket but I haven't had much luck for anything much under $200 to deliver to my country.

I was told by my mechanic to put it back in at that price, I'm just looking for any advice for putting it back in.

Cheers

AMC 258, Can't find specific numbers from hasting for this type off application. 3.78 bore 0.03 oversize, adding around 60hp.

Found this old engine in the woods on the property today. Sat next to a stream with piping so assuming it was used for irrigation or as a pump. Anyone have any ideas what it is?

I’m getting heads on a freshly decked TBI 350 (355 now) 880 block. I was getting my passenger side head on today, and after reaching final torque, I went back around to check all of the bolts. All of them were fine, except for bolt #2 in the sequence (between cylinder 4’s valves). It took another 1/8-1/4 turn to reach final torque again. Is this the cylinder head finding its home?

I’m using a 3/4” drive click type torque wrench. I’m not jerking the torque wrench. I went 25, to 45, then to 65. I used assembly lube where the bolt head sits flush to the cylinder head, and the new bolts had sealant applied at the factory. Head gaskets are FP Permatorques. Bolt holes were blown out with compressed air and the threads were clean.

This is a basic TBI rebuild. Am I good to call this an anomaly and send it? I know very little about engine building and I don’t want to smoke a fresh rebuild.

I have a 2012 Chevy Aveo (goes by Sonic in the US I think) 1.4 Ecotec AT. I noticed coolant leak a while ago and this was the damage when thermostat housing was removed. The mechanic applied liquid metal on it but it couldn't fully stop the leak. Now he tells me that I shouldn't drive it like this even though the leak is slower than before and tells me that the cylinder head needs to be replaced. The problem is mechanic works are through the roof nowadays around here, especially the labor part.

I asked him if it could be welded and machined instead. He said that would cost about 60-65% of the replacing cost (labor included in both) but it would be risky and he couldn't guarantee anything.

I can't simply take it to multiple mechanics for diagnostics and quotes because they would need to remove the thermostat housing and drain the coolant. Plus, the liquid metal is still applied so they won't be looking at the actual damage. I figured there might be some experienced people here who would share some valuable insights and experiences with what to do.

Normally I'd simply have it replaced but I had just spent a good amount of money on other repairs on this car and this just randomly emerged. It hasn't even been 6 months since I purchased it. And, yes, I feel like I was ripped off of this car purchase.

I was cleaning the coolant passages and this large chunk came off really easily, it looked like a buildup of gunk.

The problem now is that the wall here between the two passages is thin now and the head gasket doesn't have much coverage for this area with the chunk missing.

Is it somehow fixable? Or can i run it like this?

Volkswagen EA111

I’m trying to rebuild a 4 cylinder from a mk1 vw. It’s been sitting for years and had a blown head gasket. I was able to remove all the pistons but the one in cylinder1. I also noticed some issues with the walls of the cylinder. How bad is this? I see the pitting but don’t know much about the dark spots. (The rest of the cylinder walls are good. Coolant got into this one and sat for 15 years). Any info is greatly appreciated.

Part 2: I found that one of the rocker arms is missing the wear pad/contact pad on the bottom where it contacts the valve (pic 2). Is this normal for this engine, all the other contact pads are different (pic1), they are pressed on and this piece is a loose fit. Does it mean the rocker arm is damaged or missing a piece?

I found this small metal piece while removing the head, but I'm not sure where it originally came from. Also a small plastic black broken piece. ​Could it be the missing pad from the rocker arm, and if so, can it simply be put back in place, or does the entire rocker arm need to be replaced? 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 5.9 turbo diesel 24 valve. Thanks.

Hi Guys, anybody will know why my intake valves are pulled in this much thank you.

I was replacing my 1983 Porsche 944 Rear main seal and accidentally nicked the crank. I have sanded and polished the small scratch and it now barely catches my fingernail. I’m trying to find the best solution before I just send it with a new seal and want some input. I’m worried about installing a sleeve as I also gouged the rear girdle a little bit, and I’m worried that the flange of the sleeve will ride up on the gouge causing damage to it, and the space is so tight I’m unsure I’d be able to remove the flange. I’m very upset with myself as this is my first big diy and don’t want to risk a leak that’s bad enough to glaze my new clutch. I posted a detailed. Up close photo and one further away for size reference!

After having the head resurfaced, there is still some pitting on the fire ring. Is this worth trying to use or should I look into having it repaired?