[flash]

welding works - yes, it is all about the artist doing the work

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[durtkillon]

Man, the head has been at the machine shop for nearly 5 weeks. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/mad.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> They don't even explain themselves except to say they are busy.

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[flash]

wow - looks like it may be optimistic to target t-day weekend for sc install

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[durtkillon]

I had no idea it would take this long, Flash. I'm still open that weekend, but I'm afraid to commit you to anything until I have the car tested out and I'm convinced it road worthy. Holiday weekends are precious, so I'd understand if you made other plans.



I still have not heard back from the machine shop and I'm losing my patients with them. To add insult to injury, I've rented what my son refers to as a TP Cruiser to get back and forth to work. That car is birth control on wheels. I regret not buying a rebuilt head from RS Barn. It would have saved a ton of grief.

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[flash]

i am still open too - we'll play it by ear for now, but i appreciate the consideration

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[durtkillon]

My car is back and alive! Here is the part list:



Gasket Kit for top head

Wide Fire head gasket

Water Pump

Cam pulley

Balance belt

Front engine seal kit

Oil pump drive

Seal trac balance shaft? Maybe a seal kit

Injector o-rings, clips

Vario Cam cover mounts

Timing belt

Idler bearing

Timing belt tensioner

Spark plugs

Rotor

Cap

Timing chain

Vario cam pads

Oil, coolant and clamps

Valve guides and machine work





No big surprises. The head gasket was shot. The cam pads had pitting and the tensioner was nearly ceased.



On my first drive, the biggest difference I noticed was my pressure gauge idles between 4 and 5 now. It used to idle between 2and 3, then go up to 4 or 5 under acceleration. When driving, the car now has a very linear acceleration from 2K up. Before, it used to wake up at 4200 rpm. The engine feels newer and meaner. I'll post pics of the cam pads and head gasket. There is not much else from my parts pile that is worth photographing. I'm also off to the dyno next week to compare before and after.

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[Cloud9...68]

Glad to hear the car is back up and running. You may have mentioned this along the way, but what prompted you to have this work done? Was the car exhibiting any symptoms, or were you just doing the head refresh as general maintenance? Or is it in preparation for a supercharger (which you're now of course a prime candidate for, whether this is what you were planning or not <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> ).

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[durtkillon]

I promised myself I would pull the head at 100K miles for a freshening as preventative maintenance. I'm glad I did because I think the pitting on the head would have only worsened and even though the timing belt was good, the tensioner may have ceased. They had to take off 10 thousands to get the pitting out. The head gasket was a time bomb. It only would have been more expensive later and now I get to enjoy a livelier car for another 100K.



As for the supercharger, I have a Tipronic transmission, so that presents some hurdles. The car is primed for it, though.



The supercharger takes about 6 hours to take off and another 6 (conservatively) to put it back on. If anybody is considering an SC kit, it's money well spent in my opinion to have the top end done first. Unless you can time the cams and balance belts yourself, you will be shelling out an additional 12 hours of labor to have a mechanic do the work.

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[durtkillon]

Well I had my car for 12 hours a it looks like I need to start a flex damper thread. It's making a clunk noise in 3rd and 4th rapid banging noise at idle. This certainly was not part of my plan. Back to the shop...

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[flash]

that pretty much sucks, but the silver lining is that the car will be quite solid when you are done, and as ready for the supercharger as could possibly be



look at it this way too, you won't be out slinging the supercharged car around in the winter, and stuff it into a snowbank because the torque spun you out - you'll have all year to get used to it first

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[flash]

one note on head gasket selection: be sure to get the right thickness - there are a lot of people selling gaskets, and some of them don't seem to know what too thick of a gasket on an unshaved head does to compression numbers, and they are telling people that a .065" thick gasket is stock - stock is .043 (1.1mm) and the 1.4mm gasket for a machined head is .055" - a .065" thick gasket will drop the compression ratio to about 10:1 - while this may be ok for a boosted engine, as it buys you some room to run more boost, it sure won't be fun on a stock engine

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[durtkillon]

I'm back on the road. After the head was done, I destroyed my flex dampner on the maiden voyage. Arrg! It's all for the better now. Now for some post mortem pics.

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[DaveN]

Eeeeek, that's all pretty ugly stuff, no wonder things went kaboom <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/ohmy.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> I only have 78K (miles) so I'm real curious as to my head gasket condition now. I know my variocam pads had the tinyest of grooves on one pad but everything else looks sweet. When I do a tear down in Jan we'll see.

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[Cloud9...68]

Yes, yours will be an interesting test case for whether age or mileage is the bigger factor in head gasket wear, since your mileage is relative low, but you car is 18 years old. Interesting how your chain pads don't show much wear - mine showed essentially ZERO when I replaced them as a precaution at 83K miles.

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[flash]

my mileage was just over 50k, and as long as i've had it was filled with phosphate free coolant and distilled water only, and it looked like the one above

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[banditsc]

Maybe I should start a new thread (Head Gaskets of Shame). The car is a 94 with around 97k miles. It never smoked, coolant never mixed with the oil, and the temps alsways hung out at the first white mark even in 100 degree days with the A/C on and sitting in traffic. I would have never guessed it would be this bad. Should be a whole lot more fun with a intact HG and freshened up head...



Moral of the story, don't trust your original head gasket...



   

   

   

   

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[flash]

lol - yeah - cracks me up that somebody could even begin to say "head gaskets aren't a problem - go ahead and supercharge it" - after seeing one after another like this, i'd definitely think twice about believing anybody saying stuff like that

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[Fox944]

when your looking to move units off your shelf....people tend to lie. Shame certain people are considered reputable. As mentioned earlier, i wasnt comfortable with an OEM headgasket having my head milled to 11.6:1 CR, ported/polished, 3 angle valve job, etc....let alone charging it.

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[flash]

yeah - it happens - i find it helpful to limit my product choices to people who actually use their own products



as for the OEM gasket, i find no reason that it won't hold up to the low boost of the kit, as long as the gasket is new - obviously a wide fire gasket is better though, and that's what i run, for the same reason you cited

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