Got the head off - Your thoughts please

[jimbo]

Hi folks,

 

I have taken the head off, and am hopefully a little closer to a fix, but I wanted your thoughts first.

 

Front Cylinders

 

 

Back Cylinders

 

 

Oily Cylinder.

 

 

Things to bear in mind:

 

- The car has been running rich

- The radiator had a leak and had dried right out, causing the temp to redline. Now my wife knows to look at the temp gauge frequently, as well the speedo and I know not to put off fixing the cooling system ever again

 

The rad is being recored tomorrow. I'm hoping that I'll get away with just cleaning up the block and head and putting it back together with new gaskets. but am worried about the state of the bores. In the front cylinder there is a streak of oil that forms, as the piston moves, about 3mm wide. What I'm wondering is; Is this just the gap between the end of the rings, or have I got a major resto ahead of me?

 

Can I have your thoughts please?

 

Jim

[Deano1351]

Hello Jimbo, was the car smokey from the exhaust before?? and did you do a compression test before taking the head off?? Oil on the piston could be down to valve stem seals leaking but if compression was down then you might be looking at a new set of piston rings

[escamino]

Oil on the piston could be down to valve stem seals leaking

 

That was my first thought. Still looks better than mine.

[negri]

did you get a kit with the head gasket ? new valve oil seals ect ?

 

since the head is off i would go the whole hog and use the bits in the kit ,

 

get the valves out and clean them up and regrind them if needed . you have went this far ,

[jimbo]

OK. It's admission time. And an embarassing one at that.

 

About 3,000 miles ago, I had the head off, because it was a bit smokey. At the time, I duly replaced the stem seals, reground the valves and replaced the head. Job done, I thought.

 

However, looking at one of my photos, I think that the gasket might have been put on the wrong way up!

 

Take a look......

 

 

At least I'm pretty sure it's the wrong way up, when comparing to the Haynes manual diagram. Muppet!!!

 

I think that this, compounded by leaking rad, has been the cause of the probs. The bores and pistons, on inspection, look okay and so I am hoping that these will hold for a while.

 

Have any of you peeps ever noticed what sort of gap there is between the ends of the rings on standard 1600 x-flow pistons, because the only worry I have now is that, as Deano hints, they might be in need of replacement.

 

I really do appreciate your feedback, and will put any advice to good use with a much better quality of workmanship as I piece the engine back together.

 

Cheers,

Jim

[TwoLitrePinto]

well judging by the two dents in the gasket on that last photo where the water is meant to pass through i would say that the gaskey was upside down and i would say that was the cause of all your overheating problems

 

easy mistake to make ive done it before

[Fiesta Steve]

Those indents in the gasket are supposed to be there and should block those holes up. You had the gasket the right way up

[jimbo]

Yep. The indents are meant to be there......All three gaskets currently in my possesion have exactly the same cut, as did the old one, which according to the FSH is the original one (not that that's neccesarily 100% right, I know)

 

However, the "foldback" around the cutouts for the cylinders was the wrong way around according to the Haynes manual, hence why I think I might have got it wrong (not that that's neccesarily 100% right, I know)

[jimbo]

However, the "foldback" around the cutouts for the cylinders was the wrong way around

 

Just noticed that one of the replacement gaskets is folded back on both sides! Now, I'm totally confused. Any more suggestions?

[negri]

get some photos up of the whole gasket and the new one

[jimbo]

Right here are pics of the new gaskets

 

This is the one with different sides:

 

 

 

This is the one that confused me, cos it has the same copper foldback on both sides.

 

 

and here is a pic of the old gasket

 

 

You can see the pitting where is has crumbled away.

[toad650]

Surly by the looks of them it can only go one way up as the holes won't line up at either end if it was the wrong way round left to right and its completly different front to back, or do i just have bad spacial awarness?? Which would explain the dents in my van

 

Haynes manual should tell you the ring gaps.

[jimbo]

Surly by the looks of them it can only go one way up as the holes won't line up at either end if it was the wrong way round left to right and its completly different front to back, or do i just have bad spacial awarness?? Which would explain the dents in my van

 

HeHe. Your half way there Toad. Yeh it can only go one way left to right, but lines up either way front to back. The question is which side should face the block. My money is on the second picture.....

 

The dents in your van are probabky due the the council putting bollards in stupid places

[toad650]

i'd agree in both cases wiggly bits line up and the triangle bits line up, dents in van well blame them on bollards!!

[over_head_cam]

The gasket can only go one way. The triangle holes at the front? Like the block

[mk2harrier]

the gasket should have OBEN or TOP written on it. i think oben is german for top??? also if your temp went into the red it might be an idea to have your cyl head tested for cracks. but it depends on how long it was run for.