I can't tell what that **** is in the header, but for all we know it could be something that burned off from the assembly process eariler. As for the gaskets, they coulda ripped like that just from you removing the heads again. And now that I think of it, I wonder if that **** in the header pipe isn't RTV from the intake gasket adventure?

No clue.. either way something was burning in the combustion chamber that shouldn't have been.

Here a few pics.. my camera couldn't get a good shot of the broken thread on the bolt, but i can still kinda see it.

My wonderfully crooked car, sitting on shelves .


Pic #1 of my well organized garage. The lawn mower caused the oil spills. At least it'* organized better than it was the last time. Kinda sad, I know.


Pic #2.. this side is a little better. Good thing my mom doesn't need to use the garage.. i can keep it is as messy or as organized as I want .


Pics of the broken bolt. I know the they suck.




The pic of the new head gaskets. I'll take a comparing pic of them all today sometime. As you can see, they look tons different, and by different I mean better, much better.

Picked up the rest of the parts tonight.. got the intake gasket set, head bolts, and the brush thing. It looks like it would scratch the head up more than clean it though? I know it sounds bad, but the kid at autozone [who usually happens to be right, whenever I ask for a second opinion] recommended this brush, versus the one like in the pic. The bristle things are not attached, they are all loose and individual. Not sure if that'* good or not.. but the other one was also twice the price.

The heads were also dropped off at the machine shop this morning. The guy I talked to on the phone was not there at the time, but the guy I dealt with said 48 hours max. I'm not doing any machine work, unless it'* necessary.. which I believe I would have gotten a call by now if it were. They are just checking for cracking and warping. I just used a scraper to remove the excess gasket material, because I couldn't get the brush before this evening. I got Tara very intrigued in this whole process, and she'* now calling me every night asking how the car is doing. God damn I love car chicks .

Once the heads are done, i'll be picking them up and starting the reassembly.

I need to know what to put on the head bolts though, and the rocker bolts. Teflon tape, loctite [remember, the head bolts already have dried up loctite on them], or whatever. Rockers, I just want to torque down, and be done with. I had some real trouble with them initially, I don't want to have anymore.


-justin

I have the 2.97 and it died at around 125,000-130,000 back when my grandpa owned it. The tranny took a dump as a thief was stealing the car as well. Insurance paid for a new/rebuilt one.

Yep yep.

Captain: That'* hilarious!

Oh well, the transmission has yet to die, and has never worked better. Maybe it will last another 50k.. or maybe another .5k. Who knows.


-justin

Little update for everyone. Since I really don't have much anything other to do, than clean.. i'm cleaning. Broke out the new brush, and tested it out on the area where the intake seal goes. Worked excellent and didn't scratch it up [when using tb cleaner]. Went onto the main cylinder mating surfaces and such, blocked off all the holes [which, btw there SHOULD be coolant that coems out the head bolts, just so everone knows that.. all bolts will probably have some coolant come out, especially the lower four]. I had previously scraped off the gasket material with a scraper.. so it was already pretty smooth [this is all I did last time, along with a good clean down with some 50/50 simple green, afterwards]. Broke out the drill [clutch off, no gear reduction] and went at it. Cleaned it up beyond comparison. Never seen it all look better. It scratched up a little around the coolant ports, but other than that it really didn't do anything bad. I decided to go after doing this on the pistons. Brought them up to TDC, and went at it. These are the CLEANEST 150k pistons out there. They shine like no tomorrow, and it is absolutely beautiful. The small surface scratches [you can't even feel them running your finger through them] sure as hell beat the carbon build up, that i'm sure made a few hot spots [boooooo!!].

I'll post pics when i'm done.. i'm just waiting for the drill'* batteries to charge up.


-justin

Justin.... make sure you clean those mating surfaces well. I'm concerned about the simple green you were using maybe having some residue. (A mechanics secret is to clean those surfaces by wipiing them with a cloth sprayed with brake clean)