You had an interior coolant leak.

If the stem seals feel stiff, I would replace them now.

(Yes I am still working on the rocker thing, i'm finding a shop to do the work since I lack time)

Interior coolant leak? That scares me . Is that safe? What is it exactly?


-justin

Since you were leaking oil out I bet you were leaking coolant in. Lemme guess, Cyl'* 1, 2, 5 and 6 had heavier deposits.. Replace the gaskets you already have off, clean everything, You're good.

I haven't gotten to the front head, but when I do, I will look for that. So far though, you are correct .


-justin

I just started porting the heads. Just kinda scratching the surface. Well, I am having trouble with the carbon build-up getting on the grinding stone.. it seems to not work quite as well when that happens. I tried taking some 50/50 Simple Green, and a Steel Wool pad, but that didn't do a damn thing except waste my time. Do I just have to live with it, or is there some other trick I can try?


-justin

most people would just hot dip. Try a gasket scraper, it should come off in chunks if you're lucky.

I'm tellin ya, that stuff is hard to get off. Using concentrated degreaser, a bucket, a week of soaking, and a metal brush I did little to nothing of getting it off the valves. Take like $20-30 down to the local machine shop and have them hot tank the suckers, it'll be worth your time in the end.

Bah.. that sucks. I think i'll do the hot tanking once I finish the porting. If I bring them a completely assembled head, would that affect any of the cleaning of the valves and stuff? I really need to get the porting done and the heads back together, because my basement needs to get cleaned up, and I am not going to risk losing parts in that process. And, can they hot tank anything? Like, heads, intake, headers, etc..?


-justin

Holy crap guys.. I am so excited right now!!! I finally have all the data I needed to calculate how much material I would need to remove off the heads. Well, .031" to be exact. To achieve a 9:1 Compression Ratio. I am going to go out tomorrow and confirm all my measurements, but I feel pretty confident at this point. I am going to also measure how much valve clearance I have, just to make sure that I can actually do this, and not bitch smack my piston when I fire her up. If all that checks out, I am going to give the local machine shop a call Monday. I may not be able to afford the gaskets to put this engine back together, but I am going to have some decked heads .

Now, here is the true question of the evening. Let'* say I have .1" valve clearance, should I play it safe and just stay at 9:1? Or should I push it to 9.5:1? Or maybe even 10:1 . What would be the maximum compression ratio I could have before I would start needing more than 87 octane? Honestly, I don't want to use more than 87 octane, since I know I am going to put a lot of miles on her, I don't really want to push the compression that high, and risk some damage, and a lighter wallet.


-justin

For funsies, I'll just throw in the fact that a 10.5:1 current-model Toyota Camry V6 only "recommends" premium. Don't know if this 10.5:1 and premium deal will carry over for us, but it'* worth mentioning.