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I gritted my teeth and removed the drivers side head. My plan was to drain only that side of the block but my drain plug is something stupid. I couldn't get a bit fully into the plug because of the angle, the bit was just stripping the plug. Ended up removing the front lower head bolt to drain the coolant. No obvious damage or oil anywhere on the head, gasket, or block, so I don't know where the seepage was coming from. My head bolts were pretty gooped up with sealant and grease, is there such a thing as too much? Could that have been seeping through? Also I noticed cylinder #3 exhaust and #5 intake pushrods were getting chewed up too. I can pretty much guarantee it's happening on the passenger side too.
You need chromoly PR’s and isky ajustable guide plates. Unless you’ve wiped the block deck, you should be able to see traces of on the edge where it was leaking down. This time when you do your head bolts, clean them off thoroughly. Only use sealant on the bolts which tap into water jackets. Coat the threads of those bolts which do not go through with oil VERY lightly. You do not want them to hydrolock.
You need chromoly PR’s and isky ajustable guide plates. .
^^^^^this
Adosyo...IDK if the TF heads are like the GM AL ones in terms of how RR line up on valve stem tip using "one piece" guide plates but I and many others find the ISKY 2 piece (adjustable) allows individual alignment of each RR/valve tip vs 2 (int/exh) to get the RR tip to be dead nuts centered on the valve tip
IDK why your PR are wearing whatever outer coating they have on them...but not normal. The nicks in the PR though are more concerning. You should buy new Chromalloy ones
I will assume you are using NSA RR with guide plates..?
Your head gasket pic...can't really see in detail if there were any small signs of where it may have leaked...assuming leak source is between block & head...
Lay a good flat edge across the head and block and hold it solid while you run a small flashlight on the backside of it & head where they meat and look for ANY variation of lighting coming through that. ....gonna have a hard time getting any head gasket to seal if the head or block is not 100% flat..This is not machine shop caliber measuring but should reveal something
You need chromoly PR’s and isky ajustable guide plates. Unless you’ve wiped the block deck, you should be able to see traces of on the edge where it was leaking down. This time when you do your head bolts, clean them off thoroughly. Only use sealant on the bolts which tap into water jackets. Coat the threads of those bolts which do not go through with oil VERY lightly. You do not want them to hydrolock.
Originally Posted by ******
^^^^^this
Adosyo...IDK if the TF heads are like the GM AL ones in terms of how RR line up on valve stem tip using "one piece" guide plates but I and many others find the ISKY 2 piece (adjustable) allows individual alignment of each RR/valve tip vs 2 (int/exh) to get the RR tip to be dead nuts centered on the valve tip
IDK why your PR are wearing whatever outer coating they have on them...but not normal. The nicks in the PR though are more concerning. You should buy new Chromalloy ones
I will assume you are using NSA RR with guide plates..?
Your head gasket pic...can't really see in detail if there were any small signs of where it may have leaked...assuming leak source is between block & head...
Lay a good flat edge across the head and block and hold it solid while you run a small flashlight on the backside of it & head where they meat and look for ANY variation of lighting coming through that. ....gonna have a hard time getting any head gasket to seal if the head or block is not 100% flat..This is not machine shop caliber measuring but should reveal something
Just got the head back on, went a little smoother this time. Took me a while to figure out what can clean old lube off the bolts. Finally tried good ol' WD40 and it ran the lube right off. So after WD40 and a metal brush, the bolts and washers look like new.
I'll look into the ISKY guide plates. I'm currently using Trick Flow guide plates and non SA rockers. I found out the company that makes my pushrods (Smith Brothers) is located 20 minutes away from me here in Oregon so I've already contacted them and will get an appropriate new set. This whole pushrod situation has me a little frustrated. I sent my pics to Golen, Lloyd, and Smith Brothers and they all say they aren't meant for use with guide plates. However these are the original pushrods that Golen installed in my long block with guide plates! I don't get why they were used in the first place. To his credit, they lasted for 50K miles with the original heads and while there was obvious wear marks on the areas that moved through the guide plates, they weren't damaged like they are now with these new heads.
As far as coating the bolts with sealant, I coated all of them. Glad I did too, in my last thread I mentioned how the top 4 bolt holes don't bore through into coolant. Well, I took a closer look and found that one of them did have a pinhole opening. So thanks to those who convinced me to seal all bolts in the last thread! First pic shows a sealed bolt hole, second shows the bolt hole with a small opening.
Weird Golen installed non Chromalloy PR on NSA with guide plates...They say "why"?
It likely no problem given the minimal scuffing on the PR. The TF guide plates otherwise would be fine if they have been on for 50k mi
They didn't volunteer that info and I didn't ask.
I picked up the new ones today from Smith Bros. They had them ready 30 minutes after our phone call, $7.95 per PR. I asked if the guide plates will be a problem since they all of a sudden were for the last set of PR's and they said no. I figure I'll check after a few hundred miles just to make sure.
That's what I'm saying! Even with the new hardened pushrods, isn't the fact that so much was shaved away mean that there's some sort of misalignment? Or is this really no big deal for the new pushrods?
My first impression is those PR's were not really hardened. Do you know what part of the guide plates all this wear happened? One of the sides of the guide plate or more towards the valve? Do you know what your sweep looks like on the valve tips? You need to find this out before running the engine for any long period of time, you may face excessive valve guide wear.
My first impression is those PR's were not really hardened. Do you know what part of the guide plates all this wear happened? One of the sides of the guide plate or more towards the valve? Do you know what your sweep looks like on the valve tips? You need to find this out before running the engine for any long period of time, you may face excessive valve guide wear.
Looks like the wear was happening on the bottom of the guide plates closest to the valve/ rocker stud. I don't know what my sweep looks like, I'll have to search how to check that.
Went to start it again and immediately heard knocking. Sounded like it was coming from the passenger side. Sounded like a loose rocker arm but when I took the valve cover off, I saw #2 intake pushrod had popped off the lifter. This is the same pushrod that got chewed up the worst in post #30. The guy at Smith Bros. said the pushrod should be tight against the guide plate but I think I'm gonna have to loosen the stud on #2 and see if I can adjust it back a little.
Success! It took all day but the valve train sounds like grandma's sewing machine again. I actually tried fitting my old Manley guide plates on there for s&g's because the guide space is much deeper than the Trick Flow guide plates but turns out it was too deep. It created such an angle on the pushrod that the pushrod became too short to reach the rocker. Instead, i used my foot long ratchet extension to wedge the guide plate down against the head as much as possible and tightened the studs there. I'm debating on doing the same thing for cylinders 3 and 5 since they were the next worse off, although not even close to as bad as cylinder 2. Gonna drive it as much as possible the next few days before my dyno appointment on Monday!
04-09-2018, 09:59 PM
