looks like that engine was burning a lots of oil

djape1977 wrote:looks like that engine was burning a lots of oil

Weird. There was no smoke when I bought the car. I did add seafoam to gas to maybe that made a difference.

rjkoop wrote:
Can you give me a ballpark figure on what I should expect for valve job and head machining so I know if I'm being ripped off?

pm sent

black/brown silth on pistons and valves is sure sign of oil burning in combustion space.

if i understood correctly, this saga of yours started when you wanted to remove cam towers? ok, remove them and remove valve spring on one of exaust valves. when you do that, ckeck for radial play in that valve guide. if there's any play, you need new valve guides, all 8 of them.

check how much are piston sleeves worn. how much is too much? 2/10 of a milimeter is too much. if they are not worn too much, do a leak down test.

djape1977 wrote:black/brown silth on pistons and valves is sure sign of oil burning in combustion space.

if i understood correctly, this saga of yours started when you wanted to remove cam towers? ok, remove them and remove valve spring on one of exaust valves. when you do that, ckeck for radial play in that valve guide. if there's any play, you need new valve guides, all 8 of them.

check how much are piston sleeves worn. how much is too much? 2/10 of a milimeter is too much. if they are not worn too much, do a leak down test.

Looks like I'll have to get the valve job done. For the piston sleeve wear, how do I check that? Hopefully I can do these tests with the head removed.

polished section of cylinder is the part where piston rings scrape the piston wall and black ring on top is where they don't. clean a part of that black section, wire brush will do, in order to remove the silth and try not to damage or remove any metal. now run a fingernail up from the polished section to the top. if there's a noticeable diference, over 0.1mm, cylinders are worn. if not sure, try to find someone with lots of experience in engine rebuilds to estimate the condition of cylinders.

leak down test is unnecesary if piston sleeves are worn 0.1mm or more. if you're at 0.1 on each side, combined it gives you 0.2 mm which is already first oversize.

rotate the engine so that pistons aren't in top position and pour couple spoonfulls of diesel fuel into every one. in time, it will leak down into oil pan bypassing pistons and piston rings. how fast it leaks down is the measure of piston rings wear. this time, there's no precise way to measure, since not all fuels are equally dense. petrol will leak down very fast, modern diesel fuel for TDI, JTD etc engines will leak down slower and old fashioned truck diesel fuel should stay on top of pistons for at least 15-20min.

A few more pictures. Any thoughts?









Like I said right now I'm trying to keep it on the cheap. But of course want the engine to run well if possible.

take a closer picture of #4 cylinder exhaust side water jacket, it looks like bran100's did from a distance, just want to be sure its not eaten up

BEEK wrote:take a closer picture of #4 cylinder exhaust side water jacket, it looks like bran100's did from a distance, just want to be sure its not eaten up

I remember those other pictures. On that cylinder I was able to clean out the crud of that coolant passage and it looks like the others now. But I'll take a few pictures.

Does anyone know of a shop in the Ottawa, Canada area that I could trust to do a valve job on my '81 FI head? For a reasonable price? As much as I'd love to have it done by Beek I think the shipping from Ottawa -> Florida would be very expensive.

So broke off bolt extractor trying to remove the broken bolt.. Argh! Now what? I guess I have to drill out and use a helicoil. It will probably be tough to drill out the remover but I don't think I have much choice. The extractor was one of those ones that you pre-drill, hammer it in and then screw it out. Didn't quite work that way!

extract your extractor, helicoil for a head bolt is not good. you will have to buy a very hard drill bit. what the major problem is, a head bolt that broke from stretching would not be very tight in the block. this is what concerns me.

BEEK wrote:extract your extractor, helicoil for a head bolt is not good. you will have to buy a very hard drill bit. what the major problem is, a head bolt that broke from stretching would not be very tight in the block. this is what concerns me.

Yep. Makes sense. I'll try. I just don't want to damage the existing threads so I'll have to go straight in and have the right size drill bit and extractor. Thanks.

rjkoop wrote:

BEEK wrote:extract your extractor, helicoil for a head bolt is not good. you will have to buy a very hard drill bit. what the major problem is, a head bolt that broke from stretching would not be very tight in the block. this is what concerns me.

Yep. Makes sense. I'll try. I just don't want to damage the existing threads so I'll have to go straight in and have the right size drill bit and extractor. Thanks.

Argh! This is tough. Easy out / screw extractor broken off in bolt hole. Hoping to drill with carbide drill bit but it's REALLY tough. Any ideas?

you may need to take it to a machine shop with a sinker EDM and have them burn it out.