Blown Head Gasket Repair, what’s Next?

[Spencan]

I noticed a slow loss of power and loss of coolant over this past year, which each month a little worse. I checked everything that I could think of and repaired some things that would seem to make the car run temporarily better. But finally, in April at an Autocross, head gasket gave way to the point of not being able to ignore it. I limped the car back home while I watched the water temperature gauge climb. I barely made it into the garage!

After taking EVERYTHING off to get to the block, I found great news: no cylinder scoring, bad gasket, and coolant in the oil but no oil in the coolant. So I refurbished the head with a multi angle valve job and all new seals and stems, installed a Vulcan cut ring gasket, replaced the belts and rockers, the water pump has 10k miles on it, changed the oil console gasket and added a 4* cam gear key.

This is the first time that I have done the cam tower, timing belt, head gasket, oil console.

Thanks Tom for all of your help and the write up and tools to complete the job!!

Now that I finally have it put back together and it’s been run for about 15 smokey minutes in the garage, what are the next things that I need to do/be aware of?

[Spencan]

Btw, I know that the pictures are chronologically backwards and I’m going to do an oil change first.

[Tom]

ooks like a nice clean job! Congrats! I'd just be on the look out for any signs of a head gasket failure, just to make sure yours sealed ok. Some head gaskets need to be re-torqued after the initial heat cycle. I don't know if that applies to the gasket you used, however. I saw your other comment about the water neck, and wanted to share this picture showing one possible reason. The factory originally spec'd a low-profile head for one of the bolts, to prevent the neck from getting hung up on the bolt head and not sealing. See pic below. You can just grind a regular Allen-head bolt if that's the issue....

bolts water nect.jpg (14.06 KiB) Viewed 629 times

[Spencan]

The water neck is all good now…Thanks again!

[Spencan]

I drove it today for 20 minutes and got some fresh gas in it. The first thing that I have noticed so far is how much quieter the engine is. And how smooth it is running. I kept it under 3500 rpm and no boost. No leaks and no more smoke!

How many warm up cycles should I do before it’s safe to start getting into boost and higher rpm’s?

[Tom]

I drove it today for 20 minutes and got some fresh gas in it. The first thing that I have noticed so far is how much quieter the engine is. And how smooth it is running. I kept it under 3500 rpm and no boost. No leaks and no more smoke!

How many warm up cycles should I do before it’s safe to start getting into boost and higher rpm’s?

As long as the gasket does not require a re-torque after the first heat cycle, I think you are good to go as soon as the lifters are quiet!

[Belgian951]

Thanks for the thread and the pics! Good to have this in the back of my head. Let's hope she runs fine now!

[Spencan]

I just got back from a Cars and Coffee this morning and I’m happy to report that all is still good! I put in some liquimoly lifter additive as well as their Mos2 anti friction treatment with that last oil change and it’s definitely a quieter engine. I have noticed more torque now, especially on initial tip in. I took around 4500 rpm but kept it to less than stock boost levels. No leaks anywhere, so I’m a happy man. I’ll drive it like I normally drive it on my next time out….