notes: if you have oil and water contamination you will need to disasemble the block as well, then it is no longer a "quickie head gasket". that write up is coming as soon as it happens to me. this is for a stripped down carb'd 22r. efi will be much more involved as will a OEM carb setup. prolly take 6hrs your first time if youre familiar with what your doing DO NOT DO THIS ON A WARM ENGINE! supply's needed: head/intake/exhaust gaskets (assuming valve cover gasket is still good) oil change stuff + at least 2 extra quarts clean rags or paper towels RTV 6-pack of cheap beer tools needed: metric socket and wrench set from 10-19 torque wrench mid size flat head screw driver feeler gauge metal gasket scraper plastic gasket scraper high speed wire wheel type thing carb clean (yes its a tool) here it is as i start now you remove the head bolts following this procedure 1st step: find TDC. remove the distributor cap and valve cover. crank the motor over by hand clockwise until the timing mark on the main pulley is here. verify that you are at TDC by checking that the dizzy rotor is @ #1 and the dowel pin on the cam is @ 12:00 now if you havent done it yet make sure this list is complete: disconnect: all ground wires from head all radiator hoses to intake and fluid drained exhaust fuel line random wires (temp/sensors/ect) throttle cable remove PS pump from head vac lines (note: i only have 1 line for the brake booster/valve cover) now start to remove the head itself 1st remove the dizzy gear to be able to get the cam timing chain gear off. use a lil carb clean on a rag and clean a bit of the chain and gear, then mark it with a sharpie to help later. when you take it off hold the pass side tight and roll it down till it binds in the guides. dont forget about the 12mm bolt that connects the head to the timing cover, there should be a washer on that bolt. it might be under the puddle of oil with the head bolts, follow this order in 3 stages. crack loose(1/16th turn), loosen a bit more(1/4 turn), completely remove bolts. or you will warp the head.
now that you have all the head bolts loose you can remove them, use a card board box to hold them. make holes so you can keep them in order and easily tell which ones go where. now tug on the head, if it doesnt come off DONT: hit with hammer randomly pry with a screw driver kick it ect. use your handy dandy tire iron and place it here and give a gentil twist. it will pop right off. my BHG was on the #1 n #2 water jacket on the exhaust side gasket is upside down so #1 is on the far right, exhaust side on bottom of pic you can really see it in this pic, looks like #3 n 4 were gonna go soon. now take a wide metal scraper and go to work on the block. make sure to get every lil bit of gasket off the surface. the blue stripes are just staining from the previous gasket. i found even older gasket material under the newer gasket which prolly led to the blow out. let this be a lesson, get every last bit off. surface is clean of gasket. use a shop vac or compressed air to get any bits that fell into the cylinders out. heres the head perspective
yep, theres the problem now to clean the head, use a plastic scraper or a very soft brass wire wheel on a super high speed drill and use very lil pressure. you dont want to remove aluminum off the head. that will create further problems. well ive run into a problem... there was some pitting on the head where the gasket blew. and the machine shop isnt open on sunday. here is the pitting that im worried about some pitting in other various area's as well. the machine shop had to take 9 passes or .009 off the head to get it to clean up. turns out it was worse in parts i hadnt cleaned yet. they also said that it was a good thing i did, or i would of blown the next gasket at mostly the same spot. here it is ready for me after 3hrs at the machine shop in case you cant see it heres a close up so clean :lick: while this is happening, its a good time to clean the threads on every thing you took off. may seem like a waste of time, but it prevents cross threading and allows you to properly torque bolts, plus you will be amazed at being able to finger tighten stuff. im gonna assume this stuff is done: all bolt n hole threads are clean all gasket surfaces clean new gaskets in hand final bit of prep is to loosen all the rocker valve adjustment nuts and move the striker up till its flush with the rocker arm. left is done right isnt. this is to prevent bending while you torque the head down. a valve adjustment is needed anyway. lay the head gasket down on the block using the dowel pins to line it up. now carefully set the head on. put the back on first and guide the front over the timing chain. if you had your head hot tanked you need to remove the bearing caps and apply a bit of grease to all the contact surfaces. including the contact patch on the valves and rockers, my machine shop says its ok to use bearing grease. get your handy dandy tire iron again, you'll use it this time to compress the chain tensioner under the timing cover. with your hand around it (1in off head) move to the drivers side to compress it. you will feel it move, be extra careful not to push the single chains past the guide. dual chains would be a lot harder to push past the guide.
now put all the head bolts in there respective holes. once they are all in finger tighten in the order below. then lightly hand tight with a wrench till they seat (5lbs). then torque to 25-30, then to 60lbs. always repeating the same order. now you actually have a engine in there congradulations. lets put all the crap back on. first its the dizzy gear and dizzy. align the rotor to roughly 12:00 then slide it in. as it slides in, it will rotate counter clockwise and end up at #1 on the cap. some dizzy's have a paint mark. if it doesnt line up then pull it back out and rotate 1 tooth the direction thats needed. then gently put the dizzy gear in and torque it down. after that its really not rocket science so heres a list: intake exhaust plug wires n cap other wires as needed throttle linkage hoses hold off on the valve cover for a sec, good idea to lay it on there for install of the other crap, ta help keep things clean. last but not least its time for a valve adjusment. this is kinda a pita but absolutely necessary. factory specs, search the forum if you want to read people argue about different gaps, im not qualified enuff yet to tell you a different way. intake: .008 exhaust:.012 use this order 1st 2nd turn the crank 360 and do this order now take those extra 2 quarts of oil and drill a super tiny hole in one cap. put the cap back on and squeeze the bottle for high pressure oil. use this to spray out the oil passages of any gasket that may have fallen in. go ahead and use 2 quarts to be really sure its clean. now drain the oil, and do a oil change. pour the oil over the whole valve train slowly without the valve cover on. keep in mind that the head will hold almost a quart in the valleys so only put in 3.5 quarts. then start wait for pressure, check and fill if needed install the valve cover and fill the radiator. start the eng burp the radiator and check for leaks. allow to warm up then shut off. check/adjust the valves again. allow the motor to cool for at least 2hrs+. then recheck the head bolt torque. now go buy another 6-pack of good beer to celebrate editors note: i have never done this before. i have spent countless hours reasearching and reading and asking questions before i did this. so i might be a bit more prepared then some. i only used a manual during the procedure for the head bolt order torque specs, and valve adjustment. i used this manual and most any manual with a 2xr will work. this write up was done in the dark next to train tracks with occasional snow flury's brought to you by mickeys and black sheep auto
WOW! nice write up man! i got about 2 post down then stopped ive done a head gasket and this is very helpful!! agian good, no GREAT JOB! deffently worth to be a sticky
Just a matter of being curious, but I thought at one time I heard that the factory head bolts were made to stretch some and should be replaced when replacing the head gasket. Have you heard that before?
on 22re's the bolts may or may not be tty the factory manual does not call for replacement so it's kind of a matter of personal preferance. Personally aftering having done a head gasket it I ever have to do another I will be installing arp studs.....regardless of the vehicle
the "factory bolts" are a grade 10 hardened steel. they DO NOT STRETCH. but... they do get pitted from heat on the threads and the shank. which weakens the bolt. mine all looked ok with minimal pitting, one actually looked pretty bad but i replaced it with a spare i had lying around. i also ended up retorqing the head to 80lbs, and know people that go as high as 100lbs on original factory bolts. either way if you have the money buy studs, they last a whole lot longer then bolts and are much more reusable. a very worthy upgrade. this is a "quickie" head gasket, i had parts/gaskets lying about. in total it cost me $60 for machine work and fresh oil. everything else i had. coming soon is the full eng build write up with cool home porting
nice write up man. i know im possibly gonna need these guidelines again. i think i just blew mine and found out tonight. not sure. ive done 3 HG's and 1 full build. its not rocket science but it is time consuming if you want to do it right. so thee best suggestion is to never rush through. your writeup is quite detailed and does not skip detailed info. ill also be doing a full build sometime soon. cant wait to see your next write up on this.
they do. a torque setting (eg: 60ft-lb's) is a mesument of how far the bolt will stretch. (quick google... http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/bolt-stretching-d_1164.html) anyway great write-up, just curious why do you keep the head bolts in order? never heard or done that before
there is a myth out there that the stock head bolts are a 1 use item. supposedly you torque them down, and they will stretch. then if you try to use them again they will stretch and break. i realize that torqing the bolts IS stretching them, but they arnt a "stretch to fit" head bolt. which i guess some engs out there do use
i get you... some car's require you to change headbolts while others dont you can allways check if the bolts have stretched by putting the threaded parts of 2 bolts together, if they dont fit well and can be "rocked" then replace them. if they sit together nice and flush and theres no "rocking" they are fine like i said before... ive never torn into a 22r and this will be very helpful, great write-up
