I am removing the head to have it rebuilt. I went to pull the push rods for the rockers out but they wont. I pulled the side panel off and its all gunked up in there but I am not pulling the lifters out with the rods. So my question is is the passages to gunked up for the rods to pull out and I am just not applying the correct amount of force? or what? Bill
Cylinder Head Service Keep pulling ! they'll come loose eventually . If you pop loose a lifter , stop and get it back in the right hole ! this is very important as lifters take a wear " set " to each cam lobe so , new cam , new lifters . Old cam , same lifters in the same position *or* new lifters . Mind that big , heavy cylinder head doesn't bang the radiator top tank as you're removing it (now you know why so many are dented )
the plan Thanks Nate I figured you would be the first to reply. I pulled the side cover off so i could eye up the lifters and keep them in the same place, as I pulled the first rod i thought i was pulling the lifter along with it so I stopped and comfirmed by pulling the cover. I have two friends to help me out with getting the head off figure one with me inside the engine compartment and another outside so that at anytime two folks will be holding it off the vehicle. Bill
Nate Took some pulling and wiggling but I got the pushrods out with about an inch or so of crud on them, now I am wondering if the oil was able to get out of the top of the head and back to the sump through these clogged gallys? Bill
Oil Sludge This is fairly common , old sludge from cheapo paraffin based Motor Oils . It's why it's so important to always do HOT oil changes , so the sludge is warmed up and circulating , some of it will drain out with the old oil . One or two synthetic hot oil changes would have cleaned this crud out too . No worries , just keep working diligently and scrape lose as much of that gooey crud as you can , I find most Thrift Stores have scads of clean towels that are too raggedy to sell , offer the Mgr. $5 the pound for cleaned rags and try not to accept nylon or polyester as they don't absorb much . I go through more rags that you can imagine but the junk I own and rely upon , is always full of this crud whenI buy it so I take the time to wipe it up & out and in a couple thousand miles , the engine is squeaky clean inside , no matter how worn out and clanky it may be . It's nearly sunup , did you alls remember to set your clocks ahead one hour ? . I'm shortly off to scrape clean my badly oil fouled spark plugs , again . I gotta have this head re built with new silicone bronze valve guides , stellite seats and one piece stailness steel valves if I can find 'em . God head work begins @ $500.00 and zooms up from there , I may have found a local guy who knows how to unshroud the valve guide bosses and polish the exhaust ports for improved flow , increasing power and fuel economy whilst reducing the engine's heat at the same time... Imagine ! a $2,000 cylinder head on a $800.00 truck . Hey , this worked out very well indeed on my old Metropolitan Nash . .
Head job Nate this year the price of the head job is also holding me back from doing anymore to the truck. Money is tight and between the seat belts I bought and this SHMBO is giving me the evil eye bill
$$ Woes Boy howdy are you ever preaching to the Choir on this ! . Never the less , doing it 1/2 way , always comes back to hault you and co$t$ more in the long run . Maybe try explaining to SWMBO how it's better to have you out in the driveway or garage , putting $ into something tangible like your truck , rather than lounging 'round at the bar , blowing it on booze and ciggies .
Obtw : Just in case anyone was wondering , once again it was the # 2 spark plug that's totally oil fouled , I used my War Surplus Dental Picks to scrape all six plugs clean again and it runs *perfectly* as it should , smoooooth as silk like only an InLine engine can . I think the next time , I'll only clean the # 2 plug and see what happens. ALL the other plugs have heavy white oil residue deposits as the HEI is burning 95 % of the oil coming past the wobbly valve guides .
Head at machine shop Took the head to the machine shop yesterday the guy took it apart right then and there with me lokking on all the valves were pitted and the finish worn off and wobbly teh springs were also weak when tested. Looks like all new valves, guides and springs, a cleaning and resurface and i shold have it back by next weekend. Now all I have to do is get teh gaskets ordered up and get teh rest of the sludge removed on the engine so I can reassemble. Bill
Block cleaning. As your engine is open it might be an idea to clean the block water channels for sludge/slag to. Citrus acid standing inside a cople of days is good, if posseble heat up your block carfully and let it stay a couple of days. Use some airpressure in top to clean the oil channels ad to press the old oily shit out. Look inside your bottem pan for sludge , fill it up with some clean terpentine and let it stay some days turn your engine a couple of times, open up the bottem plug and drain the shit out.
in the works As I recall Nate has a formula for cleaning the inners of the water jacket I did a quick search but i got distracted reading before i found the answer. I will have to clean out teh bottom end of the engine also since the side cover was pretty well covered in sludge also which i can see is blocking the forward oil return port and along with what has dropped down off of the pushrods and fallen into the pan I dont want to run the engine with that crud in there. Bill
Cooling System Cleaning Citric Acid , mixed with Distilled Water , does the trick ~ You can cork the water jacket & fill it to soak whilst the engine is on the stand , or fill the cooling system with this mix and drive it around , you'll be flabbergasted at the amount of crud, chunks & rust silt that comes out . Keep on scraping that sludge and old stiff greasy crud out ! . When you finally re fill the crankcase , use the thinnest Dino based oils you can find ~ 5W-whatever or even straight 10 weight oils , this will allow good circulation of the lubricant , it'll also begin to soften up and clean out all that nasty goop .
