I'll be damned. Stupid engine blew out several exhaust gaskets.

Here's the carnage.





http://mywebpages.comcast.net/thirdg...neup/plugs.jpg

Oh man, oh the carnage!!!

 

First off:

Percy's gaskets cant hold water in a rubber lined bucket, they suck

Second: Throw away the bosch platinums unless u like paying money for nothing

See what they look like with AC Delco's and go from there.

U got lots of stuff wrong there if those plugs look like that either way.

Whats with all the oil on the threads?

Do they appear to have some flakes and spotting on them to the eye?

later
Jeremy

 

Just curious - what do you recommend instead of the Percy's gaskets?

 

Had alot better luck with Fel-pro gaskets :-)

My Percy's all went to crap in a hand basket :-) Always seems to happen wherever the layers bumch up at, although his looks like more things are going on.

I had extra fun cause I'm running vortecs and slp headers, so far with regualr bolt tightening and header gaskets for a 94-96 lt1 Impy I am good to go.(note, also use as long as header bolt as possible, never use the shorties unless nec.)

later
Jeremy

 

SCE EMBOSSED copper gaskets

 

Hmmmm.... may have to look into some of those. SCE?

 

summit carries them... i got mine locally.

 

I put AC Delco's in their place this tune-up. When I put the bosch's in it was because everyone was out of AC delco plugs and I need plugs that day. Couldn't wait. AC delco now. I had lots of pinging going on before. In the few times I've driven the car since monday I haven't heard it at all. And the car seems to haul alot more of my *** when I step on the go pedal.

I also did a compression test on the motor when I did the tune-up. Every cylinder except #6 came up about 180-185psi. #6 was 175psi and the lowest of the bunch.

Bosch plugs are nasty, I didn't like them in the first place but it was all I had and I needed the car to run.

The oil on the threads is due to the valve seals I think. My seals have been going steadily. I might rip the heads off and do the seals over the winter. Either that or save for a set of AFR's if the job hunting goes well.

 

Only problem with the SCE's is my Sportsman II heads are supposed to use a Fel-Pro 1405 or equivalent (1.550" square ports) and the SCE's don't show that big.....

 

you might have to call summit or someplace and have them look thru the catalog...


it doesnt have to be theirs.... it just has to be EMBOSSED copper... as long as it has that embossed ridge around the port, and its soft copper, it shoudl seal nice.

what i love is they're reusable... and they dont blow out...i must have reused mine 10 times before i got rid of my SBC stuff.

 

Will do - again, T H A N K S ! ! !

 

I think I've seen the copper stuff before. But they never carry it for small block or even domestic. Usually its for Acura/honda, or some other import compact car.

I thought they looked like they'd seal pretty good.

 

I bought the $15 or $20 Mr. Gasket header gaskets at Autozone for an LT1 engine, and they sealed great on my LT1 heads and SLP headers. Granted, I didn't run them for all that long before my engine decided to puke, but they sealed great for the time that I did have things working.

 

.........

 

red is caused by high(er) octane fuel........also can mean your running a bit lean........

When I pulled the heads off my 89GTA when I still owned it the valves and combustion chambers were coated red.....all I ran was 93 octane with octane booster occaisionally.....

 

ONLY use fel-pro header gaskets...... I think the part number is 1404....

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...&part=FPP-1404

 

what kinda header bolts are you using? My ROL enlarged port header gaskets w/ stage 8 locking header bolts have held up so far. Bill! why on earth didnt you put some good new valve seals in those heads while it was all apart?! Anyway when you do get around to doing it, use Fel Pro viton intake valve seals on all the valves. The umbrellas they have for the exhaust sid just plain suck.

 

Cause they were good when I put them on a year ago. They just started smoking about a month or two ago.

I could rip the heads off pretty quick if i wanted. 2 hours tops for an R&R if I had another person with me and we hauled ***.

I'll probably be swapping the hot-cam into my car soon. As soon as I know that my cooling issue is fixed for sure.

 

what kind of seals did you put in? good seals should last alot longer than a year.

 

I didn't put them in, the guy I bought the heads from put them in.

My car came with TBI swirl port heads. And the cam from a Caprice.

Oh yeah, max power at 3,500rpm baby! I had a set of valve seals I was going ot put in, but it only had 9 seals and it was a brand new never opened bag. I was scratching my head. I also couldn't find positive seals anywhere so I didn't bother. Heads had to go on the car.

 

When you do get around to it, just go to autozone and get 2 sets of the Fel Pro ziton intake valves seals. They are positive seal but the idiots at most parts stores dont know what that is.

 

Yeah, we can just do them when we do the cam. 2 hours? I smell a challenge.

 

The heads don't necessarily have to come off to change valve seals. You could just use compressed air to hold the valves closed while you remove the springs.(providing you rotate the engine to put each cylinder you work on at TDC) You might even consider changing the springs to match the new camshaft while you're in there-they're pretty cheap and would follow the cam's profile much better than used springs-just some advice.

 

If, however, you do decide to remove the heads, might I recommend a Fel-Pro P/N-1094. This gasket is rubber coated steel and is only .015" thick instead of .032-.036" thick like most others! This will give a nice bump in compression without going too far. Figure appx. half a point. maybe slightly less, like .4

 

Don't feel like playing the rope game, or the air compressor game.

I probably won't do anything to the heads for a while. The next set of heads that go on there will be aftermarket heads. Probably AFR or pro-topline lightnings.

 

Playing the air compressor game is easy as hell lol

Wack them with a ahmer to break them all loose, shoot the air in and compress the spring, next.

later
Jeremy

 

thats the method i used to get rid of that embarassing smoke on startup.

 

I think getting aftermarket heads is the most worth while investment someone can make! Do your homework and go to chevy high performance's website. They have independent tests in a cylinder head database--the work is done for you!

 

If you have access to a decent air compressor.

 

umm hello... i have a 25 gallon 5hp craftsmant one that fits it the back of my truck