Hey,
I'm looking for a little advice to save my pockets while I'm doing a little engine repair. I bought my 82 firebird with an old 350 in it (1972) Runs great, no starting trouble, periodically a little sputtering after she sat for a few days and then eventually led to misfiring and oil leakage. Did a compression test and have 2 cylinders with low compression, the rest normal and consistent.
I have it all taken apart to replace the head gasket and have been told to do a lot of things to the heads and just wonder how necessary everything is (especially coming from people who haven't seen the heads at all)
Spark plugs vary from normal to having a good amount of oil deposits, and so far (just have the driverside head taken off right now) have a bit of oil on cylinder 7 piston. Could it still just be my head gasket? Do I need new piston rings? Do I need to grind seats? Do I need a valve job, and/or could my rings be sticking from carbon deposits? I'm going to assume I don't NEED to do all of these things and would like to narrow down what I actually NEED done from some of you with more experience than me. Don't really have a ton of money to dump in and she is just a daily driver so I don't need anything fancy just need her to work good.

 

Well it really depends on what you want to do with it.

To me, if youve done all the work tearing it apart and rebuilding (and it sounds like you arent sure what was causing the problem either?) you should get the heads rebuilt, do you really want to do this again in 6mth-couple years? It costs more now, but save you alot of time and aggrivation down the road, and youll still have to pay for it if you do it later anyways. I got my heads completely rebuilt for $240. (for an 81TA tho, cant imagine there would be a huge difference in price tho, if any)

If you dont want to rebuild, at least get them hot tanked. Itll clean all the crud out of them and have them "like-new".

How many miles on the engine?

 

Thanks!
I was thinking it was just all the gaskets that needed replacing, that's why I had taken it all apart. I got a head gasket set and a timing cover gasket set since thats where most of the leaking was coming from. This is my *first* time taking apart an engine of any kind so I'm just not sure what I'm looking for I guess and just trying to keep all my bases covered. I agree that I will not want to be taking it apart for the same problem any time soon (as fun as it was).
Also unfortunately I don't have an idea how many miles are on the engine, the car has 40,000 but pretty much inherited a mystery as far as the block goes.
Completely rebuilt for $240? May I ask where you had the work done? I have been told just resurfacing the heads would cost me over $100.

 

Oil deposits could be from bad valve guide seals. I would get the heads at least checked by a machine shop. Better off (and cheaper) doing it once the right way instead of doing it twice or more.

 

It very well could be that it just needs fresh gaskets, but if you put it back together to find out it was something else you probably wont be very happy lol.

Im in charlotte, and i forget what the place was called but i can look it up if need be. It shouldnt cost $100 to have them resurfaced, if i remember correctly the quote i got for that was like $40-50. I remember hot tanking was $15 for both, if you decide you dont want to get them redone (i still think you should highly consider) you really need to at least have them hot tanked, you wont believe theyre the same heads when you get them back lol.

I should mention i supplied the new valves, valve guides, ect so the $240 was for labor and hot tanking/resurfacing. It was also a small family owned machine shop so theyr prices were better than the bigger ones.

Definetly shop all around for the best prices when it comes to this, you'll find a reasonable deal if you look hard enough.

If you dont know the miles on the engine, IMO thats another reason for you to get them redone. The engine and heads could have 250-300k miles on them for all you know. The other reason i asked is because of the piston rings, if its a high mileage engine it would be a very good idea to replace them while your in there.

 

If your burning oil. I would check the valve guides too. Being an older engine they could be worn out allowing oil to leak by. I had a set of heads on an old camaro and someone had the guides knurled. I quick fix but wear out pretty quick. I tore it down and bit the bullet and had guides and hardened seats put it. It is worth it to save you from working on it down the road.

Did you see any problems with your head gasket on the problem cylinders?

How do the cylinder walls look?

 

@Seafarer12
The head gasket is definitely allowing some oil to leak by, I have a pretty decent amount of oil leaking from the intake manifold and distributor seal that is leaking down and most likely getting into the cylinders. There is a nice little oil trail from the manifold down past/through the head gasket and into cylinders #1 & #7. I'm certain the other side looks identical just the first and last cylinders one each side getting some oil run off . NO coolant in oil and no oil in coolant The cylinder walls are immaculate, like mirrors.

@Black88Z
Really appreciate all your advice! I was thinking getting work done would cost me much more, this is looking much more realistic! I now know I just need to shop around a little more, I guess that initial quote did me in. Definitely going to get the heads properly taken care of and hot tanking sounds like a great idea!

Thanks everyone for all your input!
This is a a look at the pistons....

 

Also this is #5 and #7, you can see the oil on the top right corner above cylinder 7 better here, which was leaking through the gasket...