Okay this is a very simple question. I have an '87 IROC that I built a new engine for and and installed said engine about 5 years ago. The car runs great but after tune up about three months ago I found deposits on the #8 spark plug, that's the one in the back on the driver side, right? (it's been awhile since I've had to remember this stuff) Anyway the deposites lead me to think I have a leaking head gasket. I just pulled the #8 plug again and there are caked on white deposits again after about 1000 miles.

To the heart of the question, when I did the motor I put the heads on before dropping it in this time I would like to remove the driver side head with the engine in the car. How much of a pain is this. I do all of my own work on my cars so I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty I just like to know what kind of mess I'm getting into before I start.

Thanks all for the help.

 

its not so bad. my friend did this on his 85 iroc 305 HO and he had them both off in about a day. of course his was carbed.
to do this you have to remove teh intake manifold and the exaust manifolds as well as(obviouslu) the valve covers. just remember that you have to remove the bolts in the head in a specific order otherwise you can warp the head.
i would reccomend that you get a chiltons or a haines if you dont have one since they will show you the bolt removal order as well as the torque sequence.
also the back one on the driverside is number 7.
good luck

 

I've removed the heads from my engine while it was in the car. I think I had them off in about 4-6 hours (it was a few years ago). Your back will hurt after leaning over the fenders for a while...

 

I did my heads last October whilst the engine was in, the only tricky bit was disconnecting the stock exhaust manifold as there's no a lot of room to play with.

Didn't do my back any favours either!.

Matthew

 

I've done it a few times before, not that hard to do. I do suggest removing the hood...clears up LOTS of room to work and you don't have to worry about hitting your head on it either.

 

Thanks for the help so far.

I talked to my engine guy this afternoon and he said we could need to cut both head surfaces if the one is bad. So it looks like I may be pulling both heads. To anyone that has tried this, did you remove the brake master cylinder to make life easier?

I've owned this car for about ten years and I've been under the hood working on it for about 9 1/2 so a sore back isn't news to me, but thanks for reminding me. Good call on the hood, your right about that, it's amazing how easy it is to work on the engine with the hood off.

 

i cant stress proper removal procedures enough make sure you take out the bolts in the proper sequence or you will warp the heads and definately need them to be machined.

 

No need to remove anything like that there's plenty of room.

If you've gone to the effort of pulling one of the heads off you might as well take the other off as you're practically there, change the valve seals whilst you're there too.

Matthew

 

shoulding be too hard. You need to remove the hood, its almost impossible to reach some bolts without killing your back. Upper plenum, runners,distributor, base, a/c compressor, air pump possibly power steering pump if the bracket goes down that far. After that loosen the rockers,springs yaddi yadda. Should take a good days work.

 

Thanks everyone. Sounds like a no brainer, in the beginning I was mostly worried about the firewall getting in the way. As I said I put the whole motor in with the heads on so I just wasn't sure.

Now so that I don't get the cart ahead of the horse I'm going to pressurize the cylinder and check for bubbles in the rad. to confirm I do have a leaking head gasket.

The bummer is someone said to do the valve seals while I have the head off... The car doesn't smoke on start up and or use oil, the valve seals were brand new five years / 25,000 miles ago. However your right I'll most likely do the seals just in case because if I don't they'll go next. It still just bugs me a little the drained oil after an oil change is never milky, the rad. fuild doesn't have oil in it and the car runs like raped ape. I just have the one spark plug (# 7) that gets these white deposits. P.S. I've also pulled the injectors and had them checked to rule out a leaky injector. Sorry the last part was a little bit of me venting.

Thanks to all that gave input. To end on a postive maybe I'll think about putting a nice set of Alum. heads on the car. If I'm going to have to pull the thing apart I might add some of the stuff I couldn't aford when I did the motor.

 

Are you sure that the intake gasket isn't leaking at all ? There is a coolant port there right next to the #7 cylender

 

I would also recommend that you run a leakdown test to get a better idea of where the problem is. Would really suck to replace the headgaskets and then have the same problem again. I also second getting the valve seals replaced while the heads are off, my local shop charged $30 per head inc labor. I would also consider putting in fresh valvesprings, something I wish I had done. Not so much because either part is bad, but it'll just be that much longer before they potentially fail. Here's a pic of my IROC-Z, similar to what you'll be doing (headgasket job w/ engine in car). Removing the hood is a good idea, makes it much much easier.

 

No I am not sure about the intake gasket, and I've had trouble in the past with the darn thing on the other side leaking drops of coolant onto the back of the engine. Is there a good way to check for this, or should I just pull the intake, replace the gasket and see what happens.

About the valve springs... I replaced them when I did the cam, they're matched to the cam I'm running. Only about 15,000 miles on them.

Thanks everyone for the info.

 

Do a leak down test in that cylender first and see how that is. If the results from it are ok. I'd start looking else where for the leak. Like the intake gasket.

When you installed the intake, do you remember if you put any sealant arround the coolant port at all?

 

I'm pretty sure the only sealant I used when I put the intake on was on the front and back of the engine block, I don't think I put any between the gasket and the head. it's been awhile so I could be wrong.

 

I'll bet thats the problem then... Always a good idea to use some silicone around the coolant ports on the intake gaskets... My vote is for the leakdown test first, followed by [a probable] intake gasket change if all checks out..

 

Okay then, I showed the spark plugs to my machinist this weekend and he feels there is def. a small amount of coolant finding it's way into the engine. I'll be borrowing a fitting to do the leak down test soon. I have to travel to Maine so in a couple of weeks I'll post the results and then go from there. Thanks again for the help.