2-piece headgaskets!!
Posted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:58 am
The past weekend was spent changing my GTV6’s headgaskets*. Many thanks to SamW for the use of his facilities and for sharing his deep reservoir of GTV6 knowledge.
The reason for the headgasket renewal: some oil was starting to pool in the vee between the heads. Every time I drove the car, I had to be careful to park it with the nose pointing up hill.
After removing the brake booster/master cyl, plenum, injectors, intake plumbing, t-belt….it was time to decapitate heads.
When we finally pulled the 1st head, we were in for quite a surprise. The car had original 2-piece gaskets! Are there any cars left out there with 2-piece gaskets?? They’re seriously scary looking gaskets. The rings that fit over the sleeves seem like a good way to go; it’s just the outer gasket that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It’s hard and shiny and seems to be made from a single compound, as opposed to modern gaskets with seal line traces encircling every orifice and bolt-hole. It also has a waffle texture, which I thought was odd.
On Sam’s advice, I honed the intake runners as they seemed to have a lot of rough knobby bits internally. Fairly cheap/primitive looking castings really. I didn’t hone them to a completely smooth finish; I just wanted to remove protrusions.
*A lot of other bits and pieces were attended to. Mostly minor things. Have a look at the long list.
Mileage: 56,241
Work Completed:
• Removed brake booster/master cyl to access LH head
• Removed intake, radiator, belts
• Removed plenum, injector rail, intake runners
• Unbolted and removed heads
• Serviced K&N air filter with K&N cleaning kit
• POR15-ed the cooling system Tees (front and rear)
• Changed old 2-piece headgaskets for new 1-piece type
• New intake runner gaskets
• Fitted new sparkplug well seals
• Replaced 2 remaining original coolant hoses: short block-rear T and long T-heater valve
• Replaced all 8mm fuel line from firewall forward.
• Fitted new stainless steel hose clamps to fuel line and coolant hoses where necessary
• Replaced vacuum hose (plenum to master cyl)
• Replaced overflow hose (clutch master cyl to fluid reservoir)
• Installed new camshaft seals and o-rings
• Reinstalled thermostat, housing parts with new gaskets
• Honed intake runners to remove build up
• Fitted new intake runner-plenum hoses (6)
• Renewed oil filler cap gasket seal
• Replaced exhaust manifold gaskets with new ones
• Installed exhaust manifolds, new lockwashers used
• Fitted new oil filter and changed oil (Mobil 1 15W50)
• Changed coolant
• Installed new front brake lines
• Bled front & rear brakes
• Replaced CSI plug at thermostat end for new one
• Cleaned all Bosch connectors with contact cleaner
• Insulated air con hose at exhaust manifold
• Adjusted ignition timing
Oh well, pics attached…
The reason for the headgasket renewal: some oil was starting to pool in the vee between the heads. Every time I drove the car, I had to be careful to park it with the nose pointing up hill.
After removing the brake booster/master cyl, plenum, injectors, intake plumbing, t-belt….it was time to decapitate heads.
When we finally pulled the 1st head, we were in for quite a surprise. The car had original 2-piece gaskets! Are there any cars left out there with 2-piece gaskets?? They’re seriously scary looking gaskets. The rings that fit over the sleeves seem like a good way to go; it’s just the outer gasket that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It’s hard and shiny and seems to be made from a single compound, as opposed to modern gaskets with seal line traces encircling every orifice and bolt-hole. It also has a waffle texture, which I thought was odd.
On Sam’s advice, I honed the intake runners as they seemed to have a lot of rough knobby bits internally. Fairly cheap/primitive looking castings really. I didn’t hone them to a completely smooth finish; I just wanted to remove protrusions.
*A lot of other bits and pieces were attended to. Mostly minor things. Have a look at the long list.
Mileage: 56,241
Work Completed:
• Removed brake booster/master cyl to access LH head
• Removed intake, radiator, belts
• Removed plenum, injector rail, intake runners
• Unbolted and removed heads
• Serviced K&N air filter with K&N cleaning kit
• POR15-ed the cooling system Tees (front and rear)
• Changed old 2-piece headgaskets for new 1-piece type
• New intake runner gaskets
• Fitted new sparkplug well seals
• Replaced 2 remaining original coolant hoses: short block-rear T and long T-heater valve
• Replaced all 8mm fuel line from firewall forward.
• Fitted new stainless steel hose clamps to fuel line and coolant hoses where necessary
• Replaced vacuum hose (plenum to master cyl)
• Replaced overflow hose (clutch master cyl to fluid reservoir)
• Installed new camshaft seals and o-rings
• Reinstalled thermostat, housing parts with new gaskets
• Honed intake runners to remove build up
• Fitted new intake runner-plenum hoses (6)
• Renewed oil filler cap gasket seal
• Replaced exhaust manifold gaskets with new ones
• Installed exhaust manifolds, new lockwashers used
• Fitted new oil filter and changed oil (Mobil 1 15W50)
• Changed coolant
• Installed new front brake lines
• Bled front & rear brakes
• Replaced CSI plug at thermostat end for new one
• Cleaned all Bosch connectors with contact cleaner
• Insulated air con hose at exhaust manifold
• Adjusted ignition timing
Oh well, pics attached…