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[Giamanut]

How did you come to realize you need new head gaskets?

White smoke! Pulsed pressure in the coolant tank and number 2 spark plug soaking wet.

[Michael]

Well being in the condition it's in, it's a good time to do the water pump and all the VOD coolant and vacuum hoses and other replaceable items like cap, rotor, wires, etc.

[sdg3205]

White smoke! Pulsed pressure in the coolant tank and number 2 spark plug soaking wet.

Fair enough. Careful with them liners.

[Parzival]

Im in the middle of doing my head gaskets... and liner seals. I'm doing the liner seals with the engine in the car by lifting the engine a bit and dropping the pan.
You can do the head gaskets with out disturbing the liner seals, I was carful when removing the heads not to disturb them, but I still don't trust them at this age. I've also spoken to a number of the venders this week, and heard that cars coming in with leaking liner seals is starting to be more common. I'm not risking doing this twice.
When going in this deep, there is always the possibility of going in even deeper once you get in there!
Also as someone else has mentioned, change the water pump.

[Giamanut]

Well being in the condition it's in, it's a good time to do the water pump and all the VOD coolant and vacuum hoses and other replaceable items like cap, rotor, wires, etc.

Yep did the Cap rotor plugs Water pump is on back order for a week but paid for and on its way Vac lines should be here Monday along with complete coolant hose kit Radiator and fans are here waiting for Monday ( I have Monday Tues and Wednesday off)
I will be very careful pulling this head.
Also have some pressure regulator O rings and adjustment washers coming!
Not going to pull the head until Parts are here.
Thank for the replies.
Should I post some pictures?

[Giamanut]

Fair enough. Careful with them liners.

I will. I understand you don't want to rotate the engine or pull the head straight up when removing. Makes sense to me.

[Giamanut]

Im in the middle of doing my head gaskets... and liner seals. I'm doing the liner seals with the engine in the car by lifting the engine a bit and dropping the pan.
You can do the head gaskets with out disturbing the liner seals, I was carful when removing the heads not to disturb them, but I still don't trust them at this age. I've also spoken to a number of the venders this week, and heard that cars coming in with leaking liner seals is starting to be more common. I'm not risking doing this twice.
When going in this deep, there is always the possibility of going in even deeper once you get in there!
Also as someone else has mentioned, change the water pump.

I thought about that some but I think since the combustion is near the upper end of the cylinder the lower seal might not get the beating the head gasket does. Unless the cylinder is worn then .... ???? I guess I will find out when I get there!

[Parzival]

I thought about that some but I think since the combustion is near the upper end of the cylinder the lower seal might not get the beating the head gasket does. Unless the cylinder is worn then .... ???? I guess I will find out when I get there!

My pistons are in great shape, and the car only has 27k miles. My compression test gave me 170psi at every cylinder. My head gasket leak was so minimal that it took me 2 months to confirm it. I could have likely driven it like that for thousands more miles, but sadly my OCD will not allow me to live with a problem. I could hardly detect combustion gasses in the cooling system, and pressurizing the cooling system for about 15 minutes would only reveal a drip of coolant in the same cylinder as you, (number 2)
The issue is that the paper liner seals are very old, and while it is possible to pull the heads without disturbing them, once the heads are off there is no good way to know for sure that they are still sealed! you can try to gently rock them back and forth to make sure they dont move and are stuck down, but you may cause them to move in doing so. At this point in the game, I just don't want to trust the old seals, especially since their failure will results in a dumping of the coolant into the crank case. If that happens and you don't notice it right away... well, you may be on the lookout for a replacement engine.

[Giamanut]

My pistons are in great shape, and the car only has 27k miles. My compression test gave me 170psi at every cylinder. My head gasket leak was so minimal that it took me 2 months to confirm it. I could have likely driven it like that for thousands more miles, but sadly my OCD will not allow me to live with a problem. I could hardly detect combustion gasses in the cooling system, and pressurizing the cooling system for about 15 minutes would only reveal a drip of coolant in the same cylinder as you, (number 2)
The issue is that the paper liner seals are very old, and while it is possible to pull the heads without disturbing them, once the heads are off there is no good way to know for sure that they are still sealed! you can try to gently rock them back and forth to make sure they dont move and are stuck down, but you may cause them to move in doing so. At this point in the game, I just don't want to trust the old seals, especially since their failure will results in a dumping of the coolant into the crank case. If that happens and you don't notice it right away... well, you may be on the lookout for a replacement engine.

Same cylinder #2. that is odd. Yeah mine is actually not a giant leak either. I think what happened is after I got it started it ran rough and possible was not firing on #2 when I put in the new injectors rotor cap a plugs i fired and was really smooth, but it had a lot more pressure in that # 2 so it found the weak spot! It barely smokes at all once it runs for a few minutes.

[Giamanut]

Bit of an update.
Got my new Radiator and fans installed.
totally fixed my bower motor situation, that was crazy. spent a few hrs trying to figure out what was up with one fan relay socket. Finally just pulled the sockets out discovered they were not in the correct spot! Found the problem in the fuse box wire behind #10 fuse.
Ran a Fuel pressure test just for fun after installing new O rings in the main Pressure Regulator. So Engine off and fuel pump jumper I got about 28 psi control and 80 main at 40 degrees ambient.
Not sure if that is good? Will check with engine running after I get the head gaskets done.
Discovered the hidden antenna. and the relay near the ECU. But it looks let it was never hooked up.
Finished the roof box repair. Way easier than expected, torque rods were way to tight. Door are perfect now.
Almost ready to close the fuse relay area, just need to fix the windshield washer pump.
Correct lambda relay fix the FV so that's done. Installed Led tail lights and flasher and my interior Blinker light died. Wonder if I should install Leds there also and in the front of the car maybe.
Left to do
Head gaskets / Vacuum line rubber coolant lines.
washer motor and wiper cover/cap.
charge AC
Fine tune..CO and fuel pressures.
Everything else is now working properly.
Take PICTURES