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Just got the bad news that my I-6 XH has a blown head gasket. It's not major, just a small leak at the rear of the head.
I'v rung up a few places about gettin the gasket replaced, and they all reckon that i'm gonna new new head bolts, and a valve kit. Is this right?
Also while the head is off i gonna get it machined 60 thou (i think). Is there any need to get it ported/pollished, or is there anything else i should get done?
I've been quoted $560 for the gasket, bolts, valve kit, the machine job and labour froma preformance place. Is this a fair price?
Any thoughts would be welcome. Sorry about all the questions.
If i'm not mistaken the XH had the EF front for the ute, and the engine is the same as the EB2/ED engine of 148kw.
I have heard the head bolts do go on the EF's, so it will probably be worth to at least check them if there ok and replace while the head is off. As a guide i've never had a head gasket replaced "touch wood", but a guy at work had a gasket replaced onan EF and they charged $900. So i reckon your price is ok.
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Motor May 2001 Quote: "Believe it or not, there are actually a bunch of weirdos out there who reckon a six cylinder is the dux gutz. Bugger it: I'm one of them" :s5
AUII Late Ed XR6 HP T5 Venom- Full Tickford Body Kit, 17in Wheels, Herrod Bi-plane Spoiler, Momo Steer/Gear, T-Series Interior Options, Premium Stereo and a very light-tuned 4.0L I6
(FPV-Tickford Club of NSW Member and Co-Founding Member of 3FB Inc, Ford Forums Food Bandits)
I decided to buy the parts, and do it myself with the help of my dad. aLOT cheaper that way, and we can be sure it's done properly.
The head was in good shape, so it only had 20 thou taken off. I planned on 60 thou to increase comp but decided that if it needs to be done again *finds a bit of wood to touch* there won't be any problems.
Good to hear that you did the repair yourself with your dad, it's the way to go. Unfortunately i have to look else where if it happened to my car.
Hows the XH now after the new gasket and head work???
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Motor May 2001 Quote: "Believe it or not, there are actually a bunch of weirdos out there who reckon a six cylinder is the dux gutz. Bugger it: I'm one of them" :s5
AUII Late Ed XR6 HP T5 Venom- Full Tickford Body Kit, 17in Wheels, Herrod Bi-plane Spoiler, Momo Steer/Gear, T-Series Interior Options, Premium Stereo and a very light-tuned 4.0L I6
(FPV-Tickford Club of NSW Member and Co-Founding Member of 3FB Inc, Ford Forums Food Bandits)
Let me offer some advice.....Just because your head gasket blew, and at the back of the head, DONT assume the head gasket is the problem. What the problem is, is, what made the gasket blow in the first place. The gasket blew because something made it GO BANG......WHAT WAS THE BANG....in most inline 6's a lot of guys like to take the thermostat out to make the car run cooler by allowing more water to pass through the head..WRONG MOVE.... because the inline 6 is angled from north to south, what this does is allow more water to flow, however there is no water left in the head to complete the cooling cycle, so the rear of the head gets hot and something has to go, 9 times out of 10 it is the gasket...yet your temp gauge always says cold or warm, this is because there is no water around the sender unit....my question is have you removed your thermostat.
EF: I hope to put it back together in the morning, and also hope to get a few photo's of it at the same time.
DOC: The thermostat has been removed, but only because i needed to to get the head done. I wouldn't think of taking it off to solve cooling problems, I've heard only bad things about doing this.
I had a couple of mechanics look at it (one of them a close freind ie- not trying to give a bum steer) and all agreed that it was rooted. There was an actual leek at the back of the block, that they reckon was probably caused by the head bolts streching over time. None of the bolts were broken, which i hear is usually the problem, but i noticed when i was getting them off that some were f@#king tight and others not so. This in itself would cause problems.
Even though the car is only four years old it does have 160K on the clock so a general clean up was required anyhow. There was alot of carbon build-up around the rim of the cylinders.
DOC: I had a couple of mechanics look at it (one of them a close freind ie- not trying to give a bum steer) and all agreed that it was rooted. There was an actual leek at the back of the block, most probably caused by the head bolts streching over time.
Even though the car is only four years old it does have 160K on the clock so a general clean up was required anyhow. There was alot of carbon build-up around the rim of the cylinders.
The gasket didn't actually blow, it just developed a leak and started running like a dog (coughing and hard to start when warm). The thermostat has been removed, but so has the head ATM.
carbon build up is normal on most cars around that mark, just hope you did'nt remove the carbon when you replaced the gasket. If you have developed a leak, as you say, I would be interested to know what the rear welch plug in the head was, ie brass or steel. as for head bolts stretching, I've 2 thoughts on that matter, which I wont go into on this page. let me know about the welch plug.
carbon build up is normal on most cars around that mark, just hope you did'nt remove the carbon when you replaced the gasket. If you have developed a leak, as you say, I would be interested to know what the rear welch plug in the head was, ie brass or steel. as for head bolts stretching, I've 2 thoughts on that matter, which I wont go into on this page. let me know about the welch plug.
I'm not sure what the welch plugs are made of. They still have the factory block 'black' paint on them.
I aslo changed that last post after you quoted it. Changed my response after i re-read yours. It's too late for me the concentrate properly. :0
A few years ago I had to do the head gasket on my ED, which was pretty much par for the course according to the reputation EA/EB/ED's have for doing gaskets.
Anyway, the interesting thing I found when I pulled it apart was that although the manual states that the threads are to be oiled for installation (ie. lubtorque) - mine were completely dry when they came out. So obviously they were not lubtorqued at the factory and probably didn't have the correct pull-up on them. Hmmm, wonder how many gaskets have gone from insufficient/incorrect factory torque up?
Originally posted by ausxf I had a couple of mechanics look at it (one of them a close freind ie- not trying to give a bum steer) and all agreed that it was rooted. There was an actual leek at the back of the block, that they reckon was probably caused by the head bolts streching over time. None of the bolts were broken, which i hear is usually the problem, but i noticed when i was getting them off that some were f@#king tight and others not so. This in itself would cause problems.
IIRC the head bolts are torque to yields and require a special torque wrench.
I used a set of 2nd hand TTQ's from a 5.0 when I replaced the heads on my old Mustang a few years back, at the time I didn't know they where TTY's and tried torquing them the normal way, I could never get them to torque correctly and ended up blowing a head gasket, ended up replacing the bolts with the normal type, never had a problem after that.
BTW - TTY bolts are generally only good for 2 torquing sessions, one from the factory and 1 after.
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