Coolant in number 7 cylinder

[4xcrazy]

My determining factor was mileage on the engine, mainly.

Head gaskets leaked, high mileage engine, the whole thing gets pulled and rebuilt and gone through. It's just not worth the extra time and money a short time later to have to tear into it again for me.

You didn't say how many miles are on this engine you're working on.

Mine had right around 225k when the gasket started leaking. It smoked at start up from leaky valve seals and had a bottom end knock for a couple of seconds during start up. So I knew the whole thing could just use a good workin'.

My reasoning, again, I didn't want to have to deal with anything internal for a long while, I had it rebuilt for reliability, even had them do the roller cam and lifter kit to it as well.

I think the shop could have used a better set of lifters, but overall, it's a good running engine so far.

 

[dave7700]

Mileage

the mileage is 18000. has no 100,000 marker. story is it sat in storage for 10 years cuz 2 years ago registration said it had only 70,000 and all one owner prior mileages were consistent and a non op filed on it. the truck is clean as hell interior is like new engine and everything else no leaks squeaks or anything for the 7 months I have had it till this. I mean it has never been off road. no scrapes or any signs of it underneath.
so I pulled the head and I am just gonna replace both. bottom end from what I can see looks pretty good. cross hatching still in tact. cylinder walls a little shiny but not too bad I don't think. if I could figure out how to post pics I will. I am not a computer guy. houses anything and everything that is my cup of tea.

 

[dave7700]

Just thought I'd update and thank y'all. I pulled both heads cleaned the living **** outa them with BBQ grill cleaner works far better than anything at the parts store cleaned anything and everything inside and out vacuum all the oil/coolant mixed flushed with gasoline immediately followed by oil soaking everything that supposed to be. Reassembled myself took a weekend. I pulled the hood so I could just sit in the engine compartment and work. But I have to say I was nervous as a mfr that id screw up somewhere. It has been 2 months and about 1000 miles and she's running strong no leaks or squeaks. Quite proud of myself. Nobody really helped aside from y'all. Thanks again.

 

[CGT80]

That is good to hear that it worked out well for you.

I pulled the engine out of my 79 C20, yesterday. It had 5500 miles since the last build but it was still using a lot of oil and fouling plugs. My engine guy suspected that the epoxy used to seal the intake runners, when the heads were ported by a different place (previous build) may have failed, or I could have had a bad intake gasket. He mentioned it could have glazed the cylinders.

I decided to just pull the whole engine and let him tear into it. I didn't want to get the intake off and then still have to pull the engine, and I wasn't going to pull the heads myself and put them back on, in the truck. I have done that plus I want the engine guy to get the valve train setup properly. The intake gaskets were good when he pulled it(while I was there) and there were no obvious signs of oil leaks, but the inlets on the heads were oily. He will do some leak down tests on monday, to check the rings and then he will unbolt the heads and leak test those. He can hone and ring it if needed. The intake was really stuck on there and he had to work at it, and that is with the engine sitting on a bench.

I did change head gaskets in the past and got a year or so out of them before they let go again. I didn't do any machine work to true the heads. OP, keep an eye on your engine. Hopefully there aren't any flaws in the surfaces to cause it again.

 

[dave7700]

OH believe u me I watch the temp like a hawk. I check for any signs of leak before I get in everytime I drive. I am the biggest critic and skeptic of my own work as I know where the flaw may be. I am hard on myself and question myself constantly. I guess is a good thing since anyone I do work for in my handyman biz is 100% referrals and I am busy 5 days a week with clients waiting up to a month in advance for me to come and work on things at their houses. thanks for the heads up (no pun intended there)