First blazer... first step is rebuild heads.

[ddy]

Hello,

This is my first post so I'm very sorry if I'm in the wrong section or any other newbie mistake...

So I have my first blazer. I've wanted one for years. A friend blew a head gasket on her 91 and offered to sell cheap so I bought.

My dad was a mechanic and I used to help him out all the time growing up. He passed early and it's been years (20) since I did any real engine work.

I'm a few days away from going out there and starting on pulling the heads.

I'm looking for tips from folks on the best way to proceed to help me minimize the pain I cause myself by undertaking this brute force attempt at pulling these heads, having them rebuilt, and putting them back.

Any pointers to previous threads, web resources, or other advice is more than welcome...

Thanks for reading.

-Daniel

 

[ilikemud]

id make sure to get new head bolts. and follow the torque specs/sequence on the head bolts. when you pop the dist. cap mark the rotor position somehow to make life easier when dropping in back in. make sure to put something in the valley (rags) to keep debris ot of the rest of the engine. and id change the oil when the job is done before you ever fire it up. the rest should be take off and put back on. oh yea if you are going to reuse the spark plugs id remove them lol exhaust manifolds/headers dont get along with sparkplugs.

 

[POWERMAD]

Welcome to CK5

If it was my rig I would just inspect the heads and reinstall them with new gaskets

The engine has prolly 150K + right?

New heads don't cost much more than getting yours rebuilt. And generally once ya start down that road it's all a money pit.

Because then it's hmmm the cam is right there and while we are here..
next thing ya know you are building a stroker.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Slow and steady wins the race everytime. Since you haven't done this kind of work for a long time if you think you might need a visual aid then take lots of pictures. They are nice to refer back to later if you've forgot where something went. You do not need new head bolts on this year vehicle. You should remove the heads and at the least have them cleaned and checked for cracks and valves sealing and i recommend having them resurfaced before reinstalling them. If the engine has lots of miles and you can't afford to rebuild the engine but do have a couple hundred to throw into having a valve job done while the heads are off i recommend doing at least that at this time.

Where in N. California are you?

 

[Greg72]

Welcome to CK5....

My advice if you are close enough to the San Jose / Fremont CA area, is to go introduce yourself to Scott (4X4HIGH). He is tremendously knowledgeable and runs his own machine shop. These types of issues are the kinds of things he can fix in his sleep.

He'd be a great resource for you... you can DIY as much of it as you want, then bring him any parts that need special tools or work.


Depending on how "involved" you want to be in K5s and 4-wheeling, there is a fairly large group in the NorCal region we could introduce you to also...

 

[ddy]

id make sure to get new head bolts. and follow the torque specs/sequence on the head bolts. when you pop the dist. cap mark the rotor position somehow to make life easier when dropping in back in. make sure to put something in the valley (rags) to keep debris ot of the rest of the engine. and id change the oil when the job is done before you ever fire it up. the rest should be take off and put back on. oh yea if you are going to reuse the spark plugs id remove them lol exhaust manifolds/headers dont get along with sparkplugs.

Excellent advice! I was thinking about the distributor marking the other day. Hopefully I can borrow a friends pressure washer and clean things up a bit before I dig in. Perhaps a sharpie for the mark?

Mostly, I need to figure out all the different gaskets I'll need. I'm assuming intake manifold, exhaust manifolds, headers, and valve covers. Will I need anything else for the other crud I'll have to pull? Distributor, water pump? Anything else you can remember off hand?

 

[ddy]

Welcome to CK5

If it was my rig I would just inspect the heads and reinstall them with new gaskets

The engine has prolly 150K + right?

New heads don't cost much more than getting yours rebuilt. And generally once ya start down that road it's all a money pit.

Because then it's hmmm the cam is right there and while we are here..
next thing ya know you are building a stroker.

Yeah, pretty close... 140K and change.

I know I know! I've already been pricing stuff I "could do since it's already apart"!

Must refrain!

 

[ddy]

Slow and steady wins the race everytime. Since you haven't done this kind of work for a long time if you think you might need a visual aid then take lots of pictures. They are nice to refer back to later if you've forgot where something went. You do not need new head bolts on this year vehicle. You should remove the heads and at the least have them cleaned and checked for cracks and valves sealing and i recommend having them resurfaced before reinstalling them. If the engine has lots of miles and you can't afford to rebuild the engine but do have a couple hundred to throw into having a valve job done while the heads are off i recommend doing at least that at this time.

Where in N. California are you?

Good tip on the pictures. I'll certainly do that.

No new head bolts needed? That will save me $30-60 right there.

Hmmm, so I just have them checked, resurfaced, and get a valve job I can save 300 to 400 bucks? I was assuming like $600 for the head rebuild and it would be nice to spend less (single income, two kids, and a 20 year old house :-) ).

I'm between Sacramento and Placerville on US-50. A place called Cameron Park. I get to see a steady stream of trail vehicles going up the hill every weekend to the Rubicon and all points east.

Thanks for all the wonderful tips! I can tell already that this is a different kind of forum!

 

[ddy]

Welcome to CK5....

My advice if you are close enough to the San Jose / Fremont CA area, is to go introduce yourself to Scott (4X4HIGH). He is tremendously knowledgeable and runs his own machine shop. These types of issues are the kinds of things he can fix in his sleep.

He'd be a great resource for you... you can DIY as much of it as you want, then bring him any parts that need special tools or work.


Depending on how "involved" you want to be in K5s and 4-wheeling, there is a fairly large group in the NorCal region we could introduce you to also...

Thanks for such a warm welcome! Kind of a different type of vibe around here compared to other places on the net. With all these great replies I'm starting to see the value of dropping a couple bucks on a membership.

San Jose ain't all that far and I find my self down there on business every once and awhile. Maybe I can even have him do my head work. I'd much rather go to somebody who is trusted within a community like this as well as a blazer fan.

As far as "involved". I love to camp. I'm not really one for doing things that would require major mods, but I love to get off the road to find cool spots to camp. Rolling my rig or breaking major chunks of it off in an attempt to scale some rock face isn't my idea of fun! (yet?) ;-)

 

[4X4HIGH]

I know where Cameron Park is, in fact i have a friend who moved up there somewhere. If you get down this way (Fremont) then by all means drop the heads off to me and i'll fix them up correctly. I like to keep money within the group as well any chance i get. I also know what you mean about spending your hard earned cash with someone who is also into the same hobby.

PM me if you decide to bring the heads to me and i'll give you the info to find me.

 

[ddy]

I know where Cameron Park is, in fact i have a friend who moved up there somewhere. If you get down this way (Fremont) then by all means drop the heads off to me and i'll fix them up correctly. I like to keep money within the gropup as well any chance i get. I also know what you mean about spending your hard earned cash with someone who is also into the same hobby.

Cool, well let me see if I can succeed it gettin' the darn things off without breakin' something (or myself) and then I'll touch bases to see what's up. If I do find some extra dough lying around and decide to go for the rebuild, do you do that too?

Got a trusted source for all your gasket needs? I need to start getting that stuff together too.

I was just on eBay looking for a torque wrench. Looks like I can get a craftsman 1/2" drive for about $50.

Anyway, I guess I'm just rambling at this point... :-)

 

[4X4HIGH]

Cool, well let me see if I can succeed it gettin' the darn things off without breakin' something (or myself) and then I'll touch bases to see what's up. If I do find some extra dough lying around and decide to go for the rebuild, do you do that too?

Got a trusted source for all your gasket needs? I need to start getting that stuff together too.

I was just on eBay looking for a torque wrench. Looks like I can get a craftsman 1/2" drive for about $50.

Anyway, I guess I'm just rambling at this point... :-)

Are you talking about a rebuild on the whole engine? If so then yes i do that also. If you look around on here you'll see i've built a few engines for people on here in the past. The most recent one was for Brian (bp71k5).

I own an automotive machine shop and there is a parts store (CarQuest) in the same building with me so parts of any kind are no problem.

 

[ddy]

Are you talking about a rebuild on the whole engine? If so then yes i do that also. If you look around on here you'll see i've built a few engines for people on here in the past. The most recent one was for Brian (bp71k5).

I own an automotive machine shop and there is a parts store (CarQuest) in the same building with me so parts of any kind are no problem.

Well I was thinking of just rebuilding the heads since they were going to be off and the engine has about 140k on it. Hopefully I won't need to yank the whole shebang for awhile yet! :-)

I'm sure my gasket needs will become perfectly apparent as I start breaking this thing down.

Thanks and I'll PM you when I've got these things off. I'd love to bring them to you for the valve job at least and have you give them a good once over!

I need to get to the Cisco campus down there and if I can combine a little pleasure well then that sounds awesome to me!

 

[jonrpick]

Thanks for all the wonderful tips! I can tell already that this is a different kind of forum!

Indeed...

With all these great replies I'm starting to see the value of dropping a couple bucks on a membership.

As many others will confirm, it is THE best $25 you could possibly spend on your truck...ever.