got my cylinder head today. I've taken everything apart except the valves, I need to stop by the autoparts store and get the tool for the springs. I don't have my effin socket set, it's at my dads with my camera (yeah, still) and other tools, so I can't remove the cam yet. will take pics later.

 

Man you have got to take pics!!!!! Regarding the machine shop for the 3 angle valve and cleanup and port and polish and such, I'm considering these guys as they are in town.

http://www.rpmmachine.com/machinework.html


I've also heard there's another really great shop here in utah I have yet to call, I'll find out more and post. RPMmachine's prices don't seem like a gouging, which is appealing.

 

Good find and it seems like good prices... Nice find

 

thanks for the link, I will probably call them and see if I can't get a quote let me know if you find any more information out too.

 

got the head installed before the trip this weekend, man what a difference. Untuned and on the stock header and most muffler piping I still notice a big difference. I can't wait to get this SMT-6 up and running, and especially can't wait for this turbo kit install now the cam was ground for a turbo application, so I am sure I have only seen half what my new parts can do

I will do a little bit of a writeup, but don't expect a DIY on this one. It was a big project, and I won't be doing this kind of major work for myself in the future. I say that, but if it's unplanned as it was this time I doubt I will be able to come out of pocket for the labor and will end up doing it myself In other words, if you can afford it let someone else do this for you. It's very stressful not knowing if your car is going to work or not when you finish, or if it's going to blow up after a few hundred miles <still not sure on that second point, although I put almost a grand on it this weekend.

The valvetrain took about 2 hours to reassemble, and I had to make a tool to put the springs back on the valves because all the autoparts stores were going to have to order it and it was around 100$. the universal/rental ones will not fit around our springs, especially the intake springs. I will take a pic of my custom spring tool later and explain how I would change it for next time in case you guys want to make one. basically it's a socket welded onto a c-clamp with a notch cut in the socket. I used carb cleaner to blow as much crap out of the head as I could, and then I washed the head twice in soap and water in the sink (bathtub would work for those of you who down have a giant garage sink like my dad, but be careful so you don't scratch the tub) and blew it out with compressed air before letting it sit in the sun all afternoon.

The head studs are 12MM 12 point sockets. It took me about three hours to find a ****ing 12 point socket, and I had to buy an entire mechanics tool kit in order to get the socket; it was another 100$ in the project make sure you have 12 point sockets before you bother removing the valve cover, because the head won't come off without them.

All of my gaskets were in great shape at 55000 miles, but I would recommend replacing your 50$ head gasket ANY time you are that far into the engine. It just makes good sense.

you need to have some liquid gasket for some of your sensors, and you need to have plenty of coolant and oil. I dumped a whole gallon of cheapy autozone oil over the head after bolting it down to help the initial lubrication, and you should crank the engine over without fuel a few times before the initial startup in order to get oil back up in the engine. set the valve lash before you do anything, and after you run the car for about 20 minutes ABOVE idle (cam pamphlet says 2000rpms, but anywhere around that should be fine.) Instead of sitting in the car you can hold the accelerator cable with a pair of vise grips (LOOSE so you don't damage the cable) in order to hold the idle.

You will need to do an oil change after your initial break in period, 1000 miles at the most I would imagine. no matter what the filter needs to be changed this time too. you don't want any specs of anything making it back to the engine and if you did your own P&P it's likely the head didn't get clean enough. After doing this myself I wouldn't trust a shop to get it 100% clean either, it's pretty much impossible.

the manifold is very easy to install if you do it out of the car. there are two bolts on the bottom of the manifold that attach the manifold to the block via a "stay" or bracket. you can get to them from under the car very easily, and then the whole head and manifold will come out. I set it on the ground beside the new head and manifold and changed it all over outside the car.

the camshaft sprocket was a PITA also. I ziptied the belt to the pulley, and used a paint marker to mark the pulley and belt alignment as well as the pulley in relation to the sprocket (which I ended up using as my timing marks to set the valve lash with.) the timing belt didn't come off either pulley, but the tension was too high to get the pulley back on the camshaft. I ended up having to rotate the crankshaft to get the notch at the bottom of the cam sprocket, rotated the camshaft to the same effect, and used a prybar to pull the top of the sprocket onto the camshaft. Eventually I was able to fit the bolt in, and used it to force the sprocket onto the camshaft. It went on easily enough so I doubt I caused any damage to either piece, and this area would likely show little effect if it was scratched up anyway. setting the valve lash is a ***** with no timing marks, but if you watch the rockers it will exhaust and then intake and when you see the intake rockers stop moving you set the valve lash on that set of rockers. the camshaft turns once for every two revolutions of the crankshaft, and keeping this in mind will speed up your adjustments. every 90 degress on the camshaft is another valve lash adjustment, so if you watch the cam sprocket from the engine side you will see that the spokes are vertical were your adjustment should be made, you just have to adjust the one that quit intaking just then.

you don't need to remove the exhaust, the manifold will unbolt and pull out of the way. the coolant is not as big of a problem if you undo the lower radiator hose first, it will mostly drain out at that point but when you undo another line it will flow out more so make sure you are watching your pants I got soaked, twice It's also a good time to tap the intake manifold for a boost gauge or blow off valve so you don't have to tee into your stock lines. just make sure you do it where it won't interfere with something else. at the back of the head, on the #4 side of the manifold, is a coolant line with a few lines coming off of it. you need to removing the part from the head, so all of those lines can remain attached to that part. I took them off before I realized that part was attached to the block by another coolant line, wasting valuable time.

from beginning to end I think I could have done this in 12 hours. with all the delays and me splitting it up between two days, not to mention I spend most of the day thursday completing the P&P, I spent around 20 hours or so on the project including the P&P. add about 6 hours for running around looking for tools and equipment over the course of a month or so.