My car's been making some noise and has a 20% leakdown on #4.

I've replaced the lifters (with JAM non-ticking lifters) and tried heavier oil, seafoam, and Marvel Mistory Oil (all at different times) with no success. It seems to be getting worse.

Anyway, we've decided to pull the head. My father in law has done this on other cars before, but never a 4G63. He'll be leading the project : )

Any caveats to be aware of that you guys can think of?

Am I crazy for wanting to do this ourselves, rather than save up and have the shop do it?

I suspect a bent valve, I assume the general opinion is to replace all the valves, springs, and retainers. I don't intend to ever bring the car above 400 awhp.

I have seen a video of a pro doing it in an hour and 10 minutes, I'm sure it will take us at least 4 times that long. I have the service manual in hand (online)


Unless strongly advised otherwise, we are going to pull the head this evening!



Important notes:
2003 Evo VIII
GSC 272 cams (Intake and Exhaust)
Buschur Stage 2 kit (Intake)
custom Turboback exhaust
Stock turbo at 24 PSI
Dyno tuned and everything.

 

Its pretty straight forward. Just take a picture of it now and label things as you pull them off. Be organized. I would also recommend you order everything now like gaskets and such. For me the most challenging part is timing the car. Also most nerve racking. Just be prepared for anything. May want to have a Tensioner on hand incase yours is no good..

Best practice is to take your time and label stuff that way re install is alot smoother... Good Luck.

 

Thanks man, I appreciate your advice and the good luck. I've heard from another friend that the timing is the most difficult part as well. I'm due for my 60K in a little while, so I'll probably replace the timing belt while at it to save the work later.

Anybody else?

 

Second the pics and bag and tag.

 

Shouldn't be too difficult. Just out of curiousity what type of noise are you hearing? Can you do me a favor and snap a pic with the head off of your cylinder walls? I'm curious how they look at your mileage....I'm coming up on 60k soon and getting some noise also. I'm worried that I have a scored cylinder...at least that's what it sounds like to me.

 

It sounded just like all the "lifter tick" videos I could find on youtube for the 4g63 (even the shop thought it was the lifters). Sounds like one of the 4 squirrels under the hood needs its toenails clipped. Hard to notice at idle, but gets louder with RPMs. Not an engine knock.


I'll definitely take pictures and share them. I appreciate your interest. If I can find a way to make it work, I'll try and video the work and edit it to show in a short amount of time. We'll see how camera works in the garage.

 

+1 on what everyone else said.

 

you said it was leaking down 20%..but where was it leaking out of?

Know that before you pull it apart.

That is where you'll know for certain if it's a valve or not, and which side needs the attention.

 

It's the exhaust side of number 4. Thanks for pointing that out still.

 

Sorry, not much time right now cause I'm at work but.....

We didn't get the head off cause we got off to a late start last night, and didn't have the "head bolt removal tool" or whatever. Anyway, got the valve cover off, handcranked the engine, and the picture explains itself.





PS, I know I said the leakdown was on the exhaust side. I'm trying to figure out if I missheard or if they misspoke. This was on the intake on number 4. We're going to pull the head tonight.

 

^How large of a chunk came off the lobe? When you get the head removed I would love to see more pictures. I wonder where that metal is now...

 

I'm going to hold off on pulling the head for tonight, since I don't have the head bolt removal tool and I hear from a credible source that that chip in the cam is most likely the cause rather than a symptom.

I'm going to save the head and replace the cam to start with.

As for the chip, I don't see a path that it could follow to enter the block (the valve guides are too tight for something that large). It probably made it to the oil pan and got caught up in the filter or still sits in the pan.

I'm going to still replace the spark plugs and see what I can inspect on the cylinder wall while it's off. The shop looked with a camera before though and didn't see a problem (yet they missed the cam?).

We'll see

 

I think ther was another guy on here that had same problem with gsc272's old version not the s2's i would get together with gsc and try and get a replacment good luck

 

Yeah, the cams are way out of warranty and won't be covered by GSC. So here's my next question then, would it be ok to order just an intake cam and leave the exhaust cam how it is? I'm looking at the GSC S1. $500 is a lot to spend to replace a good exhaust cam.

 

hit mike up at awdmotorsport i got the gsc s2 cams for close to 500.00