Sunday 25 September 2011

Head Shim Installation

Tonight's blog post is brought to you by the rear passenger door sponsors - Aqualogical, and Denise Gadsden, Catherine and Paul Price.  Oh, and Giggle is laughing in the window!!


It was time for the head shim to be installed...  Damian had arranged for his friend Damien to come around to help out, but before he arrived, thought he should get cracking on pulling bits off...  Here's the before photo just in case it's required!!


First step - drop the coolant...  Collect it in a nice clean bucket so it can be reused later!!


Damian removed the air cleaner etc, then it was off with the tappet cover, and the rocker shaft (with rockers attached).  Damien had arrived by this point.


The head was removed, revealing a pretty good looking head gasket.  Good news - there was no "blown head gasket", although the coolant was weeping from the edge... but where?


The head with carby still attached!!


Inspecting the head gasket, you can see that there were just slight weep marks near the 3rd and 4th pistons...


The picture of the block (before cleaning) shows what appears to be minor leaking - again, near the 3rd and 4th cylinder.


The head was cleaned up, then the shim was prepped with Hylomar gasket sealant, as recommended.


The new head gasket was also prepped with the Hylomar, to ensure a better seal (hopefully).


The bottom of the head was given a final wipedown before it was placed back onto the newly installed shim and head gasket combo.


Damian put his new torque wrench to good use, while Damien took over the photography!!


The head was all torqued down - time to install the rockers.


Once they were back together, it was time to refill the radiator...  Damian had a pouring fail, much to Damien's amusement!!


Damian hiding the evidence...


The radiator was topped up with spare fluid (much more successfully).


Booger Mobile was back in the shed, ready for a test start (to adjust the rockers).


Tricia took over camera duties at this point, as Damian and Damien checked it out.


Test run.


With the rockers all adjusted, the engine purred (once Damian realised he hadn't reconnected the PCV hose to the inlet manifold).


Job done!!  The new shim has wiped 40 psi from the pressure in each cylinder.  When cold, the cylinder pressures (before the shim) were 180, 195, 195, 190, 195, 195.  After the shim was installed, the pressure in the first two cylinders were 140 and 155.  This is an excellent result - the pressures will increase by around 20 psi as the engine warms up.

Please, please, PLEASE let this be the end of the engine dramas, begged Damian.

Time will tell!!

3 comments:

  1. Here's a hoping Damo!!! Come on Booger!!!

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  2. SUNDAY SUNDAY HEAD SHIM INSTALLATION DAY
    Sunday morning and its time to hopefully solve the Booger Mobiles head gasket and over heating problem.
    While Damian was waiting for his friend Damien to arrive to give him a hand with it,Damian got a start on the task ahead of them.After getting a good start Damien arrived,now things can really get a move on.Making sure everything was cleaned and ready for the shim to installed along with the head gasket.With this all done it was time for to check and see if there was any change to the pressure in each of the cylinder,yay yes there is thay down by 40psi while cold, and should be around 20psi when Booger engine is hot.With this all hopefully sorted Booger mobile is now well on the way to being at the Camp Quality 2011 esCarpade.
    Well done Damian and Damien I am sure that this will be the end of the Boogers engine problems,if not Damian will be at his wits ends,and we do not want that for we need TEAM BOOGER MOBILE ready and rearing to go to the Camp Quality 2011 esCarpade,which is now only a few weeks away.

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  3. FFS, please run the engine to operating tempreture, let it cool overnight and re-torque the head. I just don't want to see anymore blow headgaskets.
    Back off the headbolts in order just a tad and put a drop of oil under the heads of the bolts before re-torqueing them in order.
    Because of the shim you had to use Hylomar [good choice] and the head has to be re-torqued.

    Sorry ... you proberly already know all this, iI just would hate for there to be more dramas.

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