Broken rockers

[myfirst325]

piston 5 and 6

next the valve side of head!

[myfirst325]

bent valves

[myfirst325]

piston heads

[Curt Hayes]

The car only has 55k miles so I was a bit surprised to find how bad everything looks.

That's a lot of carbon for only 55k. Dead odometer?

[nando]

So I was able to pull the head with the intake manifold on. Here's what I found. The car only has 55k miles so I was a bit surprised to find how bad everything looks. All the cylinders have the crescent moons on top of the piston heads. Is this normal? The intake side crescents are thicker than the thickness of a quarter coin. None of the piston heads have holes so I'm wondering if I can just clean up everything really well and throw in a rebuilt head.

those are the valve reliefs - they look fine. doesn't look like any valves broke off or anything so you can leave the bottom end alone, just clean it up.

as far as the carbon deposits - it's 20+ years old and has only 55k. If it was driven often, it was driven for very short distances (5 miles or less). The engine never had a chance to warm up and burn any of that stuff off. So it gets built up.

[myfirst325]

Perfect! Can I use crc brakeclean or is there something better perhaps carb cleaner? I was able to locate two used heads one from an is and one from an i, neither convertibles. I have an IC but my understanding is that the engines are the same and the heads are designated 885's.

The car lived on the east end of long island ny so it makes sense that it would be driven very short distances which explains the build up. thanks for the explanation!

[nando]

that's what I used. also you can get a "roloc disk" made by 3M. get the softest one because the stiff ones chew through aluminum. soak the pistons and go over them (at TDC) with the wheel - don't use it on the block surface though. then suck the crap out with a shop vac and rotate the engine a few times wiping the cylinder walls clean. it will still burn a shit-ton of carbon after you start it up again, but it won't hurt the motor (lots and lots and lots of white smoke).

[scottinAZ]

yep, clean it up, and run the shit outta it. I would be more concerned with what condition the rings are in at this point, as with that low mileage (if accurate), and the carbon in the chambers, they could be a bit gummed up. Nothing a good soak with CRC or WD 40 cant fix, along with running the shit outta it when completed.

[myfirst325]

cleaned everything up well today and plan on replacing the head tomorrow. quick question however... I read through the bentley and understand that the headbolts need to be torqued in three stages. First 22 ftlbs, then 90, then 90. My question is... do I tighten all the bolts to 22 ftlbs, then all the bolts get a 90 degree tighten, followed by a second 90 degree tighten... or do I bolt on all the bolts and individually tighten the 1st one to 22 ftlbs, 90, then 90 and then do the 2nd one to 22 ftlbs then 90, then 90, and then the 3rd... so on and so on.

[myfirst325]

it would make sense to tighten all the bolts stage 1 (22 ftlbs), then stage 2 (90 deg) on all the bolts, followed by stage 3 (90 deg) on all the bolts.

[Beach Bum]

Torque all to S1, then the first 90, then the second 90, as a set, not individually

[myfirst325]

Installed the head and the car started right up!! Alot of white smoke from exhaust and some from engine bay from all the crc and stuff sprayed. Idled for about 30 mins and no issues. Took to the road and cruised at about 60 mph for about 20 miles. No issues except that the valve ticking seems a little louder than my other cabby. I checked the valve lash while the cover was off and a couple were a little tight. I left it alone since it was a used head and I didn't want to play with it much but now that the engine is running fine I'll adjust the eccentrics tomorrow... Thanks to all who helped.

[Easily Distracted]

Sounds like a Hamptons car. Bought new and stored for most of the year. Only used during the summer to run to the beach. When it breaks, get rid of it and buy a new one. If this is the case I know a couple of people who got some incredible deals this way while working at dealerships. It was always an almost perfect car with a broken timing belt.

Congratulations on your new purchase. Definitely pick up a Bently repair manual. IMO Bently is the most thorough.

[myfirst325]

Done!

[ForcedFirebird]

Installed the head and the car started right up!! Alot of white smoke from exhaust and some from engine bay from all the crc and stuff sprayed. Idled for about 30 mins and no issues. Took to the road and cruised at about 60 mph for about 20 miles. No issues except that the valve ticking seems a little louder than my other cabby. I checked the valve lash while the cover was off and a couple were a little tight. I left it alone since it was a used head and I didn't want to play with it much but now that the engine is running fine I'll adjust the eccentrics tomorrow... Thanks to all who helped.

I would have done the valve lash before bolting the head on to be close (cold) then warmed up for accuracy, but AWESOME! Glad you got her going :D

I have seen heads that had incorrect valve adjustment, wiped out the cam lobes, just be careful trusting someone else with thier work.