head resurfacing and timing, techs wanted

[BAlbertiX]

Re:

She's ALIVE!!! Tick free and purring.

A sticky intake valve on cyl6 was definitely the issue. As far as lessons learned go, carefully inspect valves, guides, and tubes for burrs, wear debris, and leftover valve grinding compound when rebuilding or refreshing a head. I still don't know exactly what caused the valve stem to bind, but am aiming towards leftover grinding compound...

A few other notes.

While I had the head out, again... was able to get some numbers off it, and the average height of the head was under the lower limit by .008" at 4.901. Granted I would have welcomed the added compression, but the +.031 thicker head gasket certainly brought some piece of mind on first start. For what it's worth, I was originally under by .008" with a stock headgasket and experienced no interference.

This is certainly not the most most exciting repair thread, but I hope makes a good reference for those with similar head problems.

Thanks r3v.

[goldenbb]

Actually, it was really interesting because I just did the same work. I had no height issues being that the head was skimmed for the first time, but I did have the valves adjusted too tight at first--I set them with the head off and why would it make any difference? But it did--I had to loosen things up just a hair and then then the engine ran a lot better. I will probably re-adjust in a couple of months since they do tick a little, but am not sure how much is just normal.

I also had the crank and cam sensors hooked up backwards and it ran that way, just very badly!

Also, don't paint your headers--even high temp paint burns right off and freaked me out when all that rank-smelling smoke came out of the engine bay.

I used 5w-30 semi-synthetic. I agree that it is too thin and I am seeing some weeping around the cam seal even though that seal is new. I will get some 10w-40 and replace it. God damn oil is like $25/5qt. though!

[BAlbertiX]

Thanks golden. haha no, will not be painting anything in the engine bay. Actually the faded yellow of the factory rust coating over metal has grown on me. Yah, the stock heads are known for their tick, a "sewing machine" as some put it. Start with a loose .010", if they're still ticking, try a tight .010 before going to a .009", no less than .008. I can also note that the 10W-40 also made quite a difference in engine noise. Good luck sir.