Doing head removal today, some q's

[streetwaves]

Hey guys, I'm having my head gasket (and assorted other gaskets) done today after I found white deposits on the dipstick last week. I didn't drive it after that.

So right now I have several questions.

I've never had heat in the car, as long as I can remember. That would tell me that some part of the heater is broken, but I don't think it's the heater core because the shop that was pressure testing my cooling system never found an external leak of coolant. Could it be the heater valve?

Also, if I have no heat, will that affect getting a properly bled system? Will I not be able to bleed properly without the heat on full blast? I'll put it on to be safe but I've never felt anything.

I've also had a problem recently with my temp gauge, it always was showing only 1/4 mark even when warmed up. But I'm not sure if it's just the gauge that's bad, because it also would bounce around a lot and so it kind of seemed like it might be broken. I already tightened the nut on the back of the cluster.

Any idea what might have caused this problem? I had my timing chain components replaced months ago after my car had a rough start one morning and my mechanic told me it had "jumped time". It didn't bend any valves, so they did the chain and "all relevant gaskets" and gave it back to me. Still had the rough start problem. Then I noticed I was losing lots of coolant, then I found coolant in the oil. The new idea is that coolant in the cylinders made for a rough start.

Thanks!

[twistednut]

Look for one of these

[jlevie]

Once you have the head off you need to have it checked for flatness and cracks and possibly surfaced. In most cases a head gasket failure is caused by warp in the head. Unless that warp is removed the new gasket will fail to seal or will soon fail. While the head is off it would make sense to have the valves ground and new seals installed, at the minimum.

The lack of heat could be a bad heater valve, obstruction in the heater hoses or heater core, or a problem with the temperature control. If the cooling system is filled with a vacuum fill system those faults aren't a problem. Otherwise there may be a good bit of air in the heater core. While the head is off you have a great opportunity to diagnose and fix the heater.

The low reading of the gage could be a bad/wrong thermostat or a problem in the gage/cluster/wiring. The jumping of the gage tends to suggest that there is a problem with the gage, but the thermostat could also be bad. When you reinstall the head, replace the thermostat with a new 80C unit.

[streetwaves]

Hey thanks Jim. But shouldn't it be the 88C unit?