Head gaskets

[burmjohn]

I haven't done a pair of head gaskets in over 15 years when I had my first mustang and shot it with a 200 shot of nitrous. My project car which is a turbo mustang and put a total of 203 miles on in 4 years might be in need of some. Going to swap the oil tomorrow go see what the deal is but I see some seeping from the heads. Maybe I can retorque them but 99% of the time that never works.

Anyone done one lately?

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[Paula]

Can't say that I have

[Zem18]

My BIL is the king of mustang. What is sleeping out, oil or antifreeze? If it is oil, be sure to check the valve cover gaskets first and 're torque them down if they look ok. Maybe some of the oil found a low spot and then leaked down the heads.

What year is it and we have to see pics.

[Perchlake]

Do them all the time i have a 1988 mustang race car they aint bad to do depends on what you have in the way stock mustang blocks tend to distort or flex at high rpm some times retorque will do the job

[sits in trees]

Clean it up with some brake clean and run it to make sure it's leaking from the heads, might well just be the valve cover gaskets. If ur getting alittle seeping from the head that's not the worst thing and can be lived with. I only do head gaskets if I'm getting oil coolant contamination or I'm blowing coolant out the tail pipe, but that's me, if you have the need for a spiffy show car motor than by all means do the heads. But just be sure it's not the valve covers first.

[HuntOrBeHunted]

i dread anything about working on head gaskets. Such a cheap part but such a pain to change. Good luck !!

[NFA-ADK]

If you take the cap off the oil fill and it is white you have water in your oil and the head gasket should be replaced.  Check the block and the head with a straight edge, VIP.  Otherwise try to retouch all the bolts in proper sequence and good luck! 

[Jeremy K]

I just replaced the head on my cavalier a couple months ago , i would have rather done 3 mustangs instead of one cavalier .

[ny hunter]

I would try to retork the heads and if they need gaskets I would save it for a winter time project after deer season is over...

[landtracdeerhunter]

Replace the head bolts on reassembly. If you don't, expect to do the job over again, soon.

Edited June 22, 2014 by landtracdeerhunter

[ELMER J. FUDD]

I was going to say just make sure you use a cometic head gasket for a boosted motor, but the 2nd to last post in the linked thread has me thinking.

http://forums.corral.net/forums/superchargers/1311016-cometic-head-gaskets-when-boosting.html

[burmjohn]

I heard good things and bad about those cosmetics. Most seem to get away with the felpro's 9333's pushing way more boost then I do. Also the cosmetics dont seem to play nice with the crap heads I have on the car. 

 

Anyways, I was kidding about the last time I did head gaskets, it wasn't that long ago. I just despise it unless I was doing it by choice, like a new set of heads

 

I changed the oil, everything looked fine.  Was a bit more dirty then I thought it would be.

 

 

[burmjohn]

Do them all the time i have a 1988 mustang race car they aint bad to do depends on what you have in the way stock mustang blocks tend to distort or flex at high rpm some times retorque will do the job

 

Its a stock block w/GT40 heads pushing 8lbs of boost. I've read these thin decks on the GT40 heads suck.  I really don't want to change them up until I have the money for a dark block. 

 

I wish I could find my dyno sheet, but its 430hp 520 lbs of torque at the wheels.

 

 

[burmjohn]

My BIL is the king of mustang. What is sleeping out, oil or antifreeze? If it is oil, be sure to check the valve cover gaskets first and 're torque them down if they look ok. Maybe some of the oil found a low spot and then leaked down the heads.

What year is it and we have to see pics.

 

Its nothing really to look at, I bought i right after I got a house and had a garage for a project car.  And after the house came kids, 2 of them, so I have had zero time for the mustang really.   Needs a cowl hood, paint job, new block, new fuel system, the list goes on and on.   Long story short I wanted another fox body because that was my first car ever.

 

Antifreeze is seeping out unfortunately. Not much just a tiny bit, so pretty sure I'll be doing gaskets, checked the oil it was clean.  Arrow shows where the antifreeze was (hard to see)

 

 

This is a very super generous photo where you can not see how bad the paint is lol.  Its original paint so, can't expect much.

 

 

 

[Perchlake]

Sure it isn't the intake thats leaking thats where the arrow is pointed

[ny hunter]

I thought the same thing.

[burmjohn]

Sure it isn't the intake thats leaking thats where the arrow is pointed

 

Where that arrow points is right below the head gasket, it felt wet from under the gasket down.  I'll have to clean it up then get it heated up again and watch it to know for sure. 

[NFA-ADK]

I just replaced the head on my cavalier a couple months ago , i would have rather done 3 mustangs instead of one cavalier .

I use to do the Cavalier's all the time.  The 4 cylinders use to go every 75,000 miles or so.  Must have done over 100.  I had them down to 4.5 hours back in the day. 

[Jeremy K]

I use to do the Cavalier's all the time.  The 4 cylinders use to go every 75,000 miles or so.  Must have done over 100.  I had them down to 4.5 hours back in the day. 

 

Thats some fast wrench turning , it took me 4.5 hours just to talk myself into going out to the garage to work on it a few steps at a time.

 

[NFA-ADK]

LOL that's a good one Jeremy K.  That was back in the day when I use to do them often.  The alternator was always a pain to get the back bolts but if you take the front engine mount out and rock the car while in park you could use the E-Brake to hold the engine forward and get better access.  Those little tricks save loads of time!

[Jeremy K]

 

LOL that's a good one Jeremy K.  That was back in the day when I use to do them often.  The alternator was always a pain to get the back bolts but if you take the front engine mount out and rock the car while in park you could use the E-Brake to hold the engine forward and get better access.  Those little tricks save loads of time!

 

 

2.2 ecotec , i didn't have to remove the alt. I did however have to take the motor mount off and jack up the engine to remove one bolt holding one of the plastic chain guides to the side off the head. Luckily it was our "extra" vehicle , so i could afford to work on it in small shifts.