PTAaron Posted March 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Heads ere not warped - tested with a straight edge and a light looking for gaps.Scraped the surfaces, ready to install again tomorrow.... Do yourself a favour, you've come this far, take them into a machine shop, spend a few dollars & have a machinist check the surfaces, don't take anything for granted. Also take a close look down each cylinder with the piston at bottom and look closely for a possible crack in any of the cylinder walls going into a water gallery. Don't assume anything, and don't rush. First thing I will do today will be checking the cylinders - not sure how we overlooked that yesterday, aside from being sick and tired of working on this engine. At least the first thing I do after picking up the head bolts and a replacement for the hard vacuum line that snapped off before my wife has to leave for the day with our other car Thank you for the reminder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Cylinder walls were all perfect... proceeding with the reassembly is going well so far - slow going since it is around 25 degrees in my garage and we keep needing to take "warm up" breaks. We we discussed sending the heads to a machine shop - but decided that unfortunately it would put this repair's cost at more than I am willing to spend vs simply replacing the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted March 23, 2014 Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Make sure you get the head gasket mating surfaces very, very clean. I had my heads decked by a machine shop and they took 3-weeks to do it. However, I took that opportunity to spend a couple hours a day cleaning the block surface to where it could be eaten off of. Granted, I'd previously used stop-leak to delay needing to replace the head gasket so there was a lot of crust that needed to be cleaned off. I'm not saying you need to be as meticulous and paranoid as I was, but my head gasket repair has held up for 15-years now so I don't regret being that careful. A year or so later, I helped a friend replace the head gasket on his Mercedes. He wanted to get it knocked out in 2-days and didn't think it necessary to pay that much attention to getting the head and block surface that clean. Some solvent and a rag was okay for him. I warned him that leaving any carbon deposits or crust behind sitting on either surface, or even a stray hair could cause all kinds of sealing problems. He reassured me that, "nah, it'll be fine". Needless to say, that engine never ran again, at least not while he had it. Ended up selling the car as non-running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2014 Make sure you get the head gasket mating surfaces very, very clean. I had my heads decked by a machine shop and they took 3-weeks to do it. However, I took that opportunity to spend a couple hours a day cleaning the block surface to where it could be eaten off of. Granted, I'd previously used stop-leak to delay needing to replace the head gasket so there was a lot of crust that needed to be cleaned off. I'm not saying you need to be as meticulous and paranoid as I was, but my head gasket repair has held up for 15-years now so I don't regret being that careful. A year or so later, I helped a friend replace the head gasket on his Mercedes. He wanted to get it knocked out in 2-days and didn't think it necessary to pay that much attention to getting the head and block surface that clean. Some solvent and a rag was okay for him. I warned him that leaving any carbon deposits or crust behind sitting on either surface, or even a stray hair could cause all kinds of sealing problems. He reassured me that, "nah, it'll be fine". Needless to say, that engine never ran again, at least not while he had it. Ended up selling the car as non-running. I went over it with a very sharp gasket scraper after wiping it down with degreaser - felt as smooth as glass when I ran my fingers over it... hopefully that was good enough! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2014 Done for the night - too dang cold out there to keep working. Also not sure what attaches to the module that sits on the same studs as the ignition coils - looks like a vacuum line but I don't remember removing one... Started a thread here to figure it out: http://www.w-body.com/showthread.php/79303-What-is-this-and-what-is-missing Hope to button it up tomorrow night, change the oil, and hopefully fire it up Tuesday... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Engine assembled... Fresh oil, fresh filter, new spark plug wires, coolant topped off. Only one spare nut that I can't reach the stud to re-install... Car starts, and after a few stall outs it idles very smoothly. Was able to drive it from being jump started in the driveway into my garage - power steering pump now makes a lot of noise. Heater blows heat. Nothing fresh is dripping after 10 minutes at idle. ...BUT... At part throttle it stumbles BADLY, then stalls. Here is a video clip - I gave it part throttle, went back to idle, then gave it a little bit of throttle again and held it - then it dies: [video=youtube;Elq_q26-Yu4] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Fury Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Shit like that is what makes me want to kill myself and burn every W ever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Shit like that is what makes me want to kill myself and burn every W ever. You're reading my mind. I would much rather have spent the past hour laying in bed with my wife going to sleep instead of searching the internet for possible culprits. My thoughts are: TPS reading incorrectly at part throttle (all of a sudden?), MAP sensor causing improper fuel mixture (again, suddenly failing?), plugs hooked up in wrong order? (they aren't, I checked and checked again), probably not a vacuum leak because it idles fine and I don't see any open vacuum lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Fury Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Perhaps a sticky IAC? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Checked fuel pressure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 (edited) Perhaps a sticky IAC? Could be - there was some "gunk" from the initial issue that ended up in the throttle body region... with it laying on the floor for a few days maybe some of the gunk ended up making its way somewhere it shouldn't have. Checked fuel pressure? Don't have a gauge, but that's a good thought. EDIT: Maybe Autozone will have a tester for rent? Edited March 28, 2014 by PTAaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 Don't have a gauge, but that's a good thought. EDIT: Maybe Autozone will have a tester for rent? They might. If not, I think it's a good tool to own. It's been a really useful diagnostic tool which I have used on every EFI car I've owned. Fuel pressure gauge to check for proper fuel and an inductive timing light to test for proper sparking are two tools I've found very valuable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 They might. If not, I think it's a good tool to own. It's been a really useful diagnostic tool which I have used on every EFI car I've owned. Fuel pressure gauge to check for proper fuel and an inductive timing light to test for proper sparking are two tools I've found very valuable. I think this looks like what I may need: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/OEM-Fuel-pump-diagnostic-kit/_/N-25h2?itemIdentifier=913437_0_0_ I do have a timing light - used it a lot when I worked on my XR4Ti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 That'll work. Quite a bit better kit than I bought. I just got the gauge by itself for something like $35. Didn't need any adapters to work on GM cars. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp558 Posted March 30, 2014 Report Share Posted March 30, 2014 Are you rolling two threads on the same thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PTAaron Posted March 31, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 The other thread picked up where this one ended... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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