Sigh.. Theres no end to the problems.. Cracked Head

Franko · Post by **Franko** » September 13th, 2005, 7:12 pm

So.. First it was the new bumper and now this..
Last tuesday I noticed that when I would stop the car and let it idle for a bit white smoke would come out the tail pipe once I took off. First thing I thought was ' s---, headgasket gone' I always noticed that the compression on cyl #2 was always a little lower then the rest so I decided to bring it in and have it checked. After taking out the spark plugs we hooked up a pump to pressureize the cooling system and cyl #2 filled right to the brim with coolant and steam came out of cyl #1. So I could only assume the headgasket was gone. Got the engine taken apart right then and there and the head gasket looked a little shady but not completely gone. Anyway I brought the head in to be planed and pressure tested and see if it was warped. A couple of hours later the guy who ownes the place called me and told me the words no one wants to hear.. "Your head is cracked in 2 places and will have to be sent away to be fixed." Apparently the engine was overheated badly before I even owned it causing the head to crack and possably even warp.
At a cost of 400 - 500 dollars to get it fixed and it not guaranteed to be perfect afterwards I immedately bought an entire N/A BP engine out of a protege since just the head by itself is hard to come by around here. Also apparently there is HP to be gained from doing this swap since there is no head restriction in the N/A head and there is in the BPT, So its really an upgrade that im somewhat forced into.
Me and a buddy of mine went to pick up the most sketchy engine Ive ever seen. It actually looks like it got pulled off the bottom of the ocean by someones fishing net. We took the head off the engine right in the back of his explorer and stripped it down to get ready to be sent in to the same guy.
I just got the head back tonight. Its MINT! Switched over the BPT cams/valves/springs in to the new N/A BP head. Machined pressure tested and cleaned up its as good as new.. So hopefully Ill be pimpin in the mx again tomorrow.

Anyway check out the pics...

Right off the bottom of a lake..
In the back of the truck.

Crack in the head..

Boxes with the old valves and head and cams..

And the new one all cleaned up..

And you can see plain as day the head restriction in the bpt head..

BPT

BP

Anyway I have to take off and bring the head up to the shop.. Let me know what you guys think of it all.

Grants · Post by **Grants** » September 13th, 2005, 7:19 pm

Man you haven't had much luck!

Looking at it though it looks like you'll come out of this pretty well - even if it meant spending some bucks you didn't plan to.

Hope the install goes well and you're back ASAP!

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » September 13th, 2005, 7:32 pm

Looks like there might be a bit of carbon build up on a few of the valves.. might be the lighting I suppose.. how did the valve seats and the valve faces look? Other than that it looks great!

Tunes67

Franko · Post by **Franko** » September 13th, 2005, 9:05 pm

Ohh no.. You cant really tell how good the valves are in those pics.. Everything is spottless.. I think its just assembly lube or something in the pic.

Mnemonic · Post by **Mnemonic** » September 13th, 2005, 9:07 pm

Franko im not sure if this is your daily driver or not but why not put a few extra bucks into the bp head while its off, performance vavles, valve springs, retainers, 3 angle vavle job, etc....

Franko · Post by **Franko** » September 13th, 2005, 9:14 pm

It is my daily driver.. Plus there isnt any gain anyway.. The valves and springs are fine for what I need. Im not running nitrous or anything. Or over 350 hp.. There isnt much point.. Plus it would take forever to get the parts and it would cost alot.
If I wanted a 3 angle valve job or anything I would have to send the head away since theres nowhere around here that can do it.

DavidOS · Post by **DavidOS** » September 13th, 2005, 11:13 pm

The port size and restrictions are obvious there... but could they also be
to help with thermal disipation or absorbtion.

papa roached · Post by **papa roached** » September 13th, 2005, 11:53 pm

damn franko, i hope your luck gets better man

Jteezy · Post by **Jteezy** » September 14th, 2005, 12:39 am

Hey man, trust me i feel your pain. I just got my head back last weekend because cylinder 2 had a hole in the exhaust valve so i was only running on 3 cylinders, but its all good and boosting now. I just hope you dont give up on your ride, it'd be a shame. The bp head does flow better and if you actually did get some work done to it, you would see some noticeable gains, but if its your daily driver, you dont have the time to wait. Anyway take it easy and make sure you torque everything to specifications. DONT OVERTORQUE! I hope you know the sequence and tq specs, if not let me know. Peace

Franko · Post by **Franko** » September 14th, 2005, 12:39 am

DavidOS wrote:The port size and restrictions are obvious there... but could they also be
to help with thermal disipation or absorbtion.

I think it has something to do with a swirling effect.. Hopefully it works good..
if not I might have to freak out..

Check this out though..

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » September 14th, 2005, 8:19 am

Sorry to head about the bad news, fortunately it's not too critial, and a bonus that you can do an upgrade while your at it

Cpl_Bryant · Post by **Cpl_Bryant** » September 14th, 2005, 12:08 pm

Damn Franko, you sure do got a perdy head. That's too bad you had to be forced into upgrading as you said. Let me know if you get a noticeable difference with the new one.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » September 14th, 2005, 2:21 pm

IMO, even if it's a force upgrade, it's rather upgrade than replace a part with something identical, especially if it isn't cheap.

Franko · Post by **Franko** » September 18th, 2005, 12:46 pm

So.. Needless to say my car wasent happy initally.
They were having trouble getting the cams to line up properly.. When cranking the engine it sounded like the timing was off, but apparently it was the hla's holding the valves open so it couldent make compression on 3 of the cyls. Anyway, I just started the engine and let it run on one cyl for about 2 minutes then the oil began getting pumped out of the hla's and the car started running normal. Once we got it to the point of running for some reason the alternator decided to call it quits while the car was being fixed. Outrageous since the alternator is only a few months old. When I had the car out for a drive the heat started going up past the normal range for no reason and I was getting pretty pissed off. It didnt go right up to the H but it got pretty high. The next day I got the coolant flushed and the thermostat and alternator changed. The car finally ran normally. The only problem was is that the power curve was all screwed up. There was a whole lot of torque at 3000 rpm and then it just kind drops off past 4000 rpm. I was thinking of all kinds of things that could be causing it.. I immediately blamed the new head for the problem, but it turns out that the timing was too retarded. I advanced it to where it was and power came back just the way it should be. It feels the same as it did before only now I am not using a boost controller anymore so Im running a little less boost.
I had low compression on 2 cyls before I did the head swap and now after it all the cyls are the exact same. Compression came up by about 45 psi on the low ones.

So, the car is running good now.. I should have known that old head was messed up but oh well. Its all good now.

snellgrove · Post by **snellgrove** » October 2nd, 2005, 4:33 pm

Nice Socks

Sorry to hear about that though, just how it goes I suppose! new one looks good after its cleaned, hope you have better luck with it all