ok, so i drove the truck, been having a sneaking suspicion the head gasket/s were going but havent wanted to admit it to myself so i drive. anyway park the truck and dont drive it for about 2 weeks. one day i need to take the truck cause i have my daughter and its raining so i go out fire it up and i was in the biggest cloud of white smoke i have seen. ****! so i shut it off and we go back inside and call and postpone the appnt. so i let it sit for another 2ish weeks before i went out and checked things out. used one of the nifty little testers in the radiator and see if the liquid goes from blue to yellow and as soon as i put it on it changed to yellow. confirmed. FML! so i tore the heads off and i have a tarp wrapped around the motor so nothing finds its way in. on to the questions... when i was pulling the heads off i can guarantee that at least 2-3 of the head bolts on the pass side were NOT torqued to 105ft. lbs. after getting them off i see the head gaskets are fel pro so they were replaced at one time and im wondering if the person didnt torque the heads right, at all, or used the original bolts again and they didnt stay tight. theres some of the mayonaise-ish goo around and im wondering whats the best way to clean this crap out of the parts? also whats the best way to clean the cyl head surfaces? im debating on wether or not to pay the 120 bucks to get them resurfaced after finding the lose bolts, ive never had overheating problem, never ran outside of normal from what ive seen/smelled so i dont think the heads are warped but i dunno... is there any way to check the valve seals to make sure they are still good with the heads already out? the block still looks good to me, i can see the crosshatch pattern on a few cyls that i tried to look in, and they all feel real smooth to the touch. i am waiting and trying to figure out the cheapest and best way to go about this from here, and theres a big emphasis on cheap as im still unemployed and dont have much money coming my way but i need the truck running to drive with my daughter. any and all help and suggestions are greatly appreciated and welcome! thanks guys

jesse

 

If headbolts were loose, heads may have warped as they heated and expanded. If you have a true straight edge (tooled steel or better) you can check surface for warpage. If you can seee daylight or slip feeler gauge betwwen edge and surface, it is warped.

As far as valves, I would adivse using lapping compound and see if the surfaces are even.

 

the head bolts werent lose, just definately not 105ft lbs. it didnt take as much effort to loosen them as most of the others

 

Have 'em checked. If they are bad, replace them, don't spend money having them resurfaced. The decks are thin to begin with, shave 'em true, and now they are even thinner. Not to mention they are prone to cracking between the valve seats.....

 

Good information. I haven't had one of these heads off. I know some are more forgiving thatn others. That being the case, I would replace both, probably some aftermarket that would be better than original heads,.

 

Unfortunately we are very limited for aftermarket heads, Clearwater, Mopar r/t, eddy aluminum, and cific. I think there are two more but I can't remember them. I myself have my cific heads off and am trying to get motivated to finish rebuilding them today.

 

I understand the need/want for new heads, but its really not in my budget unless u guys got some exttras layin around thhat u wanna send out for nothing... Didnt think so. So anyways ur suggestions for an on the cheap fix is what i really need and appreciate. Thanks

 

Since money is an issue, Get some new FelPro head gaskets and hope for the best. If it still leaks then here you go. http://www.barsproducts.com/1109.htm

 

does that bars stuff actually work? ive never actually heard of one of these products having good reviews. never used one on my vehicles cause i dont wanna clean the mess it causes when u really do fix it later

 

Spend the extra time and money to ensure both the block and the heads are true and flat. My truck was suffering minor blow-by that I've discovered was a variance in either the block or the heads. No amount of torquing on the bolts will fix the problem, so I'm having both surfaces checked and taken down as needed.