Had an over heating problem with white smoke out the tail pipe. Also my wife said the exhaust smelt "fruity"..so I decided to do my first head gasket. I have the intake off and the valve covers off. I am about to pull the push rods and take the head off...I wanted to ask a couple of questions if I can:

- does any one know the side of the nut on the front of the engine to turn it over..I need to set it to the "neturel" position to pull the push rods and reinstall them: Maybe 1-1/4 socket??

- I will pick up my gasket set tomorrow. Do I put RTV on the head gasket?? What about the head bolts...locktite?? If so, what color for both??

- The valve covers...RTV + gasket?? and what about the locktite??

- Intake...I am going to replace the pleium gasket...do I need RTV and locktite on the intake gasket??

Can anyone tell me what I am missing with the "tube" that goes out the back of the intake and to the exhaust? This thing was a pain to get off and I see it being a pain to get back on???

Thanks for the help...

 

i pulled my disty a few weeks ago, i am gonna second that 1 1/4 socket size used to turn the motor over.

 

Couple of suggestions...

1) get your head gaskets from summit racing. they are $25 bux a pair which is approx 75% off what the dealer charges and has the exact same p/n ON the gasket.

2) get a new set of head bolts. summit also sells a set from ARP that run about $70 bux. I re-used mine and had my head fail to seat due to weak clamping force on the head bolts. long story short, swapped on some r/t heads, used old bolts torqued down per the book and when the motor reached op temp, the head gaskets failed, water poured out from between the head & block. when I removed the headbolts, they broke free very easily as if they were not torqued. I double checked the torque prior to un-bolting the head and all of them were right on the money... 105 ft lbs. ARP's are torqued down to 85 ft lbs and have a greater clamping force than the stock bolts. make sure you dip the tip of the bolts in 30 wt oil prior to the install.

the crank bolt is 1 1/8 IIRC, yours being an older motor may be different. you do not need a "neutral" position. the only time you should be concerned is when changing the timing chain.

there is no rtv on the head gasket, it goes on dry, just put it down and torque the head bolts in the proper sequence.

valve covers... no rtv needed, stay away from the cork gaskets, they suck in my opinion, the rubbery stock ones are reuseable. I suggest either lock washers to keep them torqued down properly... 11 ft lbs iirc...

plenum gasket... get the felpro gasket (do not compromise on this... all the others suck). Some use RTV on theirs, I didnt and had no problem. get new bolts and make sure you torque them down to spec correctly. there is an aluminum pan kit available that helps eliminate the plenum failures.

your tube sounds like the egr tube, un-bolt it from both ends and it'll come right out.

 

On your head gasket spray on a light coat of a film called Copper Coat. Its available at NAPA, and other places as well. Its made by K&W.

After the recall on the 2.0L engines we learned this is an invaluable tool when doing head gaskets.

 

what is the point of the copper coat?

 

is ok to use a air impact wrench to get the head bolts off??? I can't seem to break them free with a wrench and hammer....

 

wrench & hammer? long breaker bar and maybe a slight extention to make the bar longer. I like to take a jack handle apart and put it on the end of the breaker bar. that works pretty good.

I wouldnt use an impace wrench... if you snap a bolt, your potentially screwed.

 

I am about the start putting things back together..I wanted to ensure I understood you correctly when you said it doesn't matter what position to engine is in to tighten down the valves/rockers after I re-install the push rods. I am not sure the things I am calling rockers are correct, all I did was take apart the "rockers" to get the push rods out.

THe book I am using tells me to put the engine in the "netruel" position...

 

When doing the rockers you may have to do what is called setting the valve lash. Look in your book about that. I don't know but these engines should require that when doing the pushrods and rockers.
You have to do it on most other engines, look see before you tighten them all down...........

 

I did this job 2x and neither time did I put the motor in a "neutral positon" I had no problems both times. if your concerned about it, do it this way... yank all the plugs, rotate the crank to the #1 TDC position and install the rockers on that cylinder. then rotate to the next cylinder in the firing order...

IIRC, the book said something about letting the lifters bleed down once you tighten them down and re-check the torque on them... dont quote me on it, it's been a while.