Dauntless Head Removal

I'm not sure it's a good choice for this head but I've had good luck using a 6" c-clamp with a big notch cut into the non-moving pad as a spring compressor for most of my 4-cylinder work.

 

Guess I could have given that a try, but getting the OTC clamp seemed like a better option than trying to cut up a C clamp. It dropped in price a bit anyway so I snagged it when it did.

I have just about completed my cylinder head valve vacuum tester. I will have photos when the first prototype is done. First I tried using a coleman inflator/deflator pump, but it was barely registering any vacuum. I thought the gauge I bought was broken, so I confirmed on my MityVac, it was barely drawing one inch. So, I had to replace the half going to the brass tee with a new pump and smaller line and fitting. Taking a little longer than I'd hope but now I'm just waiting for some glue to dry on the disc I'll be placing over the intake port. The pump I found on Amazon is a cheap chinese thing, but it pulls 20 inHg of vacuum when I put my finger over the tube. Should be enough to determine a stable enough percentage for how well the ports are holding vacuum.

As I've been building this prototype, I've realized that there's a good chance I could build a somewhat more profession version of this, for around $100. Even if I sold it for $200 I'd still be undercutting any existing testers I could find online by a pretty big margin. Wonder if there's any demand for a product like that which isn't geared toward professional shop use, but the weekend warrior? Basically my plan involves a project box, the chinese pump, mounting the guage on the box and some air hose quick disconnects to enable attaching and detaching the test plates and the hose quickly. Perhaps even a quick disconnect for the guage so it could be easily replaced as needed, in case of damage or other problem.

 

I finally completed and used my vacuum valve tester prototype.



With it, I got some interesting numbers from the driver side head. I tested all 6 ports. At first I thought it wasn't working correctly. All intake ports failed to register any vacuum on the gauge. Then I got to the exhaust. #1 holds about 10 inHg, out of a max of 20 inHg when I put my finger over the tube, so about 50%. #3 registered as bad as the intakes (0/20), and #5 was 7.5/20, or about 38%. None of that sounds too good. Unfortunately, what I don't have a good explanation for yet is that cylinder #5 had what looked like solid numbers on the compression and leakdown test, and yet its valves report as bad a seal as the the others. The only thing I can think of is that there are still different levels of failure-to-seal below holding 0 vacuum on the gauge. Too fine for my gauge to detect at least. The fluid test wasn't very conclusive either, all the intake valves seemed to nearly run out, not even a slow trickle. Regardless, I guess I can pull the valves and do a physical inspection now that I've done all the static diagnosis I can do, and look for a machine shop near me that will do a good valve job. I will probably have both heads done at this point, why not.

 

If you have to buy an intake gasket set to get the gasket for the one side of the intake manifold, why wouldn't you go ahead and pull the intake, rather than taking a chance on a leaking intake gasket that had been disturbed or installed incorrectly ?At that point there are only 6 more bolts to remove. I understand it can be done, but is it wise, especially for a relatively inexperienced mechanic? No offense intended. If your luck runs in the same vein as mine, any time I try to save time taking short cuts, it takes twice as long to do it again!

 

X2

 

Yeah this was already figured out, I just need to get the other one off now and get them to the shop that Oldtime recommended. Also need to get two radiators and a fuel tank to the radiator and welding shop. And replace the intermediate steering shaft on my Malibu. And fix the transmission gremlins on the F-350. And a pile of stuff on the CUCV. It'll get done eventually.

 

Well I had a day off work when Dave's machine shop was open, so I called him up. He said he'd prefer to have both heads at once, which made sense but I'd been slacking and hadn't gotten the passenger side removed yet. So, I had about 4 hours until he closed to pull the other head off and get it to him. Challenge accepted. I even managed to still photo-document some things along the way, and finish my leakdown test of that side. It was not much better than the driver side, all cylinders were only holding about 15/90 PSI. I could feel air rushing out of the intake ports now that I had the manifold off.

The most surprising thing that happened during this removal was that when I got to the second to last exhaust manifold bolt, the engine dropped somewhat in the rear. I had assumed it would have 4 mounting points and I would be able to remove the manifold even thought the transmission was disconnected, but apparently this was not the case. Does it sound like I'm missing a rear crossmember or is the rear of the engine normally not independently supported? I can get some undercarriage pics if anyone is curious what I'm dealing with. To finish the job I put a jack under the bellhousing and then a jackstand under the oil pan when I had lifted it back to roughly where it looked like it should be to relieve the strain on the remaining exhaust manifold bolt. It then came off easily. Unfortunately though, the passenger manifold has a pretty large crack between #4 and #6 (pics below). Is the manifold weldable? I would clean it similar to how John did in his 67 restoration project, I have already been stocking up on The Works (trying not to be too greedy and take everything one store has in stock at a time). Can't find an online price as cheap as grabbing it at the local stores. I could use this as an excuse to get a welder and practice myself, but if this is a bad project to start welding on, I could also just take the manifold up to the custom exhaust shop and see if they can help me out once I have the rust off and see how thin it is now.

 

Making a note of what wires go where on the alternator before I remove it. Probably will get it bench tested at the electrical shop and rebuilt if it needs it. Or is this something I could try to tackle myself? Rebuild kits still commonly available for cheap? I'm pretty decent with electrical and not in any hurry.


This side had some sort of panel under the PCV valve port, I guess to help distribute that flow from being directly onto the rocker arms? GM 2 was cast into the driver's head, GM 3 was cast into this one. Not sure what the significance of those cast numbers is but it's how I can easily tell them apart.


There was a lot of debris in both heads, not sure if from a previous seal that wasn't cleaned out properly, or what. The seal that was on the bottom of the cover looked intact, but these definitely felt like some kind of ancient seal material.




More wire reference pics















The alternator support bracket before it comes off. That pump is definitely being replaced.

 

The head removed, can see a little more carbon and rust on these pistons than the other side had. But the cylinders still visually look in good condition.


Head gasket, not much different from the other.


Exhaust side. The exhaust performed better in the vacuum test than the intakes. #2 and #6 both held some vacuum. #4 did not register any, and neither did any of the intakes.




Little worse shape here too I thought, pretty bad rust on that one valve.








Here is the crack I was talking about.

 

Dave was an awesome guy to work with when I brought my heads in Monday. Pulled the valves, checked for warpage, all right there in front of me, explained what issues we were seeing, etc. All the guides were wore out with too much play according to him, so he will be knurling the guides. No need to shave the heads as they were within tolerances, he recommended a standard head gasket, nothing fancy. 1 valve was bent, so I will be getting one new valve and the other 11 machined, as well as hardened exhaust seats installed. You guys along with him finally convinced me to go ahead and do the rings as well. I'll be dropping the pan and pulling the pistons once I can figure out how to support the engine without using the jackstand under the pan. I'll also check the crank measurements while I have them out I suppose. He also suggested timing might have caused the bent valve, if it wasn't just the engine being hot-rodded, so he suggested I pull the timing cover too. I was already on the fence about that check, so guess I'll be doing that too. Already had to pull that nasty water pump anyway.

I suppose I _could_ vacuum test my rings separately to confirm they need that done. Give me more reason to play with my custom vacuum tester.

It's really looking more and more like I should just get a hoist and stand now instead of waiting for that bigger garage. I'm sure I can make it fit somewhere once I clear out the junk I'm already trying to get rid of.

 

It's a baffle to keep the atomized oil (from the rocker action) out of the PCV plumbing. Recall there is engine vacuum at the PCV valve, and the PCV is pulling the crankcase vapors from the crankcase into the intake manifold to go through the cylinders with the air/fuel mixture.

 

Ah right yeah, I didn't think about it too much and had the flow in my head backwards. But I still got that it was related to the PCV at least. At the moment it's how I'm telling my two rocker arm assemblies apart without having to look at details in my pictures

 

You need a new exhaust manifold. It is possible for an experienced welder to weld cast iron, but unless these manifolds are impossible to replace, find another one.

 

just my 2 cents . if your thinking about doing a ring job . then it's time to pull engine . so it can also go to machine shop . tanked , bored ( most likely new pistons and reconditioned rods ), new cam bearing installed . crankshaft checked . then you'll still need new camshaft , bearing , lifters , gasket set . new oil pump . that's if timing cover is still ok

 

That motor & cooling system looks like it's seen better days..........I agree with Ron above..........I think a complete motor rebuild is in your future along with getting that radiator flushed out.

 

Yeah, it feels more and more like once I keep pulling things off the engine, there won't be much left to do except take out the block

 

All right, I finally got around to testing the heads I got back from the shop. Using my home-made vacuum tester of course. When simply plugging the pump hose with my finger, it pulls -21inHg on the vacuum gauge, so that's my 100% vacuum reading. Overall got pretty positive numbers for the most part, which makes me more confident my tester is actually working, but there's an oddity in my results. On the GM2 head, the range of vacuum held by each intake/exhaust port is within the range of -13.5inHg to -16inHg, except for the middle intake port. It would not form a seal and move the vacuum needle at all, no matter what I tried. This was odd enough, until I got to the GM3 head. The range was a little larger, -8.3inHg to -18.5inHg, but at least they were all registering, again, except for the middle intake port. It also would not seal and move the vacuum needle. I am fairly confident it is not the tool, the surface around the port looks like it should seal as well as any of the other 5 on each head.

So, am I missing something about the design of these heads that would explain why I can't get a vacuum on the middle intake port, of a freshly rebuilt head? My only other theories are a machining goof related to a workflow that happened to be replicated across both heads, or a completely random accidental mistake on both heads that isn't related to the workflow, and just a coincidence. Just wanting to get some extra input before I take them back to the shop and ask him to double check his work.

I may try to pour some alcohol or squirt some carburetor cleaner into the port and see if it still runs out quickly from the valve seal compared to the other better sealing ports. I'm just not sure about rebuilding the engine with two intake ports potentially still failing to get a solid seal.

For anyone curious, the full reading set is below:

GM2:
Intake: -14.5, 0, -13.5 inHg
Exhaust: -14, -14.2, -16 inHg

GM3:
Intake: -14, 0, -11 inHg
Exhaust: -18.5, -10, -8.3 inHg