Ever take apart the top half of your engine hoping to fix an antifreeze leak initially thought to be coming from a leaky coolant pipe under the lower intake manifold on you 3.2 DOHC and find a head gasket leaking into the valley between the heads?

http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/kings/748/bleeder.wav

So timing covers off, belt is indexed ready for removal. Valve covers are removed and the head is ready to be lifted for a new gasket. My questions are:
1. Do I change the timing belt tensioner, the idler, and the tensioner pulley? Tensioner is still firm and the idler and pulley are solid with no excessive play. I will be changing belt though.
2. I this a good time to check and adjust the valves? Anyone ever had to do this?
3. Any tips to getting this thing back in time after I remove the head? Other than the pig latin listed in my haynes manual.
4. Do I do both head gs if only one is leaking?
5. Other advice while im here? (I am replacing the h2oP too).

98 3.2 6vd1 110 thousand.

<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

not sure were that link goes as it did do nothing.

Replace all you can while your in there. May just save you the headach later.

I have a leaking coolant also on my '99 3.2 with the same symptom. No white smoke yet but I saw signs of coolant mixing into my oil. I still get about 18-19 mpg but fearing it's my headgasket that's probably going to get worse, I finally took the zu to the dealership this morning. Their diagnosis was a leaking freeze plug, the repair which cost about 2800 bucks was to replace the right head and replacement of headgasket and several other gaskets.

Is this an accurate assessment by the dealer, or is there a better fix for this leaky freeze plug?

My zu has about 187,000 miles and I love the truck to death, but this coolant leak is really getting to me... ARGGH!

Hope you guys can help.


Reggie

first off it is a great sign to see a second generation with 187k miles on it. That leaves me to safe place as far as mine goes.

THat assesment is probably right. I think the dealer maintennce book calls for about 10 hours + of labor to pull a head. I would shop around though for a better price as I could see you getting it for half that rate. FInd someone that will do it if you go get all the parts. Thats where a high markup is, that could save you quite a bit as well.

I am in the middle of it now. So in the middle I have a bolt extractor in my left hand and a handgun in the right. Cant figure out if I want to put the beast down or go after that ^$%#&*@ stud. ARRRGGGGGGG> I will let you know what hapens tomorrow. Curse the little Japanese man (or is it Mr goodwrench) that didnt put anti seize on the head bolt. Over 80 ft pounds to get them out. Were talking ford taurus lug nut torque here. I am so mad, mad. Thats pissed and gone crazy all in one package.

Perhaps I will talk tomorrow, if not send out a search party with lots of beer to CHARLESTON WV.

I'm not sure which head you are pulling. I recently had to pull the drivers side (my own fault) and it is fresh in my mind. I'm not sure what specific part of the disassembly you are having a tough time with but let me know and I may have a way to get around it. It was fairly simple except for the part where the head bolt broke off in the block and the part where I got the wrong timing belt.

If I were you on the belt I would buy a new Gates belt and follow the directions which come with the belt. The first thing I did on my 95 was the timing belt (the old one broke after the water pump locked up at 165k miles) - the only guide I had was that paperwork with the belt and I came out golden.

The head bolts need to be replaced - they are torque to yield.

driver side head is off, bolt sheared about an inch and a half down in the hole. I have to drill the center out of the bolt and put the easy out into it. Hopefully that pulls it, otherwise i am going to try and drill it out to the point I dont mess up the threads and clean out the crud. If that doesnt work then i am going to drill it all out and helicoil it.

Curse the little Japanese man (or is it Mr goodwrench) that didnt put anti seize on the head bolt.

There is a reason that there is no anti-seize on headbolts. There is NEVER AS used on head bolts. It seriously messes with the torque value. Usually, they require engine oil and engine oil has a habit of a)not having much anti-corosion properties and b) not maintaining a lubricity property when used to lubricate head bolts. So...don't use AS when you put this thing back together. You will overtorque the bolts, if you do.

Hopefully the remainder will come out whithout a problem. It very well may, without the rest of the bolt in the way.

Good Luck,
Michael

The problem from my perspective isnt that they should put AS on them so much as looking at the chiltons they are installed dry. I know every bolt on the head was tight as can be and every one sounded like it had broken when it finally let go. I was relieved that only one broke but even dealing with that one was an event.

My strong preference is moly lube for stuff like this - you can get the same bolt stretch with a lot less drama.

On mine I tried an easy out - it broke off. Tried a Snap On removal tool - broke it. finally drilled it to the full size and tapped it with a high speed steel bottoming tap. I probably had 40 hours of dorking with different tools and probably 200.00 in tools/drill bits to solve it.

Is it one of the bolt holes you can reach? If you end up drilling it out please let me know - I came up with some unique solutions which might help.

My story:


LINK

My strong preference is moly lube for stuff like this

Preference or not, it is not the correct thing to do. You can't get the same stretch, because you have no way of accurately measuring the stretch of a head bolt, at least on these engines. And, even if you could, you have no spec for it. You *might* get away with it on something like a rod bolt, but...again no spec, just a torque value.

Once you add a lubricant where it is not speced for, the torque value is worthless. It will take waaaay less torque to get the clamping force the factory is calling for and if you go to the spec'd torque, you run the risk of over torquing the bolt or over compressing the gasket. Either of those will most likely cause a HG failure.

Also, let's think about the definition of "tight". I would bet a boatload none of the head bolts, in either of the above two accounts, were tighter than the factory spec of 47 lb-ft for the larger bolts. Now...the breakaway torque was much greater because of the friction between the bolt and the head and the threads and the block. They may be buggers to break free, but they were no tighter than what they were supposed to be. Most head bolts I've ever removed popped when they finally broke free.

As for removing the broken stub, I just remembered there is a good thread around here from a while back outlining most of the more common options, along with various tricks and tips, available.

Good Luck.
Michael