fitting cylinder head

[Dave_EH]

G'day,

I got halfway through the job of fitting a new cylinder head yesterday arvo and have a few questions before I finish the job.

1) what sort of sealant do you you use on the head bolts?

2) I didn't keep my push rods in order, as a couple of them were a little bent (the motor isn't very old though???), and I have another used set of pushrods.  Can I just pick the best 12 rods when I put the new head on?

Are there better rods available for a reasonable price?  I'm going to get get a set of roller rockers soon anyway.

3) should I clean the carbon off the piston tops?  What with?

4) Do you think I will be able to start and tune the engine with just a set of X2 headers and no exhaust, or should I get it towed to the exhaust shop before I play around with the new dizzy and timing?

That is all for now, but I think there will be a few more questions soon

Cheers
Dave

[Burnsy]

You should be able to pick the best 12 rods, just make sure they are all the same length, different red motors have different rods, i think they chnaged length for the 202

[Dave_EH]

no worries,
both sets are from 179 HP blocks, so should be identical.

Would anyone recommend installing new lifters while the head is off?  

Anyone know about the sealant or my chances of running the engine with very little exhaust compression?

cheers
Dave

[gp]

You definitely SHOULD use Holden head stud sealer, available from any Holden Dealer. Part number 3835215. The reason this is used is because some of the head studs are open to the water jackets and will rust away if you don't use the sealant. You should torque the head down to the correct specs (can't remember off the top of my head) and DO NOT re-torque the head later, as this will disturb the sealer after it has cured, resulting in the previously mentioned rusty head studs.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Graham.

[SEB]

You should have a look at the lifters and see that the are still flat or slightly convex on the bottom where they meet the cam lobe. Sometimes if a hot cam is in use they wear faster and get worn concave, this is when they need to be replaced.

Of course if your going to run a hot cam anti pump lifters would be a handy investment at this point and much easier to install now.

As for the piston tops old chisel and the dustbuster careful to remove all the junk.....

Best regards,

Steve.

[fc4me]

Hi Dave I'd be more worried about why the push rods are bent!!!!!!! Make sure your valve springs aren't binding up etc before you do anything.

[Dave_EH]

Thanks very much for help,

Its a a new head, so there shouldn't be any problems this time.  The motor had only done 16 000 miles with the stock head, yet was run infrequently so the springs may have bound.  Or maybe they were bent before they went in... who knows?

Thanks Graham, got the stud sealer from repco (proper holden gear) ... $40 though!!!! I couldn't believe it!

I'm running a stock cam until I git my celica box in 6 months or so, so will look into good quality lifters then.

Thanks
Dave

[NO NAME]

I think I used permatex on mine, as recomended buy the engine shop, a guy around the corner ( back in newcastle) was using grease on his speadway cars, guy at the local auto shop up there was also using grease on his speadway cars but said it was only good for short term use.
I went to get some stuff from holden but they gave me a silly price so I didnt get it.
I have given my car hell and nothing ever went wrong, drag racing, burn out comps, sydney traffic, newcastle to canberra with no water, 1200 k trips, running late for work etc, nothing hurt it. the head was on from 1997 till 2005, I pulled it apart this morning and it all still looks how it did when I put it together in jan 97.