More M30 head work

[myles]

It looks like there are a few of us going through a bit of head work on our cars at the moment. But heres where I'm at with mine.

Pinging problem to start with. I removed the intake manifold looking for intake vacuum leaks and found nothing much wrong. I noticed a fair bit of carbon build up inside the head so I did a compression test.

The compression test results were bad. All were high at a about 185-190psi except no. 2 which was 65psi. So the head had to come off.

While pulling the head I found that the cam timing was actually one tooth out of allignment. I had checked this before, but didn't look closely enough :( , so that will be the cause of the pinging. Credit to those guys who picked that one up earlier!

The head is at a recommended engineer for a basic tidy up. He found the exhaust valve for no.2 was being kept open by carbon build up. He has recommended replacing the exhaust valve guides and of course the valve stem seals. But other than that the head looks very good. It has never been shaved before so there is no need to get the 0.3mm thicker head gasket.

I made a mistake when removing the head, I broke the timing chain guide. So I have dropped the oil pan, because the gasket was leaking, and I have undone the crank nut, using a breaker bar, cheater bar and a cold chisel to hold the flywheel still.

Tonight I will remove the lower timing cover and start cleaning everything up before I put it back together.

Other than making very sure that the head bolt holes are very clean,
Does anyone have any other tips for the re-assembly process?

TIA
Myles

[winfred]

it sounds like you have a handle on it, some blue locktight on the oil pan bolts couldn't hurt as they like to back out, i put red locktight on the oil pump sprocket nut, i have had one back off on me once. if you get the head skimmed do not forget to have the upper timming cover bolted to the head so that it gets cut too, on the first cut i wouldn't bother with the +3 gasket, on a second cut it couldn't hurt

[Jeff N.]

I would use a BecK Arnley pan gasket (available via Napa) vs. the stock cork gasket. The BA gasket is a thicker paper like material that is much less torque sensitive than the stock pan gasket. The stock gasket has a tendency to squeeze out at the corners.

Cam must have been advance by one tooth. Interesting. Lot's of low end but no top end.

[myles]

Yeh it was advanced.

Winfred, you talk about red and blue locktite. What is the difference between red and blue. I thought blue was thread locker and red was anti-seize?

One thing I thought I should ask, what do you have to do to prime the oil pump before it does back together???

I don't know if I can source a paper oil pan gasket here(oz), but I will try.

Thanks

[winfred]

green is the creeping formula for assembled parts blue is not as strong as red and i call yellow "hand of god" you use that one if you intend on throwing away the part if it screws up again. theres not much you can do with priming the oil pump, pull the coil wire and crank till the light goes out, i dump a bottle of motor oil over the valve train before i install the valve cover so it's happy