Head gaskets...

[IndianaVX]

Started Friday night on my tear down. This is not for faint of heart.
It really slays me how terrible the shop manual is, (although helpful)
So anyway, I had the engine torn down to having the CH covers off late
Friday night.
They were full of coolant/oil goop.....
Saturday, got started on removing the exhaust. It is now sunday night
Left tonight with manifold separated from downpope, and separated at both joints by muffler.
I am hoping that I did no damage to tranny when I followed
The manuals instructions on removing the crossmember(3rd)!
It dropped about 4" when I unbolted the four bolts. ( I unbolted the other side and left 2 of the bolts threaded in.
I think I can remove the heads now with the manifolds attached????
Also following Barts timing belt how to, I did real well till I removed the tensioner. Bart talked about the cams "snapping" to 12 o clock.
Mine snapped to 930 on the passenger side, and 330 on driver side.
Have to look into this some more.
Now, I turned all of the cams and crank with the belt on till
everything lined up( several times)
When I take the heads off, will I lose the setting on them? I shouldn't , right?
This is a frustrating project, I start making progress, then have to remove the power steering pump, but to do that, you have to take ac compressor loose, to do that, etc, etc.....
My questions are these.......
---Will a seafoam/oil treatment clean up the goop from the crank? I can clean up the heads after I get them off.
---did I hurt the tranny with the movement I caused?
---can I get the heads off with manifolds attached? Getting that heatshield off the riverside manifold is a real booger. Not the bolts,that was easy, trying to wiggle it out I the booger.
Something else frustrating, isuzu sells their head gasket set as "all the gaskets tou need to do a HG replacement."
There are other gaskets that are needed that do not come with the set. I assume that there are some in the power steering pump, which I rmove tomorrow, there is an o ring for the cooling line under the trottlebody, the exhaust gaskets on down pipes. All this stuff MUST come off to remove the heads. Sorry, rant over.
Thanks for all help and advice, this is a challenge that I feel good about,
but, man......it's a slow going!
---

[Ascinder]

I still cant believe that the headgaskets cost that much. And for the price of the torque to yield(stretchy) bolts, I would seriously have looked into some ARPs. A head gasket set for the GM motor I am installing runs $30. Are the VX's gaskets made of gold or something

[IndianaVX]

The gaskets alone I think were 75 bucks a piece, but I can't remember if that was from Merlin, or from a parts store. I got a whole set with valve cover gaskets, valve guides (?!?), thermostat gasket, exhaust gaskets(at head) and a couple others. The bolts, yeah, I know, I just really wanted to do it right in every way I could.

[IndianaVX]

Driver side head off tonight! It had been off a couple of years ago.
Cylinders were full of coolant.
I had the plan of having the passenger side out tonight, all I had to do was
take the head bolts out.....yeah right!
I think this head is still from bolted down from the factory cause those bolts are TIGHT!!! I am scared to death of breaking a bolt off in the head.
Also found out that #2 piston is at the bottom of it's stroke, which means I
should have went one more revolution on the crank. Crap!

Anyone have an opinion on turning the crank one more time, and the cams, each, two times??? Gotta think about this one....

[RickOKC]

They were full of coolant/oil goop.....
Saturday, got started on removing the exhaust. It is now sunday night
Left tonight with manifold separated from downpope, and separated at both joints by muffler.

For those trying to imagine what a Vehicross "down Pope" looks like:


Image of VX with a sunroof stolen from VCAMILO.

[IndianaVX]

that pope is one cool dude, he be down!


if i left all the autocorrections this phone wants to use, nothing would make sense! gotta figure out how to shut that item off.

[Marlin]

You don't have to touch the AC stuff to get the pwr steering pump out. I did mine last winter through the drivers side wheel well. No problems, would be easier with the tire off, but I did it with th tire on...FWIW

[IndianaVX]

Marlin
Yes, you are right! I took the wheel off, took heatshield off
Removed PS pump from the bracket and then took head bolts out
and wiggled the head out with PS pump Bracket and exhaust manifold
attached.

[IndianaVX]

Got passengerside head back on tonight!
Snow started flying, and had to get home. Sucks that it's snowing, and I'm driving an s-10 pickup and having a vehicross stuck in my brothers garage.

Does it mean anything if there is oil in the bottom of the head bolt hole?
Driverside top front bolt hole had an inch of oil in it.
I dipped a long wd-40 nozzle in there, wiped off, dipped, wiped,
Till I couldnt get anymore on the nozzle, then brake cleaned the hole.
Will see what is left in there tomorrow night.
Bolts are supposed to go in dry, just didnt know where the oil came from.

[IndianaVX]

I did something to the tranny. It is Downshifting really hard 3rd to 2nd and then 2nd to 1st.
I know what I did, just don't know what I may have done.
When taking apart the exhaust, the manual said to remove the third crossmember. So I start undoing bolts on the crossmember wondering what will hold the transmission up if I take the off?
Well I had a jack under it, and undid the bolts , then realized the jack wast tight, and it sank a good inch before I was able to tighten it. So I put bolts back in a bit, because I now had some clearance I needed.
So last night raised the tranny back up and bolted everything up tight (I am missing one of the bolts under the skid plate) and I finished the last of the reassembly, hooked up the battery,
And the truck fired right up, (I got video!)
So tonight I took it for a short drive. It is still smoking, and downshifts hard

Anythoghts on what I put in a bind when I jacked the tranny back up, or what I may have broke? It upshifts fine, and wasn't having any abnormal shifting before this project. It has to be IMO from me moving the tranny?

[303Foxfire]

Hi there,

I am currently TRYING to replace my head gaskets, yet I have removed every bolt and hose attached to the RH cylinder head (following the manual to the T) and I STILL can't get it off. I thought that it was necessary to unscrew the exhaust manifold head from the cylinder head via the four bolts visible from top view. Are there more underneath or am I missing something? Please help, thank you!