3.0 Cylinder Head Removal

[madmanc]

Have finally consigned myself that I am gona have to take the head of my beloved truck, I have been trying to get it to hold out for a while now and after a coolant flush is seems that someone has been hiding some truths about the state of the head when I bought it.

I now have clouds of Steam and white smoke so looks like its time to get the spanners out.

Now is there anyone out there that has a write up on how to get the head off and replace the thing, I am no mechanic but I have in the past been able to bumble along , pulling A Series Engines apart in my sleep etc.

So I think a fair crack at the whip on this one should see me right.

So as I say, has anyone got a to-do list and a needed list ie what size spanners / Sockets.

Thanks in advance.

Darren

[madmanc]

My truck has now had a Compression test done and a Water Die test done and both were Negative so its got a stable compression across all the Cylinders and the Water in the Rad is not carrying any combustion gasses.

Anybody got any comments about this or any advise on how to move this forward, i have thought about trying to test the Turbo by putting some Food colorant into the input cooling to the turbo and see if the exhaust changed colour significantly but after that it seems i either replace the turbo or take the head off and get that tested.


Help would be more than Appreciated.

Thanks

[tonupteabag]

was the water test done after flushing? the reason for this is the gases will take a little time to build up in the coolant (or so i would think) If the compression was adequate then it would appear the head might be OK. It could also be water built up in the exhaust pipe itself which could possibly be from the water feed into the turbo leaking through to the front pipe and further down and settling into the silencers. Old saying "rule out the possible, then only the impossible remains" and usually it's the one thing you wouldn't expect..

[TonyN]

Take the head off. :-)

A normal cracked head will show perfect compression, and if it's a tiny crack the dye test will only show up after lots of time or if it's properly hot.


If your sure it's white smoke and is sometimes difficult to start then it's dripping coolant into the bore when the motor is turned off.

[madmanc]

Hi Tony, its never difficult to start and does not seem to have any loss in power, but its looks like time to take the head off and have it tested.

[Wolfracer]

Clouds of steam would indicate head gasket, not head.

Heads blow steam/gases from rad - mine covered th engine bay in rusty water... Clouds of steam would make me assume LOTS of coolant was being pulled into the cylinders, that's generally not a cracked head...
If you could lose so much coolant I'm sure you'd get hydrolock or really bad starting in a morning.
How much coolant are you losing a week?

[madmanc]

Since the Radflush I have not had a chance to run it that much so dont know its water consumption. The clouds of smoke are not good for the cars behind.

[TonyN]

Dosn't always work like that, an over pressured cooling system will drip water into the bores when the engine is off through the crack (or gasket) or when its running it'll suck it in on the intake stroke.

You will never know if its the head or gasket till you take the head off.

Clouds of steam would indicate head gasket, not head.

Heads blow steam/gases from rad - mine covered th engine bay in rusty water... Clouds of steam would make me assume LOTS of coolant was being pulled into the cylinders, that's generally not a cracked head...
If you could lose so much coolant I'm sure you'd get hydrolock or really bad starting in a morning.
How much coolant are you losing a week?

[tonupteabag]

Dosn't always work like that, an over pressured cooling system will drip water into the bores when the engine is off through the crack (or gasket) or when its running it'll suck it in on the intake stroke.

You will never know if its the head or gasket till you take the head off.

I had to take Tony's advice previously, I was hoping for a blown gasket but, it was the head, apart from pushing water into the expansion bottle, blue/white smoke on start-up that cleared when warm, The truck ran pretty well considering all the combustion chambers were cracked between the valves and the pre-combustion chambers were also cracked.

[madmanc]

Does it make a Diffrence when looking at replacing or repairing if you find a receipt for the head from an eBay dealer?

[tonupteabag]

That would be an extra reason for taking the head off! Ebay heads are of dubious quality ask on here, a few have made that mistake and ended up having to redo the head, using either Roughtrax or Stevo heads.

[TonyN]

Does it make a Diffrence when looking at replacing or repairing if you find a receipt for the head from an eBay dealer?

If it was within 12 months you might have some warrenty claim, but I'd guess you'd have to prove it had been fitted correctly and not overheated.

[madmanc]

It was fitted when i bought the Truck so its well past 12 months.

[BeratE]

So back to the important bit, as I will be doing this soon as well. Is there a known write-up about the head swap because I have not found one?

[wald]

head

think its on the aussi tech site, links are on here