i thought it was about time i did some of my own work on my car. With the head gasket going totally on me while i was up Bruntingthrope the other week i thought i out fix this myself. after chatting to a few people how to do the job i started on firday afternoon it all went well, apart from i forgot to drain the water out so when i split the head water went everywhere lol after filling up the cylinders with water i got an old t-shirt and cleaned up my mess. oh yeah, i was doing all of this out in the street outside nextdoor lol (my house is the white one by the 109 bin lol) got it all back together but i put the cam belt on wrong!!! i had it going the wrong way around the tensioner!!! i knew i did something wrong and after about 10 calls to carpy and paulh i got to the bottom of it. Paul cam up to make sure i was doing it correct and withing 15mins we had the car running BUT had a leak drom the rocker cover, so thanks to carpy i had a new gasket off him and i changed that yesterday. just an oil change tonight and job done not a bad weekends work of an office monkey
Nice one mate. I'm just about to go outside and start one of my 16Vs for the first time after having put a reconditioned head onto it. The previous time I did a head swap was when I had a mate to help me. This time I did it alone. So I'm a bit nervous about starting it I got the head on mine skimmed, with exhaust valve guides replaced, and usual other reconditioning stuff done (valve seats, etc). Did you find it necessary to have your cylinder head skimmed?
How did you get around the manifold bit, after getting the head off?? iv got my head off my 8v but am stuck whether to attempt undoing the bolts or separating the downpipe from exhaust and take the manifolds out with the head..
is there a tutorial for this anywhere? its not somethign i need to do yet, but i wouldnt mind knowing how to do it for when the time comes? is it not a good idea to get all the new gudes and internals, aswell as a new cam belt when doing this, and how do you know you have all the timming and stuff right ? i wouldnt want bent valves at the end of it
trev, no i didnt get the head skimmed. i was told as long as the temps never got 'too' high i should be ok. i saw 120 degs on bruntingthrope when i backed off. it starts lovely now i did take the plugs out and turned it over by hand to make sure the valves wasnt hitting (phew!) has hotgolf said, i got a 4 branch, that makes it easy taking the manifold off
Skimming isn't always necessary but you should check the head for warping to be sure. It's not a difficult job and it could save you the cost of the gaskets plus the labour time involved if it turns out you need to do it again. It's a false economy not to check or skim the head just because it "should be OK" - you know for next time.
Good stuff! I did mine not long ago, not a bad job really just fiddly and time consuming, cut my hands to shreds! Did mine in my garage thankfully though so I could leave it overnight in bits and come back the next day.
if you fit a twin oil cooler set-up ( mocal & sandwhich plate to existing cooler) you will notice a big difference & you will need it when the 20vt goes in
Just a note to anyone else doing the job, as these guys have found out, you need to drain the radiator AND block. Just pulling the bottom rad hose off isn't enough, you'll also need to disconnect the bypass hose (pipe from water pump to head outlet) to let the coolant out of the block. Then you'll have a nice dry block when you whip the head off Cheers, Joe
Good work Velly!! Dont forget to get as much oil out of the head bolt holes, else you could crack your head.
will this decrease the engine temp? My head etc is fine but it does get quite hot quickly as do all i guess so am looking at ways to cool it better cops Edited by: copper
