Well, I cooked it after all (see thermostat post). One of the cylinders is at 50 psi. I sprayed wd40 in the spark plug hole and the psi increased only 5psi. I have some spare heads around. I hate the thought of finding a surprise when I yank the heads. What are the chances of the head swap fixing the problem? It is an '84 carbed/auto. I don't have the time/desire to do any engine swaps. Having to pull body mounts for bellhousing access is stupid (yeah I did drop the trans mount last time, still had to raise the body!). OBTW-it got me the 100 plus miles home like this.
2.8 overheat damage
johnc
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Well, I cooked it after all (see thermostat post). One of the cylinders is at 50 psi. I sprayed wd40 in the spark plug hole and the psi increased only 5psi. I have some spare heads around. I hate the thought of finding a surprise when I yank the heads. What are the chances of the head swap fixing the problem? It is an '84 carbed/auto. I don't have the time/desire to do any engine swaps. Having to pull body mounts for bellhousing access is stupid (yeah I did drop the trans mount last time, still had to raise the body!). OBTW-it got me the 100 plus miles home like this.
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676 Posts
If just the head is warped, pretty good. Anytime anyone I know has overheating issues, I warn them about to dangers/expense of warping a head... A straight edge and a set of feeler gages will tell you for sure. Removing body mounts to get access to the bellhousing bolts is for amateurs 
. Pros remove them from the top and then cut off the offending sheet metal with an air body saw .
. Pros remove them from the top and then cut off the offending sheet metal with an air body saw .I have a plasma cutter, much neater. Anyway,I really want the thing gone, and a running vehicle brings more than one in pieces. I am coming "full circle" and replacing items I put on it new. Right before the thermostat issue, one of the new heater hoses had a hole worn in it because it was too close to the A/C bracket. What dope addled designer decided to route it that way? Just tired of redesigning bad engineering.SY2932 said:If just the head is warped, pretty good. Anytime anyone I know has overheating issues, I warn them about to dangers/expense of warping a head... A straight edge and a set of feeler gages will tell you for sure. Removing body mounts to get access to the bellhousing bolts is for amateurs
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3,496 Posts
really. how much were you missing to gte the bolt completely out? what you caould have done was cut the bolt head off to give you more space, and then take the rest of it out with a vicegrip. then when you reinstall it you could put a slightly shorter bolt in.
I have yet to remove my engine but have heard people say that the bolts come out from uptop. no one has mentioned them hitting the weld.
I have yet to remove my engine but have heard people say that the bolts come out from uptop. no one has mentioned them hitting the weld.
All the wrenching on the bolts on top were by "feel". There was no way to get anything in there to cut the bolt. Someone knows how to get to them: I have seen engines missing at the self-service yards and the rear crossmember is still installed.
My donor car was a 5 spd. I thought about converting it. Once I figured all the work required, I realized it would be cheaper and less trouble to sell this one and buy another with the 5 spd. So I stuck with the auto. One thing about the auto: the trans can stay in the vehicle when pulling the engine. Getting the manual trans out means dropping the xfer case.pare_john said:
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3,496 Posts
yeah but in my case I have the 2X4 so no thransfercase. but there have been people who have taken out the engine and left the 5 speed(bellhousing and tranny) in the truck. but that is too much work trying to realign them when putting the engine back in. leaving the bellhousing on the engine is a much easier way of doing it
I ran it around the block, and the performance seemed about the same as before the overheat. Still got the same 50-60 psi reading on the bad cylinder. I have pulled the heads. The bad cylinder has no "margin" left on the intake valve, it has a "knife edge". The valve seat is deeper than on my spare head. The head bolts have anti-sieze on them. I think someone did a POS valve job. As a test, I put the valves back in the head, and filled the cylinder chamber with WD40. It leaks past the intake valve. I think the engine was close to losing the compression all along. It had a persistent "pop" after revving the engine, and I thought it was a carb problem. Anyone know if the iron fiero heads will fit the early 2.8's? OBTW-the intake passage casting is pretty rough, no wonder these things are dogs.
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