92 Sunbird LE
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Thanks for the video EC , glad you showed us what happened.
Doug in P.R.
Doug in P.R.
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Evilcowboy420
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Thanks for the video EC , glad you showed us what happened.
Doug in P.R.
NP man honestly I didn't think it was that bad until it was out and I went over it. But I honestly wanted a new cam anyways it just forced me to do it sooner.
But I will say that Mobil 1 synthetic oil is awesome cause those parts were really clean when they came out. Hopefully this is the last of the engine work I have to do. Honestly I just hate it because it is hard to find parts locally without ordering them. I wish there was a bunch of these in the junk yard I would have a field day but they are becoming more rare as time goes on. Guess thats true with any car.
I mean aside from having to do the head gasket again and bolts since it bothers me re-using them like that. this put my car painting on hold I have one side of the car almost done with the two tone (still in primer) but this really put a hold on that. I hope I can get it done before winter and I got an auto Armour kit to apply to the car. Not sure if it works but it sure won't hurt anything to try to protect the paint lol
Way to go getting away from the inlaws! MR. CAN DO!!!
Those ain't rockers, they's followers. A quick fix to shut them up is extremely thin brass or copper washers under the hydraulic lifter. Wear is wear. NEW cams aren't that expensive. Followers can be hard to find. My street bike came with a spare head and a set of lifters. I bought a set of followers on ebay. I gotta go through them with my digital measurer thingie and pick out the best ones!
An after-market cam would make your engine sing!
Those ain't rockers, they's followers. A quick fix to shut them up is extremely thin brass or copper washers under the hydraulic lifter. Wear is wear. NEW cams aren't that expensive. Followers can be hard to find. My street bike came with a spare head and a set of lifters. I bought a set of followers on ebay. I gotta go through them with my digital measurer thingie and pick out the best ones!
An after-market cam would make your engine sing!
Evilcowboy420
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Ahh I just stuck with calling them rockers since thats how the repair manual refers to them as. But I did always think it was odd that they call them rocker arms but they didn't have any bolts. Just like I had never heard of valve lash compensator's until I read this book. freakin Chilton.
Yeah digital calipers make measuring so much easier.
Yeah an after market cam would be good . But I would be concerned about valve float if I got a larger one then on a FI it may affect the performance negatively since the computer would go retarded. But then again wouldn't hurt to think about it and figuring out a way to make it work.
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Oh and I ordered new H/G and bolts since I had to pull the bolts for the head to get the cam.
Although it didn't do anything bad and the car runs just fine and is maintaining pressure and keeping fluids separate I would still feel better about redoing it.
Ebay is a good source for Victor Reinz stuff. 13 bucks for the H/G and 20 bucks for the bolts both VR. Felpro is 10 bucks for the gasket just for FYI. As a matter of fact there is a ton of stuff on ebay to be had cheap for these cars. For christ sake a new rad is only 70 bucks on there brand new. Gotta love ebay
Although it didn't do anything bad and the car runs just fine and is maintaining pressure and keeping fluids separate I would still feel better about redoing it.
Ebay is a good source for Victor Reinz stuff. 13 bucks for the H/G and 20 bucks for the bolts both VR. Felpro is 10 bucks for the gasket just for FYI. As a matter of fact there is a ton of stuff on ebay to be had cheap for these cars. For christ sake a new rad is only 70 bucks on there brand new. Gotta love ebay
92 Sunbird LE
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Thank for the Update, glad its running good!
Doug in P.R.
Doug in P.R.
Evilcowboy420
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Small update
I got my victor head bolts and gasket in today and all I can say is wow. This gasket is of so much higher quality than the felpro one. It is also much thicker. Felpros head gasket for these cars just flat out suck for these cars. Since I have had both I can honestly say I will never order another felpro head gasket again. Victor is just so much more superior.
Now the victor head bolts seem about the same except they coated them with something so they don't rust during storage it also seems to be some kind of sealer which the felpro ones did not have and in comparison looked.like old bolts. I am assuming victor cares more about the shelf life of their products.
Now that's not to say felpro don't make good products the other gaskets I have used of theirs have all held up. But when it comes to head gaskets victor bends them over and spanks that ass.
Oh and the instructions on the victor head bolts are more clear and better. You guys may remember I torqued my head bolts in 5 passes at 60 degrees when felpro recommended only 3 passes at 90 degrees. Well apparently victor agrees with doing it in 5 passes of 60 degrees as well. The heat up and torque pass is the same for both as well as initial torque of 18 ft lbs first. The felpro torque procedure seems like that is probably why the first set of their bolts I had the one snapped.
I will keep posted after doing it as to how it goes and so forth but I will venture to say that the victor on will probably never fail for the life of the engine. I also heard people say that when they have had an sealing issue with their h/g when using felpro that they re did it with a victor and the problem was solved.
Anyone thinking about doing their h/g go with Victor they are just far more superior in quality
I got my victor head bolts and gasket in today and all I can say is wow. This gasket is of so much higher quality than the felpro one. It is also much thicker. Felpros head gasket for these cars just flat out suck for these cars. Since I have had both I can honestly say I will never order another felpro head gasket again. Victor is just so much more superior.
Now the victor head bolts seem about the same except they coated them with something so they don't rust during storage it also seems to be some kind of sealer which the felpro ones did not have and in comparison looked.like old bolts. I am assuming victor cares more about the shelf life of their products.
Now that's not to say felpro don't make good products the other gaskets I have used of theirs have all held up. But when it comes to head gaskets victor bends them over and spanks that ass.
Oh and the instructions on the victor head bolts are more clear and better. You guys may remember I torqued my head bolts in 5 passes at 60 degrees when felpro recommended only 3 passes at 90 degrees. Well apparently victor agrees with doing it in 5 passes of 60 degrees as well. The heat up and torque pass is the same for both as well as initial torque of 18 ft lbs first. The felpro torque procedure seems like that is probably why the first set of their bolts I had the one snapped.
I will keep posted after doing it as to how it goes and so forth but I will venture to say that the victor on will probably never fail for the life of the engine. I also heard people say that when they have had an sealing issue with their h/g when using felpro that they re did it with a victor and the problem was solved.
Anyone thinking about doing their h/g go with Victor they are just far more superior in quality
Very good info! Thanks!
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Ok just got around to doing it .....well forcing myself to do it is more like it. But I took the head back off to lay a new gasket and put the new bolts in. I just felt like I was on borrowed time with the already stretched bolts.
After pulling the head I checked the plugs and piston tops and all was good so the head gasket wasn't blown yet which was good. I didn't think it was but good to always check. After getting the new gasket down I ended up using ultra blue rtv for the cam carrier to head. It says 500 F is its limit so I figured if I let me engine get to 500 F ever I deserve to have an oil leak lol. It works just fine and is great.
There was also no carbon ring at the top of the piston bores which I found excellent. made me feel like she is running right.
A slight modification I made to lighten the load and make any future job pulling the head easier is to remove the front bracket that assists in lifting the engine right next to hte thermostat housing. I didn't feel it needed to be on there unless I pull the engine and if I pull it I can just put it back on. It helps remove some of the clutter from the bay a bit more. Now I am trying to figure out a different way to mount the ignition coil so that bracket can come off too. Unfortunately the alternator bracket has to stay put. gaaaaaaaaaaay.
Anyways it didn't take quite as long this time and was way quicker. Cleaning the old RTV off is what took so long. I did the gasket job in 3 and 1/2 hours this time. I am starting to become really good at removing the head from this engine.
Oh and my surfaces we still as clean as the day I did them. A rag wiped everything off and none of the gasket was left behind. And also I confirmed by slowly doing the passes that the bolts get torqued to 65 ft lbs for sure after the last turn or at least for the 87 to 91 2.0 OHC engine probably different torques for you guys since yours are a bit newer.
So there it is a 3rd and final head gasket job. Even though it wasn't blown it makes me feel better and plus I wanted to get the Victor stuff on here. And comparing the 2 gaskets side by side the material around the pistons on the Fail Pro one is some cheap ass material. So if you guys decide to do this go with the Victor gasket and head bolts. You will be glad you did.
After pulling the head I checked the plugs and piston tops and all was good so the head gasket wasn't blown yet which was good. I didn't think it was but good to always check. After getting the new gasket down I ended up using ultra blue rtv for the cam carrier to head. It says 500 F is its limit so I figured if I let me engine get to 500 F ever I deserve to have an oil leak lol. It works just fine and is great.
There was also no carbon ring at the top of the piston bores which I found excellent. made me feel like she is running right.
A slight modification I made to lighten the load and make any future job pulling the head easier is to remove the front bracket that assists in lifting the engine right next to hte thermostat housing. I didn't feel it needed to be on there unless I pull the engine and if I pull it I can just put it back on. It helps remove some of the clutter from the bay a bit more. Now I am trying to figure out a different way to mount the ignition coil so that bracket can come off too. Unfortunately the alternator bracket has to stay put. gaaaaaaaaaaay.
Anyways it didn't take quite as long this time and was way quicker. Cleaning the old RTV off is what took so long. I did the gasket job in 3 and 1/2 hours this time. I am starting to become really good at removing the head from this engine.
Oh and my surfaces we still as clean as the day I did them. A rag wiped everything off and none of the gasket was left behind. And also I confirmed by slowly doing the passes that the bolts get torqued to 65 ft lbs for sure after the last turn or at least for the 87 to 91 2.0 OHC engine probably different torques for you guys since yours are a bit newer.
So there it is a 3rd and final head gasket job. Even though it wasn't blown it makes me feel better and plus I wanted to get the Victor stuff on here. And comparing the 2 gaskets side by side the material around the pistons on the Fail Pro one is some cheap ass material. So if you guys decide to do this go with the Victor gasket and head bolts. You will be glad you did.