Thread 28701781

bout to start a head gasket job on my 95 f150 with the straight six engine after it has sat for almost a year. never done a job like this before anything I should expect or watch out for

>>28701781 (OP)
If it runs, then let it warm up first. Don't work on an ice-cold engine if possible.

>>28701889
Should be a 911

You tell me

OP do you have the workshop manual or are you going by some youtube video? I'd highly recommend getting the shop manual (you might be able to pirate it online).
>>28701883
>Just burn the shit out of your hands and make the bolt heads softer and more likely to deform or snap off.

>>28701781 (OP)
when you mess up and try to sell it remember you won't get the full bluebook value.

PBblaster everything now and a week forever starting the job

>>28702044
Cold bolts are easiest to remove?

>>28702065
This, also get something to heat bolts. Penetration oil, heat and more pen oil make it a lot better.

>>28702075
No, harder, but cold bolts are less-likely to deform, get stripped, or break.

OP update, didn't get as far as I wanted to today but to be fair I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. goal tomorrow is to get the intake manifold and valve cover off.
>>28701883
didn't try this but I don't think it would have started.
>>28702044
I have the haynes repair manual and started by following it, but many of the steps were completely vague such as "remove any power accessory brackets attached to the cylinder head" - without explaining what they are or where they are located. Switched to a guy on youtube at that point who removed vacuum lines and sensors to remove the upper intake manifold first.
>>28702084
been spraying wd40 on everything before I try to remove it, I stopped at removing the nut that goes to the EGR valve because dude on youtube said it took him 45 minutes to remove and it was getting dark so I sprayed the shit out of it and called it. tomorrow gonna get some liquid wrench or something and a blowtorch

>>28701781 (OP)
Ford makes changes mid year. Learn if it's a early or late '95.

dont let oil be in the threads when you put the head bolts back in because they can hydraulic and split the block.

>>28702463
Good luck with that egr nut. I ended up using an adjustable wrench and hooking a ratchet strap under the transmission to the wrench to brake it free. If you have an air hammer you could try that. As a last resort you could cut the egr pipe and get a large impact on it. Never done the head gasket on those though. Doing a big repair is enough work but consider cleaning out the intake plenum and throttle body while you have them off. The EGR really gunked mine up. Good luck

Speaking of old POS trucks I've got a 96 C2500 with a 454 and 4l80 which I've been wondering if I should do the transmission filter and pan on it. Everyone keeps telling me to just replace the whole transmission once it poops out but that's something I don't wanna do. Anytime I let off the gas when the truck is at somewhat moderate speeds the whole truck kind of jerks a little (could also be the blown suspension or trans mount). Also, would changing out the coolant help the A/C make the heater work better? Wondering if I should get ACDelco coolant or the normal stuff at O'Reilly's that you have to add water to.

OP here, man fuck the EGR nut, the pivot bolts in both the alternator and the air pump are completely seized and I stripped one out cranking on it. spent all day today fucking with this shit to remove the bracket to get to the last exhaust manifold bolts. about to have to just cut the bolts.

>>28707096
Keep us posted

>>28707243
i wasted about 2 hours trying different socket extractors from oreilys today on the alternator pivot bolt, genuinely think its not possible to pull it out without removing the radiator and the grill to be able to drill it out. im hoping i can work the air pump bolt a little tomorrow because the bolt isn't rounded as much but im not wasting my whole day with it, might end up just getting a dremel and trying to saw it out. this job seems like its pretty straight forward until you run into shit like this.

>>28701781 (OP)
Blow out the bolt holes that keep the head on the engine before screwing in new ones.

Work slow, use workshop manuals. Get the head decked by a profi workshop. Get new radiator. Get good headgasket set. Check things you can replace while having the whole shit open to save time next time. Maybe also replace the valve seals. Wipe some engine oil inside the cilinder walls before outting it back together

ok i actually got the air pump pivot bolt out today before it started raining. took a lot of patience, heat, pb blaster. one difference was I had room to hit the bolt housing with a hammer some and loose up the corrosion inside i think. took me about an hour but i took it slow and did it the right way

>>28707335
average old shitbox project

>>28702535
God I love fords
Don't forget the obligatory [really long bolt] on a routine job that requires removing the radiator to fully extract
The best part is the emissions spaghetti, at least the 80's hondas have good cable management
I'd like to get ahold of a ford dual vacuum advance/retard distributor and see if I can repurpose the emissions shit to use said dist. to get more top end power (low VE @ high rpm, advance should back off at that point)

OP update, gonna post pics would like to hear any advice, thinking i might just have to buy a whole new head, when the valve cover came off the rocker arms were in incredibly bad shape, a lot of rust but seems like it wants to clean off. Main thing I'm worried about is the block/cylinders, don't really know what I'm looking for in terms of warping or anything like that.

here is the bottom of the head

here is the block, cleaned it up a little bit after this but you can see where coolant is pooling in that 4th cylinder, I'm assuming thats the one that busted on the head gasket

why would you bother doing this when you can just get an EV that is superior in every way lol

>>28701781 (OP)
The carb style intake bolts to the exhaust making it very heavy and a pain to remove and install. You might want to replace factory intake bolts with studs. Carbed 300's can use a a Chevy 292 rocker arm for more power. EFI 300s are different and it won't bolt on. The cam sucks, and you're probably another hour away from upgrading it too. Something mild with 190/200° duration and under 500 lift is good, shoot for a wider LSA with efi. use melling, sealed power, other name brands for lifters or you'll be doing it again. The composite head gaskets will lower compression, not that it matters. You can get a machine shop to mill the head but there's not much power to gain. If yours is a 96 or 97 be very careful as the egr pipe with dpfe provisions is not available. Should be simple otherwise.