you heard it right, J-D-M. i bought some Toyota Cavalier engine caps from the Land of the Rising Sun. they showed up early this week, and I threw them on as soon as I got off work.









also, my car has been leaking coolant for the past couple days, and the dealership has determined it is coming from the head gasket. i didn't want to give them $1500 to fix it, so I took it upon myself to learn how to change it on my own. I got several things torn off today, and tomorrow should be even better, because I figured out how to get past the problem I ran into.

here are some pictures of the teardown:













enjoy yourselves and your non-coolant-pissing-USDM-j-bodies. :evil:

lol :lol:

oh yeah, i also picked up a new center console and IDI cover. console is from a 98 sunfire, and the IDI cover is from a early 90's grand am. it just says [ 16v QUAD 4 DOHC ]

JDM caps own! and props for doing the headgasket on your own, I would have to, can't be that bad . Good time to clean out the intake mani ports on the head too, I just did that when redoing my PCV hoses from the S/C crap.

Be very careful when timing your car after, you dont wanna get that wrong. Good luck with the head gasket.

Joe Schulte wrote:JDM caps own! and props for doing the headgasket on your own, I would have to, can't be that bad . Good time to clean out the intake mani ports on the head too, I just did that when redoing my PCV hoses from the S/C crap.

i'm actually having another head i bought on ebay cleaned up and machined, so i can drop that right in once i'm ready.

haha, yeah, i like my JDM caps. just some fun parts that a lot of ppl don't have, plus it makes other people wonder what the hell is going on, haha.

basically didn't have a choice on the headgasket. i can't really afford to pay anybody else to do it. so its a good undertaking for me.

well, got the head off today, and boy did those pistons look gross. i got the new head bolted back on, and the timing chain housing bolted to the block. next up is throwing on the rest of the parts, an oil change, and a coolant refill, and then i'll start her up and take her for a drive. hopefully my problems will all be solved. :?

here are a couple pictures from today:

They milled my head down when the headgasket went. Not sure if thats something alot of shops do to make sure the seal is flawless when the new gasket is installed....

looks like ur having a fun time doin that, looks kind of chilly out there whats the weather like?? oh and how do u like that alternator pulley did u feel any difference????


<img src="http://www.j-body.org/registry/scoobyz24/personal_pic.jpg">

-Bryan Dube
Team Drop Zone
Vice President

Gee thats smart...Now how are you gonna know which fluids go where???

Z2FLIP4 wrote:They milled my head down when the headgasket went. Not sure if thats something alot of shops do to make sure the seal is flawless when the new gasket is installed....

Normally when head gaskets are done, the heads are sent out to a machine shop to check for warpds and cracks. If the surface of the head is warped at all, they mill it down so its an even surface, if that wasnt done, the head would just keep leaking, doesnt matter how many gaskets you put in it.
Looking good by the way, let us know how it goes.

Z2FLIP4: my new head was pressure-tested and machined flat on the bottom as well.

ScoobyZ24: its Iowa weather. it was about 40 degrees out today without any winds, so it wasn't too bad. the other night it was sleeting and snowing on me, and i was still out there hunched over the engine bay. i have the RSM crank pulley and alternator pulley on my car, and it seems like the car rev's up quicker than before, and gets some better acceleration. overall i dropped probably 5 pounds of rotating mass off the crank, so that is definately better for the engine.

kustmace: any real car enthusiast should know what and where his fluids are without having to read the caps.... :p

gtpsunfire: everything is going well so far. i've run into a couple roadblocks, but after consulting my two manuals and reading the .org, i've gotten through them. one thing that is stumping me is the new cylinder head doesn't have studs all the way across the exhaust side like my old head did. basically there are three studs near the EGR tube, and the rest are empty, so i'm trying to figure out if i can just get some bolts for the other holes so i can bolt the header back on, or if i need to try to pull the studs out of my old head.

this is how you get the old studs from the old head. This might sound wierd because it is hard to explain when im not in person. Thread on a nut to the old stud just more than halfway up. The nthread another bolt onto the stud and tighten both bolts together. Make sure you use a wrench on both bolts and REALLY tighten them together. When they are tight, put the wrench on the inside bolt (the one closest to the head) and loosen it off, since it is tightened to the other bolts, the stud will come out. You then thread it into the new head and when it is tight, loosen off both bolts. Hope that wasnt too confusing

This is the reason you HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOUR TIMING IS RIGHT...
Blown 2.4 from incorrect timing...

gtpsunfire wrote:This is the reason you HAVE TO MAKE SURE YOUR TIMING IS RIGHT...
Blown 2.4 from incorrect timing...

which just has to do with where the pistons are at, where the crank is at, and where the cams are at, correct? as long as i put everything back together exactly the way it was when i took it off, i should be fine, right?

the crank shouldn't have moved at all, so the only thing would be getting the cams back into the same position. hopefully everything goes alright.

You have the service manuals right? MAKE SURE you read up on how you time it after.

gtpsunfire wrote:You have the service manuals right? MAKE SURE you read up on how you time it after.

yeah, i've got the GM shop manuals and a chilton's to look at. only thing that sucks about those studs is that i already bolted the head back down on the car. do you think i can get the studs onto the new head with it sitting on the car? or should i pull it back off?

Dont pull it back off, you can get them on while the head is on the car. There is alot of room back there without the manifold in the way.

gtpsunfire wrote:Dont pull it back off, you can get them on while the head is on the car. There is alot of room back there without the manifold in the way.

hehe, didn't actually take my header off though, its still bolted together at the ball-joint. i'll just have to shove some things around so i can put them in. thanks for all of your help man, i really appreciate it.

Oops, didnt notice that in the pics. You will either have to push that back out of the way or just get under there and take the 2 bolts conecting the header to the downpipe off.

the studs on the exhaust manifold should have a little head on them, use a 5.5 millemeter on em and thell come right out, pullem off ur old head and put em on the new one, ya dont even have to take the header off for it, just thread them in until then throw the nuts on and call it a day


<img src="http://www.j-body.org/registry/scoobyz24/personal_pic.jpg">

-Bryan Dube
Team Drop Zone
Vice President

Scoobyz24 wrote:the studs on the exhaust manifold should have a little head on them, use a 5.5 millemeter on em and thell come right out, pullem off ur old head and put em on the new one, ya dont even have to take the header off for it, just thread them in until then throw the nuts on and call it a day

its really a 5.5mm? i didn't know they made half sizes. i'll hafta look at work today to see if i can find one, otherwise i'll try the method that gtpsunfire described.

thanks for all of your helps guys!

They do make 5.5mm sockets. But the reason i recomended the other way is because alot of the time when i do it that way, they are too tight and it rounds them off. Try both ways though, let us know how it goes.

well, i borrowed a small socket set from work today, so hopefully i can get the studs off and get everything back together. i'll let ya know how it goes.

yup there is a chance of rounding them out , but mostlikely not, ive pulled them off 2 different heads and havet had a problem. if anything when i was taking the bolts off to remove the manifold the bolt was stuck on the stud and the stud pulled out w/the bolt attatched. let us know how it goes. If u have any problems let me know, im sure i have a few spare studs laying around i can mail u if u strip em out or anything


<img src="http://www.j-body.org/registry/scoobyz24/personal_pic.jpg">

-Bryan Dube
Team Drop Zone
Vice President

thanks for all of your help guys, the 5.5mm socket worked great. i even saved a couple of the studs in case i need em in the future.

i worked on the car for 8 hours straight today, and its finally back together. started it up and everything seemed to be running fine. i got kinda scared after reading A.15's post about blowing up his motor, but i think i got everything back together alright. i'm going to take it out for a little drive later.

i can now officially say that i've changed my own head gasket. WOOHOOO! it feels so good to finally have my car back running!

once again, thanks for all of the help guys, i couldn't have done it without you!

Thats awsome man, make sure you run it for a while, bleed all the coolant out of there and make sure the fan turns on, then take it for a ride. Take it easy for a little while