Recently I took on doing a Cylinder Head rebuild on my car after being quoted about $2600 for a local shop to do it, with the help of one of a friend we got it done in about two weeks for considerably less than what I would of paid otherwise. It was definitely a learning experience for but something I would do again since I know how to properly do it and the problems that can come up in the process. There are still a few minor things to replace but otherwise the car is running great.

Day 1: Removed the manifold to see how much the cylinder was still flooded, #1 to #3 were dry but #4 was still completely flooded.


Day 2: Removed the battery, disconnected the throttle sensor and throttle cable from the throttle body bracket. Unbolted the throttle body, removed the stock intake and air box.


Used head that I picked up from LKQ, about 120,000 miles on it but still in good condition, going to see which cams look better between the ones on here and the old ones.


Started collecting everything to get the new head on.
-New Head Bolts
-New Manifold Gasket
-New Header Gasket
-Used Cylinder Head
-New Spark Plugs


Needed some help breaking down the motor the rest of the way, so a mechanic friend gave me a hand getting the old cylinder head off the rest of the way. It took about 5.5 hours to do and this was the result after getting the head off.


Picture 2 of the amount of coolant that was sitting in the cylinder, #4 was flooded the most and it looked like the gasket gave way and the coolant slowly seeped under until it filled the cylinder, causing the misfire that I originally had.


Cleaned the top of the pistons a little and checked the cylinder walls for any damage, luckily there wasn't any damage to any of them.


My friend took the old head to his shop to have his master tech double check the old head to see where the damage came from and to get more detailed information on how to put everything back together and get the timing set back right. Leaving the motor to sit like this for a few days until work could start again.


We managed to get the head from LKQ on and it took about a total of 5 hours to get the timing set right, we had to remove the front engine cover twice in order to do so. Before turning it over completely for the first time we ran a compression test and everything went right to spec for what the psi should be at.



I was glad to have finally taken this picture about a month after the car was out of operation and finally to back up and running.



And in the process of the car being down, I was finally able to finish water proofing my trunk. The final result of fixing some minor surface rust issues, two coats of rustoleum primer, one coat of black paint that was sanded down and then finally 3 coats of truck bed liner that were left to cure for 24 hours between coats.

Did you have a cylinder head failure or a head gasket failure? From the looks of it, it appears that the failure took place at the 12pm-3pm position of cylinder #4 (looking straight at the engine from front of vehicle). Also if it was a head gasket failure do you still have the head gasket and if so can you take a picture of both sides of cylinder #4 of the gasket. There's something I am curious about and it's not related to your car specifically but the ecotec in general.



ASE Master Certified Automotive Technician

CaliforniaDomestics wrote:Did you have a cylinder head failure or a head gasket failure? From the looks of it, it appears that the failure took place at the 12pm-3pm position of cylinder #4 (looking straight at the engine from front of vehicle). Also if it was a head gasket failure do you still have the head gasket and if so can you take a picture of both sides of cylinder #4 of the gasket. There's something I am curious about and it's not related to your car specifically but the ecotec in general.

From what I was told by the shop I originally took it to, they said the head was cracked. Once we got the motor apart we saw where the old head gasket had failed and was raised above the block a little bit. My friend took the old head to his shop and had his master tech look at it and they could not see a crack. I no longer have the old head gasket, however the old head is still sitting in my garage. I do vaguely remember that the old gasket was very worn on the outer edge that was on the outer edge of cylinder 4.

I would like to know if the head was not cracked then how did the coolant get into the spark plug hole (above the spark plug)?



FU Tuning

Addicted to meth wrote:I would like to know if the head was not cracked then how did the coolant get into the spark plug hole (above the spark plug)?

It's a bit of a mystery where the crack is on the old head, the original guy I took it was let's just say more than shady about it. The only thing we could thing of was a small crack that is not visible but enough to cause the motor not run. Also, checked into the possibility of a spun rod bearing but they are in good shape still. It's been about a week since everything was put back together and I haven't run into any major issues, just a few minor things

wonder is you had a failure due to the fact your running green anitfreeze in a dexcool car i wonder if it was flush properly and maybe gummed something up and cause the head to over heat and crack might be worth a look at thus why i stick to whats to be in the car



JBO since July 30, 2001

Congrats on taking this on yourself dude. Not many people would something like this when they havent had experience with stuff like this.
Hows the car running now?

NOTa2_4 wrote:wonder is you had a failure due to the fact your running green anitfreeze in a dexcool car i wonder if it was flush properly and maybe gummed something up and cause the head to over heat and crack might be worth a look at thus why i stick to whats to be in the car

ive been running green coolant in my car for 4 years, never an issue.

^^that you know oh. internals dont always give you a sign there are being abused until they explode. just sayin. i think NOTa2_4 kinda knows what he is talking about or he could be trolling

no he knows what he is talking about and mixing or replacing bad thing to do UNLESS you have new lines, rad, head etc....

"As I lay rubber down the street, I pray for traction I can keep, but if I spin and begin to slide, please dear God protect my ride." -Amen

gtpsunfire wrote:Congrats on taking this on yourself dude. Not many people would something like this when they havent had experience with stuff like this.
Hows the car running now?

Thanks, I figured I may as well learn since I plan on doing more future upgrades on the motor and chassis.

The car has been running good besides an issue I noticed today, which is the traction control light coming on while driving and that I think a fuse is blown for my windshield fluid sprayer.

I've never heard of it not being ok to run coolant other than DEX Cool, the car was running green coolant when I purchased it about a year ago.

AJ B wrote:no he knows what he is talking about and mixing or replacing bad thing to do UNLESS you have new lines, rad, head etc....

Any chemical reaction requires a certain amount of reactants to produce a certain amount of product. So if you do a decent flush of the system there shouldn't be any way for the ethylene glycol and dexcool to react to a significant enough degree to do damage. VW said the same thing about their "Pentosin" antifreeze but after I flushed it and put teh green stuff in my 1.8T it ran absolutely fine for 2 years and 40,000 + miles and is still running to this day.

Would I advise putting a 50/50 mix of the green stuff and Dexcool in your cooling system? No, but the trace amounts left behind after a full flush will not create enough corrosive byproduct to do anything.




Arrival Blue 04 LS Sport
Eco
Turbo
Megasquirt
'Nuff said

Some issues have come up and I'm not quite sure what they may be from.

Noticed today that my coolant resevoir was close to empty after about a week and a half and that does not seem normal to me, any thoughts on that?

The other issue that's started within the last 2 days is that my car is taking about 10 minutes to come up to the normal engine temp it sit's at which is about 195 degrees, I drove through 40 degree weather last year and never saw this issue. Not sure if I may have a thermostat issue or maybe a loose connector.

And of course the "Trac Off" light keeps coming on every other day almost.

If anyone has any input on these things it would be of help as I really don't want to encounter major issues again.

The coolant level will goes down as all the air pockets are worked out. Add more coolant and keep an eye on it. As for the warm up time it could be due to the low coolant level, heat being on, way your driving also double check for leaks. Good luck bro

the trac off could be the ABS sensor on the passenger side. it could have been bumped just enough to loosen the connection when you were working on it, R&R the plug at the hub and see if it helps. keep a close eye on your coolant level, it shouldn't go down more than a few times getting any air out of the system. you can help it along by parking the car so the nose of the car is higher than back, (fun to do in Florida I know) and idling the car long enough for the thermostat to open and cycle the coolant. a few pushes on the bumper to help dislodge any bubbles couldn't hurt either.