Just pulled the old LD9 out about 2 months ago and have slowly been accumulating parts to do my LE5 hybrid ecotec swap. I bought my LE5 last week, performed a compression test and it showed about 175 on all cylinders. I started the tear down yesterday and got the VVT cylinder head off, completely cleaned the block surface, blew the head bolt holes out, mounted my new SCE head gasket and installed the L61 head correctly torquing it with new head bolts to 22 ft. lbs then an additional 155 degrees.
After this is complete, I went ahead and installed the timing chain correctly and performed another compression test and now i'm only getting 30 PSI on all cylinders!?!?!? I bought the cylinder head from a member here on the boards and he claimed it only had 9,000 miles on it and it was all good, I have a feeling I may have bought a bad head. Can anyone help me out or tell me what I may have done wrong that I would only be getting 30 PSI on my compression test?
Thanks, Dan
Check the torque on the head bolts, that head gasket requires retorquing after the first heat cycle, might wanna check the torque now as well, and I hope you sprayes that head gasket down with copper coat prior to installation.
I didn't spray the head gasket with a copper spray because I didn't think it was necessary. I don't have this motor in the car yet, I have the starter hooked up to it and i'm checking compression that way.
The LE5 is up for sale in the classifieds if anyone is interested, just getting tired of messing with it.
Dam, you gave up quickly...or is there somthing wrong with the motor?
The motor is good, the compression checked out good before I tore the stock head off. I'm just so busy with work right now to the point where I just wanna throw an L61 in for right now just to get the car back on the street, it's been down since February. I already have the Ecotec auto trans, ecotec radiator, radiator hoses, wiring harness, etc. ready to go for the ecotec swap. If I can't sell this LE5 I may just keep it and throw a good L61 head on it later on down the road and then throw it in the car, I just don't have the time or money to take this kind of swap on right now.
pft...I've been down since July of last year. I understand where you are coming from though.
Ditch the SCE head gasket and get a factory one from the dealer for $40 bucks.
Copper head gaskets need a perfect, literally perfect finish on the deck and head to seal properly, so the only way you will get it to properly seal is to bring the block and head into the machine shop and get them surfaced.
Run the OEM head gasket and you will have no issues.
Ok thanks for the comments, the reason I went with the SCE gasket is because I've heard good things about their gaskets and I went with a 0.62 thickness to bring the compression ratio back down. What is the compression ratio of an LE5 with the stock head gasket and the L61 head?
Right around 11:1.
You can order thicker Cometic head gaskets (same MLS design as the OEM ones) from Karo if you want something thicker.
OEM is 0.04" thick.
