I was pushing coolant from the time I started my engine and came to conclusion that my head gasket may be to blame. I have removed my head and posted pics here:

http://www.memoryfoam.us/cpg144/thumbnails.php?album=6

Page 3 has the most current.

The head had oil going all the way through it in places it shouldn't have been. The valve cover gasket looked new.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thankfully I had some guys on another forum help me out.

I ended up floating my head and all I needed was to retorque everything.

Thanks for all the great information that you have supplied over the years.

Originally posted by mreigle
Thankfully I had some guys on another forum help me out. I ended up floating my head and all I needed was to retorque everything. Thanks for all the great information that you have supplied over the years.

How and the hell did you float it? How much boost were you pushing? What were your torque specs the first time?

I had some kind of arc or short in my TPS tap for the MS that filled all four cylinders with fuel and hydrolocked.


Dumb ass mistake but I learned from my lesson.

You hydrolocked and all you had to do was retorque your head? O_O

That is what I was told.

If you look at the pics you will see that I have the head off. I am going to replace the Cometic HG with a Felpro and replace my ARP headstuds as well.

Should I have to do anything else besides clean up the mess?

What did you torque the head to the first time?

The first time I had someone else do it but I think it was 80 lbs. The head issue was probably created by an explosion in all four cylinders at the same time.

This time I will be doing a 30-60-90-90 with ARP lube.

Last time the AEM cam gears were at zero and I have since learned that the timing marks were off from the factory.

This time I am trying to get everything dialed in correctly.

When I hydrolocked, I scored two cylinders, bent 3 rods, and shattered one rod. The valve seals probably need to be replaced now too but I haven't gone back to that head to look yet. Mine was due to water ingestion, not injectors though.

No need to replace the ARP studs unless they're visibly stretched, they're strong.

Also... impossible to explode all 4 cylinders at once. Max 2 at a time. ;)

That true. Only two cylinders fire at the same time.

How can you tell if you damaged the cylinder? I have darker rings around the top of all four my cylinders.

Take the pistons out or inspect visually at tdc and bdc from top and bottom of the engine.

Dark rings are normal, that's the carbon buildup where the rings don't scrape.

Thanks, I appreciate your help.

Just keeping everyone posted on the project. After many hours of research online I am finally getting this thing dialed in. I don't know if this head is good enough to be able to handle it but we will see.

1. New Felpro HG installed.
2. Torqued head 30-60-90-90
3. AEM cam gears remarked after finding out they were marked wrong from the factory.
4. Megasquirt harness reattached and connections gone over.
5. Timing aligned but still hasseling with the hydraulic tensioner
6. Megasquirt is now communicating with laptop. Solved gender switcher issue.



In the next week:

1. Hydraulic tensioner installation
2. Watercooling super 16G
3. Installing Wideband O2
4. Install EGT
5. Start to configure megasquirt

Originally posted by mreigle
1. New Felpro HG installed.

Did fel-pro come out with a MLS? is that the reason you are using it? Because (well obviously its too late) i would recommend using a stock oem or cometic gasket. I just had to replace my cometic and I used a stock oem one instead this time hopefully it will hold up.

It was a Permatorque Fel Pro Multi Layer Steel Cylinder Head Gasket

I got the ride on the road again today. There are a few things that need to be tweaked but all in all it is together.

Coolant temps were mostly between 175-180 until I got stuck at a stop light and it shot up to 200. I need to go through and burp the system.

The Megasquirt is reading coolant, air intake temp and TPS. I have the vacuum line ran for the 3 bar map but still need to find a very tight connector because the connector on the MS unit is a little small for the vacuum line and it is prone to come off with just a zip tie.

I also have the EGT probe and wiring done. I just haven't installed the guage until I find a good spot for it.

My wideband is installed in the rear 02 bung and the wiring is ran under the drivers seat. I still have to hook it up the the MS as well.

Latest pics can be seen at:

http://www.memoryfoam.us/cpg144/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=-6