head gasket replacement question??

[ba#97]

so I have found that I may have a very small head gasket leak causing my cooling issues. so I am going to tear into it and swap the gaskets out to be safe. this is my first time doing this project so does anyone know of a how-to thread or anything I can look at...(i can't seem to find anything worth reading) and what do you recommend I replace while I'm in there? any preferences on gasket choices? motor has gt40 heads (I believe) and svo intake. should I just go with arp hardware when I'm doing the swap? I've heard I should have the heads checked by a machine shop as well while I'm at it. any advice would be greatly appreciated. as many of you know the car is used for the track only so stuff needs to be able to handle sustained rpm's etc though I have never had any issues other than this small leak out on track with just a stock setup with these heads and all.

 

[86svo9l]

I am sure someone can link in a how to guide.

Make sure your deck surface is very clean. The old headgasket will leave a residue that looks a lot like metal. I have seen a lot of guys who thought it was clean enough and it still had HG residue on it. If you touch any of the sealing surfaces during reassembly you will need to clean it again. The key here is to keep everything as clean as humanly possible.

Take your heads into a machine shop and get them checked over. It is insurance that will keep you from having to start over if they have a slight warp. May as well go with the ARP head bolts, they are cheap enough but may not be necessary in your case. New bolts will be needed anyway you look at it.

Get yourself a muffin tin or something to label and organize bolts. Take lots of pictures of every step so you can look back. Time to complete depends on how busy the machine shop is. If you had all the parts ready to go it could easily be done and driving in a weekend. But taking them to a machine shop could add a week or more of downtime.

 

[ba#97]

I am sure someone can link in a how to guide.

Make sure your deck surface is very clean. The old headgasket will leave a residue that looks a lot like metal. I have seen a lot of guys who thought it was clean enough and it still had HG residue on it. If you touch any of the sealing surfaces during reassembly you will need to clean it again. The key here is to keep everything as clean as humanly possible.

Take your heads into a machine shop and get them checked over. It is insurance that will keep you from having to start over if they have a slight warp. May as well go with the ARP head bolts, they are cheap enough but may not be necessary in your case. New bolts will be needed anyway you look at it.

Get yourself a muffin tin or something to label and organize bolts. Take lots of pictures of every step so you can look back. Time to complete depends on how busy the machine shop is. If you had all the parts ready to go it could easily be done and driving in a weekend. But taking them to a machine shop could add a week or more of downtime.

awesome. seems simple enough. just need to tear into it. I'm gonna have to piece this project together over a decent time frame cuz funds are low now sadly.

 

[CC'S95GT]

Your Haynes manual will walk you through it.
As already stated. clean clean clean.
You might look into some port matching while they're off too.

 

[RichV]

I was not aware the SN bolts are TTY, I've always re-used mine. And I've had the heads of multiple times. I know mine are not, just from looking at thread pitch.

I do like to use the copper sealing spray as well on HG jobs. I use the standard Fel-Pro 9333-PT1. But I've used cheaper before, the heads come off at least once per year.

Quick rundown:
1. Drain coolant. I like to remove radiator and distributor for more room.
2. Strip/remove upper intake and remove exhaust manifold bolts.
3. Remove serp-belt. Remove alternator and bracket, position out of the way.
4. Remove p/s pump with bracket, a PITA but pump/bracket need removed together. The last bolt is in the way of the p/s pump, but you can get to it with a open-end wrench turning like 1/4" at a time.
5. Remove injector/sensor harness, injectors with rail, and lower intake. Remove valve covers, rockers and pushrods (mark and re-install in same location). Loosen all head bolts.
6. Remove each head, careful to keep the head dowels, sometimes they stick to the heads, so put them back in the block before re-assembly.

Clean everything, check mating surfaces, get all liquid out of upper head bolt holes with q-tip or similar.

7. Gaskets down (make sure arrow or 'front' is positioned correct), and place heads down. Dowels will keep them positioned for bolts.
8. Install and torque bolts according to spec, don't forget bolt sequence is crucial.
9. Install and torque valvetrain, this is a little tricky. You can only truly torque a rocker when valve is all the way up.
10. Position motor at TDC for timing purpose (if distributor is removed).
11. Re-install valve covers, intake, all brackets, distributor, exhaust bolts, belt, radiator, etc.
12. Install distributor at TDC. Time with light.

The only head bolt that's important is the passenger lower on #5, it has a ground strap. But I also have a set of bolts from a Fox, so a true SN set may not have this.

Found this article with pics ... http://302budgetbuild.com/install-cylinder-heads-small-block-ford-302-5-0-gt40p-heads/

 

[Bub]

When removing the pushrods make sure you know which one went where I believe they need to go back in the same order

 

[ba#97]

I'm at a stand still as of right now...is it 100% necessary to set the motor to TDC before removing the dizzy for head removal or can I just mark it with a marker on the housing and make sure to put it back in the same way? if I do need to set it to TDC I will be turning the crank manually so what size socket is that? I believe it's at least 1in. lastly, when trying to remove the fuel lines from the fuel rail on the passenger side I notice they are attached tightly and it doesn't seem like I should just pull them off without breaking something....am I correct here or should I just man handle the suckers off?

 

[410sn95]

Not required to take it to TDC to disassemble but its a good practice to get into. It will make things easier on you when putting it back together. You can actually do head gaskets without removing the dizzy but it is easier with it out. Removing and installing the intake manifold with dizzy in sucks.

I assume stock fuel lines. You need a fuel line disconnect tool. Available at any parts store.

 

[ba#97]

Not required to take it to TDC to disassemble but its a good practice to get into. It will make things easier on you when putting it back together. You can actually do head gaskets without removing the dizzy but it is easier with it out. Removing and installing the intake manifold with dizzy in sucks.

I assume stock fuel lines. You need a fuel line disconnect tool. Available at any parts store.

just for my own learning purposes, how will setting it to TDC make things easier? just curious. I'm taking the view of seeing as I'm taking this much apart I mind as well pull the dizzy too. so yeah. and alright. they are basically the same as the a/c style tools right?

 

[410sn95]

When re- stabbing the dizzy. Easier just to shoot for TDC, no guessing. Even with a mark it's easy to be off...

Setting the motor to TDC is just a good habit to get into. Some motor setups you can mess things up not setting to TDC during disassembly and reassembly, such as interference OHC motors.