guitarman376

I have battled cooling issues in my car as long as I have owned it. Recently the car (again) began running hotter than usual. None of the usual culprits were causing the problem. Today I decided its time to flush the radiator. I found a nice milky fluid where the coolant/water's supposed to be! Made my day......Now I'm thinking that I have been dealing with a blown head gasket the whole time.

The reason I'm assuming its a head gasket is because the radiator is very new so I don't think ATF is leaking into the water.

I have no experience with engine assembly/disassembly. Is this something I can tackle myself? Any special tools I need? Anything to look for specifically? Engine guides you guys would recommend?

I'm no mechanical novice and I have good general knowledge especially with old Fords, but like I said engine work is the one thing I haven't gotten my teeth into yet. I'm considering doing a top end rebuild since its pretty much all coming apart soon....

gjz30075

If you feel it's a head gasket issue (I agree), then the engine doesn't have to come apart; only the heads have to come off. No special tools needed. The coolant will need to be drained, the carb then comes off, then the intake, then the exhaust manifolds, then the heads.

If you've identified it as a head gasket problem at this point, you will have to determine why. With the heads off, you'll want to make sure the mating surfaces are absolutely flat.

Good luck....

guitarman376

I have read that a cracked head or intake causes the same problem as a blown head gasket. Is it difficult to see such cracks? Where should I look? And I was thinking about how to determine that the mating surfaces are flat....is a straight edge flat enough to check with? How does one remove the leftover gasket material from the heads and block?

MustangFTW

I used an angle grinder with a wire wheel. you need something that you know is 100% flat to test it, not sure I Could trust a straight edge to be perfectly flat.

guitarman376

@MustangFTW: what would you suggest I do to make sure the surfaces are flat?

JMD

Apart from a harmonic balancer puller, a torque wrench, ring compressor, plastigauge, and feeler gauges, common hand tools are pretty much all you will need.

Once you get the heads off, an examination of the gaskets will show whether compression or water is escaping through bad places in the gasket.

A SBF is in my opinion a simple engine to take apart and put together. A good engine assembly book, some attention to detail, and a little mechanical knowledge is all that is needed.

Oh yea, you will need an engine stand if you decide to pull and go through the engine.

gooser

a balancer puller, ring compressor and plastigauge are not needed to pull the heads.


heads and intake usually need to be very clean to see cracks.

MustangFTW

i would use a level of some sort, they're usually made to be very flat. I would definitely recommend that you port the heads (both intake and exhaust sides) and the intake manifold, most people here agree that it gives a noticeable improvement when done properly, if you do a search on the forums for porting heads then you will find alot of info on it, its pretty easy. make sure you install the head gaskets correctly, they usually come with FRONT stamped on them, the gasket will cover a coolant passage at the front of the engine when installed correctly, as to force coolant to the back of the engine. one gasket will also appear to be upside down, this is correct.

TexasAxMan

Take the heads to a machine shop and have them checked out. They can magnaflux them to check for cracks, and have machinists straight edges to see that they are flat.

They can check valve wear, valve seals, etc. If you have to remove them anyway, make sure they are good to go before you put them back on.