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TR6 TR6 put put sounds, part 2

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Ok, I am on information overload and a bit anxious at the moment. I do have a torque wrench, but no tools to work on the head. I do not belong to any car club. Don is right, I have been in school all summer and I am now starting to get my classroom ready. They own me when school starts until next July . I have learned a great deal over the last few years here, but I am definately no mechanic. Everything I have done on this car is a first for me. Major repairs are the result of much help from forum members. I told Dale he can list me as a hobby now with all the emails he has sent me - especially with the rebuild of the entire suspension, steering and brakes this past winter. EOC, I am about an hour and a half away from you - I would never have expected you to drive to see me, but I would have been happy to drive to where you are at. I do think I have enough information - I just need to decide what to do. There is one British car shop in town. I dread going there becasue he works when he feels like it. Maybe I need to do like Poolboy said and remove the head and get it evaluated before I jump to any more conclusions.
 
Kevin- Do as Dave suggested and pump air into #3. Have someone do it so you can go around and listen
 
Man, I wish I was back in the states and close enough to just come fix it for ya. I would have an excuse to buy some new tools! I've been a hobby mechanic my whole life, and love fixing cars so much that I could never do it professionally. It would ruin the fun! Maybe there's someone else out there who is like me and wouldn't mind taking a weekend to dig deep into someone elses grease?
 
Once you are certain the head is the culprit, yank the head off the spare engine.
Check it out.
You will learn a lot, most importantly what to pull off YOURS in areas hard to see when the engine is in the chassis.

I am Kirkland, more than an hour north, and if WSDOT has I-5 and I-405 torn up again, a LOT more.

Do you have an air compressor?
 
Kevin
you are a teacher in the school system. Yes? you should have a high school in your system correct? does the HS have an automotive shop??? get where I am going with this? if the answer is yes, see if you can get the shop teachers name, they should have a valve grinder and see if they can do the valve work as a learning session for free. I got my 63 volvo head done at the high school auto shop for free

Hondo
 
Kevin
now that we have you thinking and confused about trying to figure out the problem, now lets throw in possible issues about getting the head off the block. If you have been on here for a while you might have read the posts about stuck head but sometime getting the head separated from the block can be a problem. so when you get the head bolts loose and there is a proper order to loosen the bolts and we can tell you that in due time the head could be stuck to the block because the studs have rusted, you will have to put a length of rope say 5 feet in thru the spark plug holes of each cylinder and once that is done you rotate the crank shaft and the rope will help the pistons push the head up and free it from the block.

and you thought getting the money was the hard part

too bad you live so far away

Hondo
 
WITH the rockers fully removed, or you'll bend a valve!

Do they still have auto shops in Washington?
With all the budget cutbacks, I thought those went away about 10 years ago.
Our local ones did, some have been converted to Robotics Labs, some HS's send kids to Apprentice Programs at dealerships, or to Technical Schools.

THEY will be able to help you with the spare head.

I would NOT do your head (in the car now), since you have a spare, and only because, you use this as a daily driver.
You can theoretically change the head out by 0600 the following morning IF you have all the bits ready to go.
 
Is this your daily driver Kevin, I didn't think so
 
This is what he said on page two:
"My car is a daily driver I depend on. "

I approached the repairs from that angle.
 
Is sammy b still active on the forums?
Last post about a year ago, I think.
He was from Olympia.

Dave
 
Dave - I think we need to make a Kamikaze run down there.
 
Yeah.
'cept right now is not good.


Not saying it cannot be done, just thrashing it over in my mind right now.

BTW, tools- swap meets, pawn shops, garage sales, old mechanic's tools are abundant.
Valve spring compressor....so what if it isn't the latest microprocessor-controlled, air driven?
Sockets, so what if they aren't all the same manufacturer?
Timing lights, vacuum gauges, compression gauges, dwell meters, volt meters, I see it all the time, even pick up the occasional piece (like my curved crescent wrenches).

I am always looking at wrenches that have been heated and bent.......maybe ground down a bit.

There was a reason for it being done...can I use it?

Jackstands, jacks, drain pans, drop lights (so what if it needs a new plug?).

That way you can pick up stuff that works for a fraction of new and shiny.
 
The TR6 is my daily driver, which helped me decide what to do (along with all of you of course.)I pulled the head off of the other engine. I took me a couple of hours to do it as the head was very difficult to get off. The valves looked fine, but I decided to get a guy who works on British cars in town to look it over. He said he will let me know tomorrow if it is Ok. I will let you know what happens. Thanks for all of the advice.

Kevin
 
There ya go.
If it's okay, and you have gaskets and scrapers, you should be on the road shortly.
Then, as finances allow, you might get the old head re-done..........have part of the spare engine rebuilt anyway.

If you had a valve spring compressor, a bench grinder with wire wheels, you could have taken it apart, bought lapping compound and a suction cup stick, and done the lapping and cleaning yourself.

This is okay, too.

Dave
 
TOC said:
That way you can pick up stuff that works for a fraction of new and shiny.
Click to expand...
Then too, sometimes you can fabricate an adequate substitute. For example, my TR valve spring compressor is made from a metal stake (the kind Home Depot sells for holding concrete forms in place). Has a slot on the end, to fit under a nut on a rocker shaft stud; and a hole to let the valve & keepers poke through.

I originally made it to be able to install valve stem seals with the head still on the car, but discovered that it works better (for me) than commercial spring compressors do. On the bench, I lay a big nut under the valve head to hold it up. (On the car I used air pressure.)
 
ichthos said:
...I pulled the head off of the other engine. I took me a couple of hours to do it as the head was very difficult to get off...
Click to expand...

Yeah it usually is pretty hard to get one off that is not in a car. If this head turns out to be good-to-go and your going to put it on your daily driver, then you should have an easier time getting the head off since the engine is in the car. Just do all the same steps you did with the other engine, but when it comes time to struggle taking it off, hand tighten all the head bolts back on (light pressure, you want it to be able to move a tad), then crank the engine. Only for a second or two. Should pop it loose pretty easily.
 
Now that I have caught up on this saga, I'll throw my couple of pence into the kidde.

Taking the head off of your spare engine and getting it checked is exactly what I would have done in your situation. Keeping my fingers crossed that the problem with the running engine was valve or gasket related. I agree with TOC that a quickie leak-down test would confirm if it is actually valve related. But if you can't do it, well then you can't do it.

Don't worry about bending a valve if you have to use the "rope trick" to pop the head loose. Since the entire rocker assembly has to be removed in order to loosen the nuts holding the head on, all of the valves would be closed when you do that. Since you have already pulled one head I'm sure your aware of that.

Order a water-pump housing gasket along with the head and manifold gasket. That extra gasket lists for $1 with Moss. Don't count on the gasket there already not tearing and leaking upon re-assembly.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
Just an update. I got the news back on the second head. The head looked fine to me when I removed it, but when the mechanic tested it, three of the valves leaked. The mechanic said that all I really needed was a valve job. He said that if I wanted a more permanent fix that the upgraded parts are the way to go. I do not have $700 to get this done right now. I don't have the tools or anyone to teach me how to even do the basic job, so the $150 doesn't seem all that bad. I sure am glad I didn't just put the second head on like had originally considered. I know this is sort of backwards, but I am going to pick up a couple fittings to do the air test just the same this weekend to confirm just for my own curiosity that is was the valves in cylinder #3. I will also try the liquid test on the valves on my original head too once I take them out just to see how that works too. I sure have learned a lot. Thanks again for all of your help.
Kevin
 
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