Javier97Z28

While the heads are off I took a closer look at my cylinder bores and they seem to be ok. The only concern I have are these blackish streaks that seem to be in most of the cylinder walls, it's not rough, when I pass a finger nail over it it doesn't get caught or feel a groove.. it's in pretty much the same spot in all the cylinders.

I figure this is just normal wear for 90k miles? I've had no trouble or lack of power issues so I imagine if it was ok before it'll be fine for a bit longer.

An LE2 setup is going on top of this in a few weeks and I wanted to make sure they engine looks like it will last a big longer before going rebuild right away.

I've since coated them with some 10w30 and wrapped them up in saran wrap.. heh.. after blowing them as clean as I could with my air fitting.

1racerdude

Looks normal for a 90,000 mile engine. Those are either ring drag marks or skirt skuff marks and if ya can't feel them,they are OK.

Javier97Z28

Thanks for the vote of confidence

1racerdude

If it looked bad,I would tell ya.

Javier97Z28

That's what I hoped for!

Off to LE I go! Wish me luck on mid 11's.. then maybe some low's after suspension work

1racerdude

[QUOTE=Javier97Z28]That's what I hoped for!

Off to LE I go! Wish me luck on mid 11's.. then maybe some low's after suspension work [/QUOTE

Good luck with it and keep us posted.

airflowdevelop

Did you know the fire ring on the previous cylinder was not sealed?

Just an FYI.

Javier97Z28

I'm not really sure what the fire ring is..

Is that a fault of the head gasket? What would that have caused.... elaborate please before you worry me

1racerdude

Clean it up and put on a new set with ARP bolts and it will be fine.
It's those factory TTY bolts and 90,000 miles.

Javier97Z28

Some hard 90k miles at that

Thanks again!

Clean-up, new gaskets, and ARP bolts were on the list, so I guess I'm good to go. Crisis averted.

1racerdude

It's not unusual to see a head not completely sealed with that many miles and all factory. At least it wasn't leaking.
Ya gonna use Felpro gaskets?

Javier97Z28

I was actually going to ask about that at some point.

Is Fel-pro the way to go for head gaskets? Or stick with the factory GM stuff? Looking at the GM gasket it looks pretty damn hefty.

airflowdevelop

what do you mean by not leaking? Combustion pressure into coolant by my means is leaking.

Javier,
have a reputable local machinist check for runout in the block (just to be sure, I have never seen a block-deck problem on the later ltx.) They will use a precision ground straight edge. If no more than .002 runout than the heads are more than likely the problem. Clean the decks and proceed, Use a non-TTY fastener and a quality gasket, AND MAKE SURE THE HEADS ARE FLAT!

Dennis

1racerdude

The factory gaskets are .049 and the 1074's are .039 give ya a little more pop.Some are running the thinner Impy gasket but it isn't supposed to be used with aluminum heads,but they are doing it anyway. I use the 1074's with no problem.
Tell LE to give us "southern" boys a good job on the heads and to check them from top to bottom.

Javier97Z28

Dennis,

I'm not one to cut corners, but damn, that's a whole lot of extra work for something you mentioned you've never even seen on later LTx's! The engine is in the car and I had no plans to pull it out unless a rebuild was necessary.

I will no longer be using the castings that were on the car, I'll be using 94/95 643 castings worked on by Lloyd, I imagine that the machine work included will entail making sure they are nice and flat.. as LR posted

LR, thanks for the heads up on the impy gaskets being a slight nono for aluminum heads, I was not aware of that and had not read that anywhere to this date. I'll stick with the felpro's then.