I pulled the front suspension last week. Blown head gasket after overheating it due to clogged catalytic converter. Check out the break in the head gasket and the still good looking crosshatch in my third post! I don't know what conventional oil will do, but I'm a believer in Mobil 1, that's all it's ever had.

The valve covers had never been off this motor.

Having lifts makes life much easier!




After it fell out



Empty!

 

The car and I are floating!



We rolled the body around on these furniture dollies I got at Harbor Freight. They hold 1000 lbs and cost 10 bucks.



The strut tower brace held everything up and allowed me to push the assembly around.



Still looked good, no sludge.

 

Blown head gasket. The cylinder ring blew out. My guess if from the pressures created when the catalytic converter clogged.



One of the heads. Know which cylinder was bad??



Stock pistons



Cross hatch is still pretty prominant!

 

amazing how "clean" that cylinder is

 

Not really. A cylinder that was burning coolant will always be like it is steam cleaned (because it was). It's a tell-tale sign.

 

So what are the plans, stock rebuild, or something better?

 

yeah, but wouldn't it be nice to have all of them "cleaned" like that?

 

Just mist water into the intake you will be suprised how black the smoke coming out the tail pipe is.

 

Not if you want your engine to run

 

Wow, the bore of that cylinder looks so much better than those of my 146k miles LT1.

Here's a pic of mine: (currently being rebuilt because of lots of blow by)



I used Mobil 1 synthetic since I had the car but 10k of 146k is not enough to save the damage that was done by neglectful previous owners.

 

This is true. The head was "cleaned" as well as you can see in the pic. However, the crosshatch was prominant in every cylinder. I don't have any closer pics of those though, just the overall pic up there.


I bought a stock rebuilt short block (~20k miles), it's getting new bearings and rings and being "cleaned" by a machine shop. I'm getting the heads done by LE and getting his cam to match (LE1). I'm not planning on any big numbers, just want a fun street driver. I'm looking for ~375 to the wheels, max.

 

Looks good for 176k!

 

The LE1 will still be a great improvement over stock. Now that you got the engine pulled, it also is a great time to do some cleaning of the dirt and grime in the engine bay.

 

About to pull my motor and tranny from the bottom with my lift. I have a really good idea on doing so but any tips or steps??????

 

brake lines and steering shaft, those I had some trouble with, but it wasn't anything that was a big deal - I did mine out the bottom without a lift - I sure wish I had one or access to one, but it can be done without it, just go slow and easy, take your time