Blown head gasket 3.7l -help

[Hendrous]

Hooray the bloody thing is off!
Damage $120. I reckon I should have done that 2 days ago and saved the cost of two useless balancer pulling tools.
Next step will be getting the secondary chains off.

[Hanna]

Good work mate - no shame in calling on a pro in a time of need! In saying that, I am too stubborn and would probably still be swearing at it now..... I can't remember how much my 3-jaw was, but I know it was nowhere near $150. It did end up costing me a new balancer though, so there's many ways to skin a cat.

I didn't have any special tools to remove the cam gears. From memory I just wedged a long piece of wood, a screwdriver or hammer handle (probably all 3 knowing me!) through the hole in the gear and held this whist I undid the bolts. They weren't as tight as I thought they would be. Make sure you zip tie your timing chains to your cam gears before you remove the bolts too.

When it comes time to reinstall the balancer get yourself a long bolt or threaded rod from a bolt supply shop (take your crankshaft bolt with you to match the thread) and a few nuts and large greased-up washers and make your own tool. They work a treat and cost next to nothing.

Enjoy the beer!

[Hendrous]

Thanks for the tips Hanna..much appreciated.
I'd hit the 'thanks' button if i could see one ..
Might take a breather today and do some other domestics.
Off to see the Socceroo's tonight- should be a cracking atmosphere with a full stadium.
Chrs
Mark

[Hanna]

No worries. The "like" button is down the bottom right of the post you're reading (round green symbol), but you may not have access to it as you're a relatively new member?

I just remembered that you may need to double-check the direction of thread for the cam gear bolts. They might be left-hand threads, but I'm not sure.

Have fun at the Asian Cup final - it should be a cracking atmosphere for sure! Pretty jealous as I'm currently in a Hotel in Karratha with no access to ABC TV! Definitely off to the pub for this one....

[Hendrous]

G'day Hanna
Hope you got to watch the game. THe atmosphere out at the stadium was incredible. All 74k thought we had it with about a minute of extra time to go and then there was a universal groan.
I have to say I feared the socceroo's would go down in a penalty shootout after the last minute equalizer, but they somehow lifted themselves back up and got the win. The coach deserves a lot of credit for turning over the subs when he did and not running with Cahill for the whole match.
I have virtually lost my voice from shouting at the ref! I was biased but really what a nob for carding Robbie Kruse when injured and ignoring the Sth Koreans time and again for diving.Kids went with us and hopefully they will remember that game for a long time.

Anyways, at last I have both the heads off. Threads on the cam's were both anti clockwise to loosen.
Looks like the 'newish' long block on this motor wasn't decked properly at the manufacturers as it's leaked under the gasket on both sides. May also be due to warped heads, but the workshop guy I've taken it too is old and seems to be able to diagnose a problem simply by looking at the gasket. He said I should spend a few hours on each side with an oil stone trying to plane the block faces before putting the heads back so that's me for the next day.
Hopefully I don't have any cracks or other problems with the heads. They want $280 per head to do a proper service on them which includes reseating valves etc, or it's $160 per head to deck them and test. A little more than I expected but then again it's years since I had a head overhauled.
I figure I might as well go the whole nine yards and spend the extra $240 as I'm hoping I can get the Jeep running nicely and hang onto to it for a while. It's had a rough idle since I've owned it and I'm thinking that could have been a slight compression leakage. The shop who put the engine back together in 2012 were one of the chains who usually do shocks etc so I reckon they might not have checked the block.
Chrs

Mark

[Hendrous]

Howdy,

Can anyone tell me what size tap you need to clean out the threads for the M10 bolts in the head?

The manual is saying the long bolts are M10 but a standard 10mm nut won't go on the bolts.

Chrs

Mark

[Hanna]

Sounds like you have a different pitch on the M10 threads. Best bet would be to get a thread gauge or take it down to a nut and bolt shop to get them to match it up before you go wrecking the threads.

How's the heads coming along anyway?