engine rebuild after head gasket failure.

[Davezj]

Time to bite the bullet and replace the head gaskets after too much boost lifted the heads and caused the head bolts to stretch and make the head gaskets to fail.
the failure is combustion gases in the cooling system.
the head gasket failure was confirmed by doing a sniff test on the bubbles in the expansion tank and seeing the blue fluid turn green/yellow , and fitting a pressure gauge to the cooling system which showed a spike increase in coolant pressure every time large boost pressure was generated by the turbos.

please bear in mind that the engine ran perfectly, no noise, no vibration, it sounded sweet and pulled well, apart from the head gasket issue.

Well that is the reason for the engine rebuild requirement. hope fully it will just be the head gaskets that need to be replaced.

well the engine was removed from the car sound like an easy job but but i took me about a full day to remove it on the road side outside my house. not best place to do it be it is not something i have not done before.

tools special tools required for the engine removal:-
good impact gun (dewalt DCF899)
slide hammer.

the process is:-
Drain all the fluids form the engine , gearbox, transfer case, cooling system.

remove large turbo boost pipe work.
remove the turbo small boost/vacuum pipe work.
Remove the plenum chamber.
remove the wiring to the engine and gear box. trickiest connection is the alternator output wire.
remover the coolant pipe work to the engine.
Remove the radiator and fan shroud.
remove the a/c pump from the engine and suspend it from the chassis with some bungee cords.
remove the Pumper steering pump from the engine and suspend it with bungee cords.
unbolt the power steering pump high pressure pipe from the engine. the hard pipe has the vacuum assist sensor in it, the pipe is running on the pulley end of the engine and back down past the alternator.
remove the lower bolt from suspension strut to straight suspension arm both sides.
remove the inner bolt from the straight suspension arm both sides.
Remove the front drive shaft from the gearbox both sides.
remove the driveshaft hub nut, and remove the drive shaft each side.
Remove the output shaft from the gear box,on the gearbox side. use a slide hammer to pop it out. you must remove the output shaft before the transfer case is unbolted otherwise the output shaft will lock/bind up in place . you can use other methods to remove the output shaft but like a slide hammer to do this.
Remove cross member under the engine/gearbox that has the front gearbox mount attached.
Remove the transfer case, propshaft will come out of the transfer case when it is lowered away from the gearbox. cover propshaft yoke end with a plasitic bag and cable tie it to stop it getting dirty.
remove the gear selection cables and label them up. remove the press in Clips that hold the cables into the mounts on the gear box.
remove the clutch slave cylinder, either keep it all sealed up and remove it and tuck it out of the way. or disconnect one of the hard fluid pipes to the clutch slave cylinder drain the clutch fluid and remove the slave cylinder. remove the press in C clip that hold the fluid lne to the gear box mount.

Disconnect the clutch release bearing:-
Gain entry to the clutch release bearing from under the car not through the clutch fork hole. there is circular rubber grommet on the bottom of the bell housing. remove it and with a torch you can see what you need to do.
Get your flat blade screwdriver between the clutch release bearing and the metal disk that is pressed up against it with a wave spring.
Grab the clutch fork and pull it away from the engine and hold it there.
Twist the screw driver and the release bearing should be released. once you have twisted the screw driver release the clutch fork and it should spring away for the pressure/sping plate of the clutch.
You know if you have been successful as the clutch fork will be fully over to the engine side of the hole in the bell housing.

DO NOT push the clutch fork away from the engine to see what happens as this will engage the clutch release bearing back into the pressure/sping plate of the clutch and you will have to do it all over again.

Remove starter motor.
support the engine with lift jack at the gearbox end.
Remove gearbox. support gearbox with lift/jack/strap, remove the bolts for rear and side gearbox mounts, undo the side gearbox mount to gearbox bolts x4, remove the gear box to engine fixing bolts. prise the gearbox off the engine with a couple of pry bars, lower and remove from under the car.

connect engine to engine hoist, undo the 1 remaining engine mount bolt. lift engine clear of the engine bay.
remove the bell housing to engine thin mounting plate.
loosen to finger tight the bolts holding the cover for the crank main seal.
mount engine onto stand plate. connect stand plate to engine stand, lower engine and stand to the floor.

engine has been successfully removed from the car.
now the engine can be stripped bagged and tagged in the effort to get to the head gaskets.

But here is the point you have to make a decision, while the engine is out do you check the crank and conrod bearings.
the simple answer is always yes, YES, YES.

flip the engine over on the stand so the sump is up.
Remove the lower sump. remove all bolts prise off sump
remove the oil pickup tube.
remove the windige tray.
remove the upper sump. romove all the bolts remember the two long bolts under the little metal viewing cover plate. screw two of the bolts back into the threaded holes next to the dowel pins this will proze off the upper sump from the block.
now you have access to the crank bearing cradle and the con rod bearings.
remove 16 bolts on the crank bearing cradle make note of the 4x smaller headed bolts at the pulley end or the cradle. prize the cradle off gently with a pry bar until it pops. then flip the cradle over and check the bearings llok like new. if they look like new then you are in luck and the cradle can be refitted and torqued back up.
check each accessible pair of conrods bearings in turn. remove the connecting rods end caps and check the bearings look like new. if so refit and rotate the crank to get to the next pair of of conrod end caps, remove and check these, rotate the crank again and check the last two end caps. if all bearing look like new then all is good. you can torque up all the end caps to the correct spec.


However it never goes like that, all of the crank bearings are warn well past the acceptable limit and the conrod bearings i starting to show signs of ware.
So this engine needs a full rebuild, but only back to factory specs, i am not going to start replacing original parts for after market parts. everything will be checked to ensure it is still within factory limits and then it will be put back together with new bearings and gaskets, but everything will be clean and working.
so it should end up a factory fresh engine.

i will add picture to the engine engine prep and rebuild part of this thread. i was just pushed for time when it came to the engine out of the car section and i was filthy, due to having to do this on the road out side my house.