Project hopeful, no will power

[bashbarnard]

Couple of hours. Christ i wish i waa that good. Lol. May have to have a late night doing it. I know ive got a day off, the day before the wedding. Thats the perfect time to do a clutch right?

[Piggy]

This is where a gearbox mounted turbo is not to your advantage!! Lol
2hrs easy without it!

[bashbarnard]

So as some of you saw on facebook i should have pmd a video of the cg clutch to piggy. Its a tad loose on the splines which im not 100% happy with. So it will be going back to them and ill put an input shaft in the box as well so they can test there themselves before sending back.





In other news on my long list of niggles. My cooling system seemed to pressurize far to much for my liking. No h\g failure so i swapped the rad caps for the one on lus car and hey presto, went for a drive and its now got what i would call a "normal" amount of pressure in. Heres a pic of my old one.(second picture) Probably the original. Spring still compressed.
The first pic is the one i replaced it with.

[Frosty]

Interesting about the rad caps as my dt seems to pressurize more than i liked so think it maybe worth me trying a different cap. Was going to take apart and try a different head but hopefully wont have to

[bashbarnard]

Still having pressure issues. i will get to the bottom of it.



Anyway. Finally manages to get a 2.5 inch system. Stainless. £20. Not for the car but will be no worse than a universal to fit as i was gonna make the rest anyway. Going to hide it up behind the bumper and put a heatshield up to stop melting bumper.

[bashbarnard]

So pressure issues are persisting. Its pushed some out the header tank. Pretty sure its h\g clearly did not get the arps in fast enough.

[HDi--Power]

Surely you would have had the head gasket done at the same time as the ARP's? You cant just swap over the standard bolts for upgraded and continue on using the same headgasket

[bashbarnard]

Nope. Swapped them one at a time. Hoped for the best.......

[HDi--Power]

That's probably why your head gasket is now failed, and head may be warped from the uneven torque that is now undoubtedly holding it down. Time to remove, skim and do the job properly I think

[bashbarnard]

Id normally say that but this has been like it since before the headbolts. No doubt the headbolts made it worse.

[procta]

is it not air in the system still? as my rover was like that, took it for a spin, then eased the cap off, so it would let what ever was in the system out, and then revd it so it would force what remaining air was in the system out while the cap was off.

[Niall]

Time to remove, skim and do the job properly I think

Time to remove, MEASURE and do the job properly. Heads don't just automatically need skimming!!!

[HDi--Power]

Time to remove, skim and do the job properly I think

Time to remove, MEASURE and do the job properly. Heads don't just automatically need skimming!!!

Unless valve clearance is critical the head really should be skimmed unless it was done recently, particularly in this case where the bolts were swapped out on the car.

[Niall]

Time to remove, skim and do the job properly I think

Time to remove, MEASURE and do the job properly. Heads don't just automatically need skimming!!!

Unless valve clearance is critical the head really should be skimmed unless it was done recently, particularly in this case where the bolts were swapped out on the car.

But what possible benefit is there if its a clean surface and you've measured the head and it checks out ok?

[bashbarnard]

Never skim a head unless needed. 1. Its a waste of money 2.its a waste of time.

[cully]

sheet of glass and some grinding paste to clean up the surface will soon tell if it needs a skim

[bashbarnard]

sheet of glass and some grinding paste to clean up the surface will soon tell if it needs a skim

Good idea. Never done that one.

[MrBigMac]

Once its been skimmed a few times, its new head time anyhow

[HDi--Power]

Time to remove, skim and do the job properly I think

Time to remove, MEASURE and do the job properly. Heads don't just automatically need skimming!!!

Unless valve clearance is critical the head really should be skimmed unless it was done recently, particularly in this case where the bolts were swapped out on the car.

But what possible benefit is there if its a clean surface and you've measured the head and it checks out ok?

Its near impossible to get an old head 100% clean with a perfect surface, its equally hard to truly measure accurately, and the head will need pressure testing anyway to do the job correctly. Standard procedure everywhere I have worked, obviously if redoing a recent hg for non overheat issues it would be unnecessary

---

Never skim a head unless needed. 1. Its a waste of money 2.its a waste of time.

From the man who replaced the head bolts one by one........

[bashbarnard]

Time to remove, skim and do the job properly I think

Time to remove, MEASURE and do the job properly. Heads don't just automatically need skimming!!!

Unless valve clearance is critical the head really should be skimmed unless it was done recently, particularly in this case where the bolts were swapped out on the car.

But what possible benefit is there if its a clean surface and you've measured the head and it checks out ok?

Its near impossible to get an old head 100% clean with a perfect surface, its equally hard to truly measure accurately, and the head will need pressure testing anyway to do the job correctly. Standard procedure everywhere I have worked, obviously if redoing a recent hg for non overheat issues it would be unnecessary

---

Never skim a head unless needed. 1. Its a waste of money 2.its a waste of time.

From the man who replaced the head bolts one by one........

Of which many many people who fit arps successfully have.

[Matt-Rallye]

Its really common practice to change headbolts one at a time on these and ive never heard of it wrecking a head before.

Day before the wedding seems the ideal time bash, get it done!

[darrenjlobb]

Surely you would have had the head gasket done at the same time as the ARP's? You cant just swap over the standard bolts for upgraded and continue on using the same headgasket

No problem in swapping one at a time and torquing them down as you go, no its not "ideal" but its 99% likely to be fine, and saves stripping the entire engine down...worst case if it did fail for any reason (which is unlikely to be because of swapping the studs) then you just have the gasket / strip down to do that you would have had to do anyway....

Time to remove, skim and do the job properly I think

Time to remove, MEASURE and do the job properly. Heads don't just automatically need skimming!!!

I have personally NEVER pulled a head off a diesel peugeot engine that is straight, gasket failure or not... Polish it / skim it...same thing...you are removing material to get it level / flat again...having it skimmed dosnt mean taking large amounts off, simply enough to make it uniform again, if its not uniform, its not going to last...it is essential quite honestly.

[bashbarnard]

Lol. It wont be done untill after the wedding. I already fitted a new 2 1\2 inch exhaust yesterday when i shouldve been doing wedding stuff. Lol. Plus i have my boy today while my other half is at the venue. Its booked in my calender to pull it apart next week. I have a friend who works at an engine shop who has said he will skim for £25 as a favour and turn it around the day i give it to him. Darren may be right. I didnt skim it when i built the engine up either. It could be down to that its gone. On the other hand though its more than likely the amount if times i lifted the head before i put the arps in. Fail. .
May also buy some waterless coolant as well. We shall see.

[Matt-Rallye]

Might be worthwhile investing in one of those rads that piggy has? Anything you can do to keep temps level on an XUD is essential tuning

[Mattcheese31]

Waterless coolant is a good shout though, heard good things about it keeping temps down

[Niall]

I agree that if its in need of a skim, you would be silly not to but I just don't like the idea that some people skim them when it may not be needed.
Chances are if the head gasket has gone and had been overheated, it will need doing but for the sake of saving money you could just measure it. My engine was stripped and rebuilt. It wasn't overheated and the head was spot on so it wasn't done.
I personally don't see the point IF you can avoid it. I'm not saying bang it back on without a skim regardless of if is warped or not. Just why waste money time and material when it may not be needed!

[mr_fish]

Just throwing my 2p in there. Swapped my headbolts out one-by-one then dropped it in the 206, drove it for over 6k miles with the vnt. Proceeded to drop it out of the 206 into the 309 and again did another thousand miles.

Maybe I didn't give it that much abuse but pugfest last year I would say it did.

Only time it really overheated was on darren's rollers. But that was a sticky thermostat. I'd like to say that is still the original gasket but I can't confirm.

Did I see a FB status that your going to pull the head off yours next weekend Tom?

[Ruan]

I agree that if its in need of a skim, you would be silly not to but I just don't like the idea that some people skim them when it may not be needed.
Chances are if the head gasket has gone and had been overheated, it will need doing but for the sake of saving money you could just measure it. My engine was stripped and rebuilt. It wasn't overheated and the head was spot on so it wasn't done.
I personally don't see the point IF you can avoid it. I'm not saying bang it back on without a skim regardless of if is warped or not. Just why waste money time and material when it may not be needed!

I would always "skim" the head, as said, it doesn't HAVE to be a large amount, "skimming" doesn't mean taking millimetres off the head, you've got to clean the surface anyway - if you're "polishing" or "cleaning" it you're still removing material, just in terms of making sure you've got the absolute best sealing surface you can get (especially on these engines which have a reputation for sealing problems), a machine designed for the job will produce a far better surface than you can do by hand.. You can have a few thousandths taken off and it'll then have a perfect seal, and in reality, you've got another 30 skims left in the head as long as it wasn't warped. Long as you take your time with the block, with some scotchbrite and a blade, it'll seal perfectly, unlike if you do it by hand, you'll end up with higher and lower spots and gouges which you simply cannot avoid when trying to do the job by hand with a blade and scotchbrite.

WRT taking bolts out one at a time, it's not ideal, but to be fair, it'll be absolutely fine, I've done it, I know countless people who've done it, all of which have been fine. OP said that apparently it was like this before the ARPs went in - putting ARPs in once it's blown past the gasket won't solve anything unfortunately.

[bashbarnard]

It was unfortunately to late i think putting the studs in ruan is right. No use flogging a dead horse and all that. To be fair it hasnt overheated yet. Just lots of pressure. I will be taking the head off next weekend and hopefully have it all back together for the family trip to padstow which i usually cover around 1000 miles in so should ve a good test run. Lol. I have a good friend that even if he doesnt skim it and reface it as such on the machine might be worth best bet. To be fair its my own fault and i shouldve put arps in when i built it. Unfortunately is didnt have the money at the time and also sold my good turbo to fund getting it in the car. But months have past i have the funds to donit properly now and fingers crossed will be the last time the heads coming off in a while.

[Ruan]

If it's getting pressure, that means that it's getting air pockets in the head, remember these have issues with air locks in the head, so although you may not have totally boiled it over, I'd HIGHLY recommend taking it to be faced and checked...