unexpected changes to the ol' engine

oilspotoilspot Wagonist
in Engine & Drivetrain
Head gasket went out on my wagon about a week ago. While taking the exhaust off one of the exhaust studs broke off.
Turns out a friend had a z6 head that he gave me a sweet deal on.
So it's mini-me time for my 89'.

I'll post up some build pics here in the next few days.

Comments

  • Eagle BeagleEagle Beagle familEE
    oompffh...
    w'll be waiting ...
    :mrgreen:
  • JakerJaker familEE
    Don't forget to remove the oil restrictor in the deck of the A6 block.
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    Jaker wrote:
    Don't forget to remove the oil restrictor in the deck of the A6 block.
    already pulled it. Gasket kit should be in tomorrow.
    Realized that the drivers side motor mount is shot this afternoon. Not in my budget. Gonna weld a solid mount to use temporarily.
  • ricefighterricefighter Wagonist
    pls post detailed info. ill be doing this same project in the near future.

    thanks

    wagon.................4ever.......................
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    oilspot wrote:
    Jaker wrote:
    Don't forget to remove the oil restrictor in the deck of the A6 block.
    already pulled it. Gasket kit should be in tomorrow.
    Realized that the drivers side motor mount is shot this afternoon. Not in my budget. Gonna weld a solid mount to use temporarily.

    Fill it up with Window Silicone from Home Depot or something. Thats what I did to my mounts, helped but I can definitely tell they are solid.
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    So as the pics show...
    bust out the old manual (or download it :D) Follow the directions for head removal. rt4wd you have to pull the power steering pump and bracket. Mine still had the oem head gasket and didn't wanna move. Finally CAREFULLY was able to pry it up and off (had to use a 90 degree cat claw type nail remover/ prybar under the passanger side of the head.)

    Getting the oem gasket material is great fun! You can find several threads/ compliants about it on hondatech etc. It looks like I sanded the sealing surface in the picture... I didn't, it just looks all blinged out because of the flash.
    Pull the oil jet in the middle of the rear of the block!

    Did a lot of searching and got great feedback on this top end gasket set, from this seller. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... &viewitem=

    I'm using the Z6 head. if your using the y8 head used the gasket kit for it.

    At this point I've just got the head back on. Havent started torqing down anything. Dropped my cleaned up valve cover for inspriation.

    There's quite writeups on mini me on the web. I'm just gonna give a quick overview of how mines going.

    I'm gonna run it without the vtec working for a few weeks untill I can save up the cash for a obd0 to obd1 conversion harness and a non modified p28 ecu. rpm switches, piggybacks, and all that crap just doesn't seem like the way to go for several reasons if you ask me.

    Here's a few pics.... will ad info as I make progress

    63.jpg
    64.jpg
    65.jpg
  • wagodizzlewagodizzle Council Member and EDM expert
    so what did you use to clean the gasket material off?
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    wagodizzle wrote:
    so what did you use to clean the gasket material off?
    razonblade to pull the thick stuff off. Wire brush on angle grinder... ***WARNING*** I don't recommend doing it this way for just anybody. I worked in a machine shop for quite a few years and learned a lot of finesse with shit like that. I had to do shit like that a lot. And I really tore a lot of shit up at first!
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    torqued the head on today. Got the intake all put back together. Went and bought a tube of the 3m window weld and made a solid mount for the one that broke. Should be able to pick up the timing belt and new alt belt tomorrow. and get it most of the way back together.
    Spent some time cleaning off the PS bracket, it was caked full of old oil and crud. Looking for a little better info right now on the best way to ghetto mount the a6 distributor on the z6 head. will post more pics when it looks different :D
  • bmotorsbmotors New Wagonist
    evol911 wrote:
    oilspot wrote:
    Jaker wrote:
    Don't forget to remove the oil restrictor in the deck of the A6 block.
    already pulled it. Gasket kit should be in tomorrow.
    Realized that the drivers side motor mount is shot this afternoon. Not in my budget. Gonna weld a solid mount to use temporarily.

    Fill it up with Window Silicone from Home Depot or something. Thats what I did to my mounts, helped but I can definitely tell they are solid.
    ..

    i did that with mine he front and rear were shot..when i did my swap probably shoudlnt have done all of them but i thought what the heck......engine barely moves but car vibrates like hell at stop lights ...lol
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    bmotors wrote:
    evol911 wrote:
    oilspot wrote:
    Jaker wrote:
    Don't forget to remove the oil restrictor in the deck of the A6 block.
    already pulled it. Gasket kit should be in tomorrow.
    Realized that the drivers side motor mount is shot this afternoon. Not in my budget. Gonna weld a solid mount to use temporarily.

    Fill it up with Window Silicone from Home Depot or something. Thats what I did to my mounts, helped but I can definitely tell they are solid.
    ..

    i did that with mine he front and rear were shot..when i did my swap probably shoudlnt have done all of them but i thought what the heck......engine barely moves but car vibrates like hell at stop lights ...lol

    :lol: Yep
  • skinnyskinny Senior Wagonist
    thats a sick valve cover. How did you get the pink? I have never been able to find any good colors in high temp.
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    skinny wrote:
    thats a sick valve cover. How did you get the pink? I have never been able to find any good colors in high temp.
    it's red. looks pick because... my regular drop light had broken and I was using this crazy bright light, and i took the picture with my smartphone (not the best camera)
  • skinnyskinny Senior Wagonist
    Oh is the the high temp crinkle paint?
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    just regular red high temp gloss.

    The a6 spark plug wires don't work with the z6 head. Since I'm doing this swap on a tight budget I'm gonna make them work.
    They don't reach because the rubber "lip" on the plug is to big and keeps the plug wire from going down into the head enough to grab the spark plug.

    So I cut the lip off with a razor blade. Don't see why it won't work. Of course i'd love to have the extra cash to just go buy new plug wires but...
    Tell you the truth... if they work well, I'll prob drive around with them until the plug wires get old and crunchy and need to be replaced.

    here's two pics of my ghetto mod...
    119.jpg
    120.jpg

    now they reach in just fine, and connect on to the plugs with a nice solid pop.
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    ^^^ Thats cool to hear, I just bought NGK wires not that long ago for my A6 but I swapped in my ZC so I can build a Z6/A6 combo. Now I know my new plug wires won't go to waste.
  • Eagle BeagleEagle Beagle familEE
    ghetto my ass
    cutting yourself
    while at it
    thats ghetto

    so ...
    great mod, good to know

    : )
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    Not all the way done, but close. Got it to the point where I didn't need to be able to pull it over my drop pit, and the winds here are supposed to stop. So I push it outside to finish up.

    Need to adjust valves, do electrical connections, rig up the a6 distributor to work temporarily (till I get a the z6 dist, p28, etc.)
    Be trying to clean up the bay a little while I'm working on it.

    here's some pics with better light.

    136.jpg
    137.jpg
  • evol911evol911 familEE
    Looks good and those plug wires look like they worked out good too :)
  • wagodizzlewagodizzle Council Member and EDM expert
    sweet deal man. swap looks good!
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    lagging on getting it done. Just have to mod the distributor and time it. Mabey tomorrow.
    Kinda lucked out. A good friend of mine just shipped out to Afghanistan yesterday. Asked me to do him a favor and hold on to his GTI for him. "can you please drive it at least 4 or 5 times a week".... Yeah, think I can manage that :D .

    Now I don't have to fit any work in between the car being my daily driver. Don't get me wrong. It's what I want to drive everyday. It's just really nice to be able to take the time to fix up my wagon proper.
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    been a while since my last update. Ended up pulling the head back off. Even after doing valve stem seals I was still burning oil.
    Pulled the head and off to the machine shop with it. The machinist told me that d-series heads are really bad with exhaust valve guides.
    So I've made up my mind to rework the head. It'll get a flycut, 3 angle valve job, and new valve stems in the exhaust side.
    Considering having a stage 2 port and polish done on the head. It's pretty pricey, but then again the car is paid for.
    I may have decided against the swap if I would have known how far this could go, but i've already got the p28, conversion harness, head, and dist. bought so I'm going for it.

    I'll end up putting more into this motor than I could pick up a jdm swap, but I've stated what I feel about jdm motors on here before.
  • vtecn8ivevtecn8ive Senior Wagonist
    Have you made sure its the head that is leaking??

    Could be the deck of the block, or even rings going bad.
    Did you do a compression test?
  • oilspotoilspot Wagonist
    vtecn8ive wrote:
    Have you made sure its the head that is leaking??

    Could be the deck of the block, or even rings going bad.
    Did you do a compression test?
    Decks straight and level. Rings are good (but I'm tempted do rod bearings and rings). The car runs like a scalded ass ape, just burns some oil.
    The exhaust valve guides were pretty loose. The machinist pointed out that to really get a feel for the fit you have to pull the valve, clean off any oil, and place the valve back in the guide. It's amazing how much slop a little oil/ residue takes up. they were noticably loose after cleaning them off.
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