Well its been long enough, its about time you guys knew that I bought another car *dun dun duh* but the good news about this one is that it runs (okay), it stops (okay), and its body is in okay condition (that a load of bull**** but hey ill run with it). otherwise its in great condition for a 63 falcon 2 door sedan. here comes the head gasket question, ive noticed its been smoking when it idles and leaking some oil around the head so i figured might as well replace the head gasket along with all the rest. in doing so, if I remove the head and dont adjust anything, literally unbolt it and set it on the bench for clean up, will i be safe to put back on once the two surfaces are cleaned? in other words, if i dont adjust any bolts on the rockers i wont get a stuck valve or anything since it doesnt have it now? i know to order the rods and put them back in place, and i know to only clean the carbon build up with br*** so it doesnt scratch the valves but if i remove the head and rods and dont adjust anything it should go back on without a hitch correct? thanks in advanced
If it's running ok right now and all you want is to get it to stop leaking oil and smoking I'd just do a valve cover gasket and new valve stem seals without pulling the head.
It depends where it is leaking the oil around the head - if it is up high near the rocker cover then just replace the rocker cover gasket and try to replace the stem valve seals as mentioned byBigjake. If it is leaking lower down near where the head meets the block then its a different story. I've seen this happen and a retorque of the head bolts solved the problem other wise it is suggesting that the gasket needs replacing and if the head is off I would check it for straightness and get it lightly planed if necessary to restore its surface to be level. Again replacing the valve stem seals at this stage will be easier to do and a must seeing you are this far down in an engine strip. I had an old 35 Desoto some time ago and she would lightly bubble at one corner where the head bolted to the block however she was a low compression sidey and just kept on running without any discernable loss of power. A retorque of the head bolts solved the issue hower she did have a rather fat copper head hasket that would take such action. The newer composite gaskets are not that tolerant
its leaking down where the head meets the block, nothing bad but enough to be noticeable, also on the number five plug where the oil leak is, the spark plug is oily when removed (but still shows good compression). also when i changed the oil there was a decent amount of water in it, not enough to completely brown the oil but again enough to be noticeable. all this compiled with a vacuum leak and i think its time to reseal the engine. ill give a retorque a try and see if that helps any possibly in the vacuum leak area. I already bought the entire engine kit so itll probably all get changed but i didnt want to really mess something up because of not knowing. thanks!
its definitely leaking lower down where the head meets the block, but the valve cover gasket and valve stem seals are getting replaced anyway since theyre in the kit and it looks like the valve cover is leaving as well. I really cant complain for a car thats 50 years old and has 289k miles on it
I recently replaced the head gasket on my 200 six (same basic engine). It's a breeze. There is no valve adjustment on these engines, if you have hydraulic lifters. I know the very early falcon sixes had mechanical lifters though. I didn't even remove the carb or exhaust manifold.
thats exactly what i needed to hear, i didnt want to mess with timing or adjust lifters or anything. the carb is off though just cause its getting a rebuild as well. thanks!
one last question more or less about the rockers and not the head gasket. I got the engine kit today and it came with valve seals so i figured if its already off might as well replace them (as bigjake said) so i understand the what needs to be done to actually replace them but how will the rockers need to be adjusted once theyre back on? is it a specifici torque? or a gap? again, i just dont want to **** this up. this is the first engine ive really gotten this deep into
If the lifters are hydraulic there is no adjustment, they are self adjusting. If it has solids you use a feeler gauge between the valve and the end of the rocker arm. Your engine should have hydraulics with no adjustment. If there are adjusting screws on the ends of the rockers it must be solids.
If you pull the head off keep the pushrods in the correct order - that way any small differences in height will not affect the preload on the hydralic lifters. Infact even on mechanical lifters we were always taught to keep the pushrods in the correct order they came out of the motor in. A lenght of carsdboard with some holes punch in it will let you remove and store them in the corect order to save you the h***le of remembering which one went where
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