This post is directed toward anyone looking for some encouragement to get there hands dirty and save a ton of money.
It may get a little long winded but I want to explain my symptoms very thoroughly.
Up until 2 weeks ago my mechanical experience was limited to petrol engines.
For 12 months leading up to now I have had an issue with an over pressurized cooling system (exhaust in the radiator). Local driving never saw an issue, highways and hills on the other
hand saw coolant slowly vacate my overflow bottle.
On Tuesday last week I finished work and went to my car, It took an unusual amount of time to start with a lot of chugging and hesitating before it fired up. It lacked power during my
5 minute commute home and had very odd boost behavior. I managed to limp it home.
The next morning I went out to diagnose the issue with the thought it could be a clogged fuel filter as it was over due to be changed, I turned the key and after 30 - 45 seconds of chugging and hesitating it started and idled extremely rough so i turned it off again. I replaced the fuel filter and it made no difference but whilst doing so I notice an odd noise coming from my intake.
After pulling the intake down to the turbo and starting it, it sounded a lot like I had air going in and exhaust coming out of the intake. That cant be right.
After speaking to a mechanic from a local workshop here in Geelong and explaining the issue with the cooling system he basically told me i may as well pull the top end down and I will no doubt
find my problem, So armed with my extreme patience, an amazing attention to detail and a workshop manual I began doing so and after a few nights after work I had the head off and found this.
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It was pretty obvious what my issues where now, No compression in cylinders 2 & 3 and running on 2 Cylinders so I rang back the same mechanic workshop and spoke to another mechanic about where to go next. This mechanic seemed hell bent on selling me a new head for "anywhere up to $2,200" plus labour to fit the cams and buckets, he was very un-willing to entertain the fact that my head was OK and "didn't want to charge me $250 to tell me its buggered". After talking him into it I told him I was on my way and when I arrived I was greeted by locked doors.
I began to ring around looking for another mechanic who could do the tests and found Precision Motors in Moolap, Geelong, and I tell you what, their customer service was second to none.
They took my head and they done the hardness test right there in front of me which was an old way of testing with a tool that basically consisted of a ball bearing in a glass tube. They Pressure tested the head hot and cold, they vacuum tested the valves, they machined the head (had to take off 10-thou due to a very slight warp) and they supplied me with a full top end gasket set with
new bolts. It turned out my head was very usable still and my total repair bill was under $600 including changing my A/C bearing while I was at it.
As daunting as these motors look they are actually very easy to work on, albeit time consuming. If i had taken it to a mechanic it would have taken a few days less but it would have cost me
at least $2000 just in labour (I was quoted by the first un-named mechanic, upto 20hrs) and possibly got stung for a new head for another $2,500.
Here is some more pics I took during the tear down and re-assembly.
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