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Head gasket Cleaning

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We have a thick block of aluminum that has a handle on it. We use a very fine emery paper on it. Scrape the chunks off and use the block. Believe it or not it takes the same time to clean a block and head with the the aluminum block. Sometimes less time than with a wizzer wheel, and you dont have to worry about wrecking anything. Your arms will get tired long before you mess anything up.

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Being the resident dinosaur, I can always equate what I see now to what I vaguely recall from years gone by - in this instance, the vague recollections are quite clear....

 

I look at the block deck and cylinder head surfaces on the 6.0 and I have to scratch my very own head... Engineering tells us that these are precision surfaces and we have to exercise great care when we prep them....

 

'Scuse me? Those surfaces look like a fucking minefield!!! Pull the heads off a 389 or a 352 and you'd never see that kind of shit going on... you'd be treated to the usual swirl marks associated with Blanchard grinding but you'd never see the voids or erosion we see on these "precision" impliments.

 

And yes... way back when Christ WAS a cowboy, some shops would use a belt sander to prep heads.

 

Seems like every time Detroit does an "out with the old, in with the new" sweep of it's engineering staff, the learning curve starts all over again....

 

And so does the bullshit....

 

I can see it now.... "young fella.... you are gonna clean this surface with the end o' yore dick.... usually takes 1.5 but we figure your going to have fun doing it so we'll pay .3".

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To begin with, the cylinder head cleaning video does not play on ANY of my computers, here at home or at work. I praise Ford Motor Company for having outstanding resources and technical website - many in the know say it is the best in the industry. So why can't they embed a freaking video in a way that works? Needless to say I have not seen it.

 

I also agree with Jim here - it appears the factory machining of these cylinder blocks and heads is not as pristine as they would have you believe. Ever clean one up and look at it? Nice long sweeping grinder marks. I think that the fear here is that using heavy abrasives will leave deep scratches that the gaskets cannot seal allowing gasses and fluids to breach over time. The second concern is the desire to clean the surfaces so "good" that you can create low spots in the attempt to remove stains or pitting in the metal.

 

I know there are guys that have done that - I had a short-timer that worked with me grind up a 1/8" valley on a 3.8L cylinder head. You did not need a straight edge to see the low spot.

 

Here we are talking about iron parts. There is going to be some staining of the steel, some minor pitting or etching is normal and recognizing that is crucial. Knowing not to try and "clean" that is important. If you are unsure whether a dark spot is carbon or gasket material or a stain in the metal, take a fresh razor blade and rub it flat on the metal. If you see anything coming off you have more cleaning to do otherwise leave it be.

 

They allow us to use the green Scotchbrite - the PADS not the DISCS. The pads will leave minor scratches in the surface if you look. The only compromise I allow myself is to use a worn maroon Roloc disc with my whizzer and I use fast sweeping motions to remove debris. I follow up by hand wiping with Scotchbrite and Brakleen.

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OK... now my train of thought has been disturbed by another telemarketer... whatever happened to "real" jobs?????

 

Anyway.... while some of the concepts may appear to be over and above what a "technician" needs to consider - it is still vitally important that we have some sort of understanding of some of the "why"s we deal with every day...

 

The 6.0.... static compression ratio is 18.0:1..... God knows what this might equate to in cylinder pressures in a motor that is operating properly... but to contain these pressures, we rely on 4 bolts per cylinder - two sharing and a multi-layer steel shim head gasket with some blue shit brushed on it.

 

We would sometimes have concerns with 427 head gaskets, back in the day, and we were dealing with NO boost, CRs about 11.0:1 and FIVE freaking head bolts per cylinder (two sharing).

 

You aren't going to build torque without building cylinder pressures... and if you can't seal those pressures, you ain't going anywhere fast....

 

While technology has taken us to the point where we have seen some very real advances.... economy is undoing so many of the things we used to take for granted.

 

I would propose SIX head bolts per cylinder (two sharing) even though the added weight and real estate will be a concern... Consider - with the 6.0 and the 6.4, we are dealing with cast iron heads AND block.... If we are to believe current hype, the 6.7 is going to feed us aluminum heads - let the games begin.....

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Stock up some Prep-H Jim. I feel me ole' ars cheaks quivering allready. Be afwaid, be vewy vewy afwaid.

 

As for the head cleaning procedure, I totally agree with Jim and the earlier statement: Why mess with success?

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I like the finish on the surface on the bedplate and the bottom end of the block. Looks like it has been cut with a fucking band saw. Real, real nice.

 

Just did a bedplate reseal. Couldn't find the warpage spec.

 

Called up the hotline.

 

So they tells me: Don't bother measuring it, slather the bastard up with that TA-16 shit, and put 'er back together.

 

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Consider that the 6.0, as far as F series is concerned is close to off warranty (aside from those owners UNlucky enough to have purchased the extended frustration plan). The E series concerns that our shop sees are, generally, different from those seen in the Fs... Partly, I am convinced, because of the smaller CAC and lower boost.

 

Where I live, the guy with some warranty left is more likely to buy a nerw truck than the guy with a truck way off warranty.... And it is the guy that is likely to buy a new truck that is going to be in the cat-bird seat.

 

For everyone else there is RTV....

 

I can remember when GM first started using this on the "corporate" engine (they used to sell Pontiac and later Oldsmobile with orange engines in Canada) valve covers.... Didn't work much better than cork, if I remember right.

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There is an ole' rule of thumb: Big or small, thick or thin, Vaseline will get it in. Oh and It's not the width of the prick that does the trick, it's the throb of the knob that does the job. I guess after Jim's cleaning method, the ole knob would definitely throb.

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