Easy head question

[stoney bones]

while in the midst of doing my valve cover gasket change, i noticed that the top on the head is completely painted, even the valve springs. Is it safe for these surfaces to be painted? reason i ask is common sense tells me no.....oh yea and there are spots where its wore off, chipping off....if you run a finger nail over it it all cracks and chips. in some spots you can use your finger tip to rub the paint away.

so does this mean i should take the head off and have it all sand blasted or stripped off somehow?




my PO is turning out to be a real turd. all the valve cover bolts were merely finger tight and he used clear silicone ALL OVER to try and stop the leak.

 

[IOPort51]

This is a new one.
I can't say I would be happy about paint chips in the oil but I can't say it would it would be catastrophic. Is the paint dissolving in the oil or just chipping off??
Do not sandblast/bead blast the head! for any reason.

 

[stoney bones]

the first spot i noticed it looked like a little ridge in the metal but it was the raised edge of a piece flaking off. then every spot you touch with your finger you end up with little specs of paint on it.

...just took the laptop out to have a better look. there are spots where you can see paint chipped off and is long gone....there are numerous places where the paint is bubbling all over and the slightest touch makes the bubble collapse into specs and chips.

 

[fzsk4p]

This is a new one.
I can't say I would be happy about paint chips in the oil but I can't say it would it would be catastrophic. Is the paint dissolving in the oil or just chipping off??
Do not sandblast/bead blast the head! for any reason.

Why not ? If it is removed from the engine and disassembled what difference does it make ?

 

[stoney bones]

sooooo anyone have info about paint chips in motor? do i need to worry about this? you guys dont seem nearly as concerned as me....but then again its not your vehicle

 

[stoney bones]

.....also there are little pieces of the clear silicone he used as a sealant that are on the lifters and randomly here and there. what are there implications?


im standing here at this very moment just staring at it all. i dont know weather to go ahead with the gasket change or get the head off and re surfaced / cleaned and what not

 

[CJim7]

Remove the head, unbolt the rocker assemblies, drop the valves and springs, and start cleaning away. Brake cleaner and a brush works well.

Have you noticed anything in your oil or filter? I personally wouldnt want that part of my engine painted, but I've seen buildup under a valve cover that would make a little paint seem trivial.

If it bothers you, refer to the first paragraph

 

[Project86]

Piece of mind is priceless. The cost of down time and financial are not, but do you want to second guess yourself everytime seems amiss? I wouldn't. If it were me and I had the time and $$$ I'd clean it and make sure. If ya' ain't got the time or dinero' then do the best ya' can and put it outta your mind.

 

[stoney bones]

Remove the head, unbolt the rocker assemblies, drop the valves and springs, and start cleaning away. Brake cleaner and a brush works well.

Have you noticed anything in your oil or filter? I personally wouldnt want that part of my engine painted, but I've seen buildup under a valve cover that would make a little paint seem trivial.

If it bothers you, refer to the first paragraph

so it would be ok to clean it without removing the head then? i thought it might be ok but just wasnt sure about spraying the brake cleaner around in there.

 

[fzsk4p]

so it would be ok to clean it without removing the head then? i thought it might be ok but just wasnt sure about spraying the brake cleaner around in there.

No, Jim said to remove the head then clean.

The globs of silicone would be my biggest fear. I can easily see clogged arteries in the oiling system. The pick up screen of the oil pump would be a great place for them to gather. Much like the nylon that comes from timing gears. Think of it as cholesterol that accumulates and ultimately blocks/reduces flow.

At the very least I`d drop the pan and inspect the oil pump screen. You might be astounded by what you find there.

Sorry, but your PO was not very smart.

 

[IOPort51]

sand has a way of finding it's way into places you just can't rince, blow out or scrape only to fall into the engine as soon as you turn it over. Bead blast media is just another flavor sand. Personaly , I would never sand blast any engine part.

Why not ? If it is removed from the engine and disassembled what difference does it make ?

 

[stoney bones]

Sorry, but your PO was not very smart.

im just hoping he is merely ignorant and didnt know about this stuff....otherwise basically everything he told was lie except that the paint color is yellow...thats the only thing that seems to be truth so far.

when i bought this just a couple months ago, he specifally stated he fixed the valve cover leak, and NOTHING else was leaking. and sure enough as it appeared everything seemed to be dry....but now a few weeks later...i have the horrible valve cover leak, leaky Tcase, and Transmission . not to mention the bad clutch, problems engaging gears, and the oil drain plug that is stripped internally and now forming a drip.



this was supposed to be a 2 day job at best....now its looking like i might as well open a line of credit and take this thing down to the frame and start learning how to restore a cj.

 

[Old Dog]

I have to agree with everyone here. I'd pull the head and the oil pan at the very least.

 

[Project86]

sand has a way of finding it's way into places you just can't rince, blow out or scrape only to fall into the engine as soon as you turn it over. Bead blast media is just another flavor sand. Personaly , I would never sand blast any engine part.

Back when and then, occasionally we did a top end rebuild on a YZ125 or 250 or 490, we would do the machine work and then put a F-load of dish washing detergent in the bottom of the sink. Place the head in there and start spray with the rinse hose as the bubbles were made it would push all the particles out. With that said I still wouldn't sandblast the engine. I couldn't sleep at night. For the record I would not recommend putting abrasives into the engine internals. IOPort51 is right.

 

[CJ]

~~~ YZ125 or 250 or 490, ~~~

Love my YZ250! Best bike I ever owned.

 

[stoney bones]

i had to put the valve cover on as is because i have a slew of doctors appointments for a surgery coming up i cant miss.

in the very near future (week or two) i will be tearing the whole thing down. hopefully if i can locate the funds and the parts, just maybe, i can do the 4.0 head conversion and never look at this AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l head again.

 

[yleefox]

If it were mine and if I could not afford to disassemble the engine, I would carefully block all the oil return holes in the head with clean rags and scrape, wire brush, and rub all of that paint and junk from under the valve cover area of the engine. I would then use a shop vac and carefully vacuum all that trash out the best I could. I would then use compressed air to blow the rest of it out from the cracks and crevasses. Vacuum once more then remove the rags. A little more compressed air. I would then dump a quart of cheap oil over that surface and let it rinse any thing else into the oil pan. Then I would change the oil.

Just my way of doing it cheap.

BTW, I would strongly suspect that the valve cover is bent if a new gasket will not stop the leak.

Yleefox

 

[stoney bones]

If it were mine and if I could not afford to disassemble the engine, I would carefully block all the oil return holes in the head with clean rags and scrape, wire brush, and rub all of that paint and junk from under the valve cover area of the engine. I would then use a shop vac and carefully vacuum all that trash out the best I could. I would then use compressed air to blow the rest of it out from the cracks and crevasses. Vacuum once more then remove the rags. A little more compressed air. I would then dump a quart of cheap oil over that surface and let it rinse any thing else into the oil pan. Then I would change the oil.

Just my way of doing it cheap.

BTW, I would strongly suspect that the valve cover is bent if a new gasket will not stop the leak.

Yleefox

good advice...i just may put it to use depending on if i can go through with the 4.0 head swap im looking into.


the valve cover is fine. the PO is not! he stated it was leaking...as he went to fix it he noticed the valve cover bolts were merely loose...he tightened them and said its all fixed now! the time before that he changed the gasket (which he said was only months old,and its all jeeps fault, notorious leak blah blah) he painted the top of the head like he did, and used a clear silicone (looks like a regular plumbing type, which was all over the place internally). on the surface the gasket is to sit on...in some places the oil has turned the paint into a red pasty goo...im sure that was a contributing factor to not sealing as well.

so needless to say even though the gasket has been changed multiple times, it has not once been done correctly....until now at least.

 

[yleefox]

I'm not going to say much about the PO of the Cj that I own, but to say that he had an "odd" way of "fixing" things. I guess that is about as kind as I can be towards that PO.

Yleefox