Monte

What's a "not cheap" steel ruler? I'm a carpenter, I've got "steel rulers" all over the place. None were cheap to me, but I'm not sure if I'd trust them to check my heads and/or block. Monte

So, do you think that where the black stuff is gone is where it's been leaking? If that's the case, there's no doubt mine were leaking. I'll post some pictures later to show. Thanks, Monte

Yeah, it'd be nice to see the leak. I'll look closer at the gasket. Monte

Can I do that myself? I can easily take the heads in, but the block? I've seen pictures of checking the heads with a straight edge and feeler guage, but where do I get a good straight edge? Monte

Cool, I'll have to give it a try once my head gasket job is done. Monte

:-\

I've got a bicycle rack that's the same way, 2" x 2" "tongue". I'm going to cut the 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 receiver off the hitch I'll eventually get and weld (or have welded) on a 2 x 2 receiver. You can check the math on the tongue weight to be sure: Assume a ball is about 6" away from the rear of the receiver opening, 300lbs x 6" = 1800 in-lbs of torque on the hitch. Now take the weight of the tray/rack plus the weight of the bike, measure the distance from the rear of the receiver opening to where the bike sits and do the math. Example: Bike and rack, 200 lbs Distance from receiver to bike tires, 18" 200lbs x 18" = 3600 in-lbs, twice what the hitch is rated for. Or you can go backwards and figure out how much weight you can handle if you know the distance: 1800 in-lbs/18" = 100lbs You could only put 100 lbs 18" out from the receiver and be at the rating for tongue weight. That's not much. Might need to figure out a way to beef up the hitch. I might have to just for my bike rack after doing this math. Monte

I can't really tell for sure where the leak is, should it be really obvious? The valves in one cylinder did look damp, like I would imagine it would if it had some coolant on it. The others looked dry. And when I was removing the cams, some of the bolts had a little bit of water under pressure under them. When I first untorqued them I got a little pffft and some drops of water. 3-4 bolts under the valve cover did this and 1-2 of the bolts holding the seals did it too. What's up with that? I'm not totally sure, but I think a couple head bolts came out wet too, not sure what to think there either. Thanks, Monte

I remember this from my Chevy 235 days. I think it's rings. It'll start doing it eventually just compression braking on the hiway. I think the compression rings start letting more oil stay on the cylinders because when compression braking they aren't sealing against the cylinder as tightly so they don't wipe all the oil off. Hit the gas and poof, the oil goes up in smoke. Monte

That IS evil talk, especially on an interference engine. Monte

What's "MLS"? Monte (phase I 2.5l on an engine stand in the shop)

Your pins stayed with the engine block, mine stayed in the bellhousing. Monte

I think you could have made it a ways, not sure how far. If your battery was dead, then hooking up the jump starter battery and leaving the original battery connected would have drained the jump battery a bit faster because the jumper would have been trying to charge the original. Monte

Engine is out, hanging from the lift. One bellhousing pin started coming out with the engine, that doesn't help much. So far, rear crank seal is slimed all around, separater plate looks like it's been leaking, front crank seal looks like it's been leaking too, there's oil in the bottom of the timing belt covers. I'll post some pictures as I take some. Monte

To anyone, what's the trick to getting these loose from the transmission? Took out 2 bolts on top, 2 nuts on the bottom, 4 bolts from the flex plate. Lifted the engine and trans and pulled the motor mounts loose from engine and set them back in the cross member so I don't have to lift it so high. '97 OBW, Monte