just bought a old 89 xt ea 82 auto 2 wd.

found a broken cam shaft on the drivers side.

upon pulling heads off found discoloration of head bolts.

lots of blue. = overheating. right?

no obvious cracking between intake and exhaust ports.

i am for sure redoing heads, gaskets, valve guides, etc.

how likely is it that the lower end has seen significant damage?

Pistons and cylinder walls suspect?

I want to avoid a total rebuild $$ if possible.

suggestions?

btw, this sure is a great web site.

we should all buy the administrators a good cold beer or three.

tnx

rick in west michigan

An overheat on these cars seems to destroy the heads mostly. If the heads aren't too bad then the bottom end is probably ok unless the cars got high mileage and it's getting sloppy anyways. I'd split the block and plastiguage all the crank and rod bearings to make sure they're not worn too much. Check the cylinder bores with a digital caliper to make sure they're within spec. With the block torn down I would go all the way and put new rings on the pistons and give the cylinders a hone.

 

Oh ya, get some new headbolts as well, or at least some out of a motor in better shape.

 

...how many edits is this gonna take me