Tomorrow I start taking Murphy appart to change the head gaskets. I just had the heads milled five-ish months ago the last time I had to change the heads. Should it be done again? Also, what do you guys recommend to clean metal surfaces to prepair for gaskets?

 

Sometime this week I will be picking up the 94 Alpine Sport wagon, that will probably be known heretofore as "Red", since the outside is... well.... Red!

Do you know why the head gaskets blew again? If not, you might want to check the mating surfaces for flatness again.

 

As for removing old gasket bits, my personal method is a can of carb cleaner, a pair of good rubber gloves, some paper towel, and a razor blade based gasket scraper.

 

Spray all the stuck-on-gasket with carb cleaner. Put a few layers of paper towel over it. Blast the paper towel to keep the gasket soaking wet for a while. Let it sit for half an hour or so in a windfree area.

 

Remove the paper towel, gently use the gasket scraper - don't scrape the aluminum. The wet stuff should peal right off. If you get down to a dry layer, respray/resoak/repeat.

 

-=Russ=-

Just check them first. Usually milling them once is enough. They don't tend to warp the second time around. But always check with a good metal straight-edge, and a feeler gauge.

 

GD

I got the engine too hot going up a long, steep hill in southern Cal called the Grapevine(stupid me, I just had to push it even though I knew better). After I replaced the gaskets this spring, I had some heat transfer problems as the rad I was using was old and had some clogged passages. I replaced it with a newer rad from a junk yard. It had better flow, but was only a single core. And I think the gasket may have been leaking a wee bit before it blew.

A nother good way to clean the surfaces is to get a die grinder and some of those scotch brite wheels. that is a good way to clean. But be careful not to remove too much materal as u could create low spots in the surface, remember ur cleaning aluminum.