i bought an engine from a junkyard that was kept in a pretty well-sheltered garage. has 100,000 miles on it and i think it's been sitting for a couple years. I asked the guy I bought it from (who i've been buying parts from for about a year) if he thought I should change the headgaskets and he said "no don't worry about it, they got a long ways to go." how much longer do you think these babies have? he said the car ran cool and had never been overheated. it wasn't HIS car, but he always worked on it and pretty much knew every problem that it ever had. I trust his word, I just want to know how long the factory headgaskets are expected to last. thanks guys.

 

-jordan

There probly is a good chance the headgaskets are good still but I would redo them since it is going to be way easier now than later.I think it would be a good time to do the cam seals,timing belts and tensioner as well as the water pump and front and rear seals.

Probably would be fine to just run it. Non turbo HG's last quite awhile

(150,000+). That would certainly be the less expensive option. And you probably would be good to go for years as long as you keep it cool.

BUT... Doing the HGs and other seals is good insurance, and will give you a chance to inspect the cylinder walls for pitting, since it's been sitting for 2 years or more. Now would be the time to do it if you got the time and money. Sounds like you already are spending alot of both already. Do you want to double them both?

ok... after taking the timing belts off, covers, oil pump, and water pump... I noticed the back of the timing belt covers were MELTED and it was definitely because the headgaskets were blown. and he told me it ran nearly perfect before the motor got pulled. what a bunch of crap

Yeah, melted timing covers is a sign..... and not a good one.

 

My EA82 had service records back to 30k when I got it, and it's got 225k on it now. Still original head gaskets from what I can tell.

melted belt covers isn't necessarily a sign of blown headgaskets. it's a sign of heat which can come from other sources. fill the engine up with coolant and turn it over a few times by hand. remove the spark plugs and look for coolant in the cylinders with a flashlight. a bad leak will readily show itself this way.

 

with fresh oil in it, run the oil pump with a drill to circulate the engine oil and also turn the engine over by hand to distribute oil through the engine and HLA's. may take awhile to get them pumped up. then figure out a way to do a compression test. just find a trans or bellhousing to bolt up to it with a starter so you can turn it over for a compression test. or do a leak down test- no starter needed. this will confirm if your cylinders are holding pressure. if so, run it.

 

non turbo headgaskest are so easy to do in the car i wouldn't do them unless the engine is questionable. which it sounds like it could be.

i'm assuming a pitted cylinder wall is obvious, so i'm gonna say they looked good cuz they were smooth. i did notice a small crack inbetween the valves... i believe that's normal right? as long as there's only 1? do u guys need to see pics of them to judge for yourselves? thanks for the help guys.

pitting of the walls is definitely obvious. should see nothing but continuous crosshatching. so long as you weren't scraping rust off the walls and it never saw rust in the past, they shouldn't have any pitting.

 

cracks between the valve seats are typical. a picture won't show us how deep they are. if they go all the way through, then that's bad but i doubt a picture will show that. i always have them repaired at a machine shop and during that repair process they'll see if they're too deep or not. i have never sent in a set of heads that were trash. but i've seen others have that problem.

 

a shop can pressure test them as well.

I've never seen those little cracks cause a problem. Look in the exhaust portsfrom the bottom. If there is any cracks in there, then you may have trouble. They can be very hard to see cause of all the carbon. I wouldn't worry too much however. I have only seen exhaust port cracks on turbo EA82s though.

i tried to look down into the crack with a flashlight, but couldn't see anything. the exhaust ports looked fine so i'm not gonna worry about it. getting the heads resurfaced tomorrow, the block is nice and clean. couldn't get much done today cuz there was alot of yard work to be had.

Do it now while its out. it will be much much easier.

 

I would... go to thepartsbin.com for parts they are great.

yeah, got some parts from parts bin. alot better than driving to the dealership. okay, beginning to get a little paranoid so i thought i'd just ask. when cleaning the block... i noticed the brilo pads i was using would tear all to pieces when i was cleaning those little tiny coolant and oil passage holes and some of the small metal fibers were getting in the passages. i would try to blow them out with compressed air, but i think it was really just blowing all that crap in further. are those tiny little metal threads gonna hurt my motor? or should i just run it for a little while and change the oil filter?

dont worry about the heads. some rust in the cylinder wont hurt, if you have the heads off to clean it out. use pb blaster its good asnd a scotch brite pad. dont worry about the little furrs off the brillo pad if you get most of it out the remains will burn off anyway.

 

i had a motor that was seized because it sat outside with water in the cylinder but it made a good block for a turbo build, which the heads had the same cracks, and then ported out with a dremel