SPI Full Rebuild, now have coolant in the cylinder
EDIT: same old thread, just deleted the "bad head from Headsonly.com" from the title and it doesn't apply - the head was fine.
I'm back with another dropped valve seat rebuild. A couple of months ago I bought an SPI that had previously dropped a valve but had a shady repair. Ended up replacing that cylinder head with one from headsonly.com and it was great - no real issues. Had about $1000 into, sold it for $1800. Easy money.
After seeing how easy that one was, I picked up another SPI that had dropped a seat for $500. The car is in excellent shape (minus the motor) so I didn't have a problem going into it knowing the possibility of having to rebuild the motor.
As expected, I pulled the head and the #3 piston had shattered and bent the rod:
Because the previous owner drove the car home after the valve seat had dropped, the cylinder wall was gouged up pretty good (didn't take a picture of it). I didn't feel comfortable putting it back together like that, so I pulled the block and sent it to the machine shop. $260 later I got the block back, resleeved, boiled out, magnifluxed and ready to go.
Got it all rebuilt, new pistons, rings and bearings for another ~$300 or so (did the rebuild myself), fired it up and it purred like a kitten.....for about 4-5 minutes. Once the thermostat opened up and coolant started circulating it started sputtering and water started spitting out the exhaust. Not wanting to risk any damage I shut it off and could hear water/coolant dripping and sizzling inside the exhaust up by the exhaust manifold.
Removed the exhaust manifold to confirm my suspicions and see this:
Coolant is getting into the exhaust through the #3 exhaust port. Unfortunately, I didn't pull the plug at this point to see if it was wet. Instead, I pulled the head assuming the EngineTech head gasket was junk (had to replace the last enginetech hg that I used so I assumed they were junk) and replaced it with a Felpro, along with new Felpro head bolts.
Got it all buttoned up, fired it up and.....same exact problem. I examined the head pretty closely and couldn't see any obvious cracks or other problems. Both new head gaskets looked fine, no issues.
Spoke with a guy at headsonly and he was little help other than to say "ship it to us and we'll check it out."
This is the first issue I'm aware of with Headsonly.com heads. Probably a dozen or so off this site, one previous I bought and another a buddy of mine bought.
BOTH TIMES this happened, there was no smoke at all, which I thought was a little strange. I believe that means the coolant isn't actually getting into the combustion chamber, rather getting into the exhaust port through a small crack or something...I don't know, maybe that's b.s.
That's where I am at this point. Debating on whether I should send the head back to headsonly or take it to my local shop. I know they're under warranty with headsonly but I don't really have 3-4 weeks to wait around for it.
To clarify - I do NOT mean this as a complaint thread against headsonly. They have a great reputation and I understand that sh!t happens and sometimes parts are bad. I just wanted to post this in case someone else has the same issue for some help.
EDIT: same old thread, just deleted the "bad head from Headsonly.com" from the title and it doesn't apply - the head was fine.
I'm back with another dropped valve seat rebuild. A couple of months ago I bought an SPI that had previously dropped a valve but had a shady repair. Ended up replacing that cylinder head with one from headsonly.com and it was great - no real issues. Had about $1000 into, sold it for $1800. Easy money.
After seeing how easy that one was, I picked up another SPI that had dropped a seat for $500. The car is in excellent shape (minus the motor) so I didn't have a problem going into it knowing the possibility of having to rebuild the motor.
As expected, I pulled the head and the #3 piston had shattered and bent the rod:
Because the previous owner drove the car home after the valve seat had dropped, the cylinder wall was gouged up pretty good (didn't take a picture of it). I didn't feel comfortable putting it back together like that, so I pulled the block and sent it to the machine shop. $260 later I got the block back, resleeved, boiled out, magnifluxed and ready to go.
Got it all rebuilt, new pistons, rings and bearings for another ~$300 or so (did the rebuild myself), fired it up and it purred like a kitten.....for about 4-5 minutes. Once the thermostat opened up and coolant started circulating it started sputtering and water started spitting out the exhaust. Not wanting to risk any damage I shut it off and could hear water/coolant dripping and sizzling inside the exhaust up by the exhaust manifold.
Removed the exhaust manifold to confirm my suspicions and see this:
Coolant is getting into the exhaust through the #3 exhaust port. Unfortunately, I didn't pull the plug at this point to see if it was wet. Instead, I pulled the head assuming the EngineTech head gasket was junk (had to replace the last enginetech hg that I used so I assumed they were junk) and replaced it with a Felpro, along with new Felpro head bolts.
Got it all buttoned up, fired it up and.....same exact problem. I examined the head pretty closely and couldn't see any obvious cracks or other problems. Both new head gaskets looked fine, no issues.
Spoke with a guy at headsonly and he was little help other than to say "ship it to us and we'll check it out."
This is the first issue I'm aware of with Headsonly.com heads. Probably a dozen or so off this site, one previous I bought and another a buddy of mine bought.
BOTH TIMES this happened, there was no smoke at all, which I thought was a little strange. I believe that means the coolant isn't actually getting into the combustion chamber, rather getting into the exhaust port through a small crack or something...I don't know, maybe that's b.s.
That's where I am at this point. Debating on whether I should send the head back to headsonly or take it to my local shop. I know they're under warranty with headsonly but I don't really have 3-4 weeks to wait around for it.
To clarify - I do NOT mean this as a complaint thread against headsonly. They have a great reputation and I understand that sh!t happens and sometimes parts are bad. I just wanted to post this in case someone else has the same issue for some help.
