...and now the moment you've been waiting for

Today was the big day to reinstall the head. A co-worker, Greg, came over this morning to help me with the head install. Before installation, Greg noticed some imprints on the cylinder heads where valves had repeatedly smacked into them. But there were no matching dents or other wear on the existing valves, so I noted to take care when adjusting the valve clearances, but that was about it.

After wiping down the surfaces on the head and block, we dry-ran the install just to make sure we knew what we were doing. We found the best plan was for Greg to stand in the engine bay on the passenger side to lift & guide the head onto the installing dowels, while I lifted the head over the driver's side fender. I coated the head gasket with Permatex copper gasket sealant, and we did just that. We had to move it around just a bit to get the head bolts to clear the gasket through all of the holes - more dowels than just 2 would have helped there.


I installed the head bolts in the proper order, tightening at first with a ratchet, then with a torque wrench to 70, 80, and then 91 foot-pounds. the rear-passenger bolt seemed to loosen up a bit between torquings, so I pulled it out, but it looked okay, so I put some anti-seize on it and reinstalled it to 91 foot-pounds. and there it is.

Greg took off to enjoy his Memorial Day, and I went on enjoying mine. I cleaned and installed the 12 new pushrods, which finally arrived from backorder last week. I then cleaned and installed the rocker arm assembly. I also cleaned and installed the temperature sender, using hi-temp thread sealant to prevent leaks out of the water jacket around the sender. The thermostat went back on the front of the head, and I used some more of the copper gasket sealant on the thermostat gasket, also to prevent leaks from the water jacket.

I pulled the intake manifold in order to clean out a bunch of grey goo that had deposited all over the inside. Finding all the fasteners for the intake manifold was difficult, but looking at the replacement gasket pointed me to two hidden bolts on the underside of the manifold to complement the two studs on the top of the manifold. This photo shows the exhaust manifold exposed, and how the exhaust heats the intake manifold within a certain temperature threshold -- a spring opposite the "D"-shaped weight expands with heat and turns a butterfly valve. This photo shows the underside of the intake manifold that interfaces to the exhaust manifold.

Most of the grey goo was removed from the intake manifold using engine cleaner, a wire brush, and a garden hose. I fear that the grey goo may be coming out of the fuel tank, as I believe that the POR-15 sealant I used to seal the inside of the tank was about that color. I will investigate this shortly, as I have to drain the tank to replace the cracked fuel lines before starting up the truck.

After drying the intake manifold and lightly coating it with WD-40 to prevent rust, I loosely reinstalled it atop the exhaust manifold. I then installed the three intake manifold pilot rings. Installing the manifold onto the head was a bit tricky. The gasket is in three parts, so I first installed the rear gasket, holding it in place over the rear stud while I slid the manifold onto the rear stud and loosely bolted it in place. Then I pulled the front of the manifold away from the front stud enough to install the front gasket, then loosely bolted it in place. The center gasket followed, after which I was able to torque the bolts to spec, and then tighten the intake down to the exhaust manifold.


I attempted to install a new fan belt, but after a bit of a struggle, I finally realized that the belt I had purchased was too small. I will have to take the old fan belt into the auto parts store and get a direct replacement, instead of ordering one out of a catalog. I did install new upper and lower radiator hoses.

The final bit of excitement for the day came when I went to install the carburetor. I noticed that it, too, was coated with grey crap. Since I was out of carb cleaner and getting hungry, I decided to call it a day.