Heads are off, combustion chambers are de-coked, and I'm waiting for the postman to bring me my gasket set so I can put it all back together. I noticed that the inner two cylinders on the left bank (looking forward from the drivers seat), and the outermost cylinders on the right bank, were all much sootier and caked in deposits than the other four. Am I right in thinking that shows that one carburettor is over fuelling? Probably demonstrating just how dim I am by asking this, but which carb is the culprit? I thought I would be able to tell by looking at the inlet manifold, but I confess I haven't figured it out.
Workshop manual specifies some special sealant for the cylinder head bolts (left it in the garage, and can't remember now exactly what it says). What product should I use?
Is it imperative that I have the heads checked to see if they have warped? I ask because I don't have a straight edge, though I have got some feeler gauges, and in all honesty I'm not confident I know what I'm doing sufficiently well to get such precide measuring done right! I'm going to surmise that simply plonking the heads back on without checking them counts as a bodge, and probably renders the whole exercise futile in the event they have warped. Just want to ask you knowledgeable folk!
I was expecting to see some visual evidence of 'blow through' or whatever the right expression is, from one or other cylinder, to the water jacket. Or a 'steam-cleaned' combustion chamber, or two. Not that I have any real experience, but it looks to my untrained eye more like maybe the third cylinders from the front of the engine, on both banks, were leaking into the 'valley'. Surely that wouldn't pressurise the cooling system? Misdiagnosis of cylinder head gasket failure on my part, perhaps (probably)?
Hope the gaskets turn up before the Easter weekend. Look forward to any comments from you guys.
Incidentally, a Scotchbrite pad has removed all gasket traces from the heads and block, and I didn't risk gritty debris down the cylinders by trying the 'piece of glass and fine sand/emery paper' method. Don't worry Demetris, or at least not too much! Thanks for your cautionary warning.
Oh yeah, a couple more things; cleaning out the oilways as advised – I see the oilways that feed the rocker gear, and they're free of crud. Are there more oil passages in the heads though?
Lastly (for now anyway), should the rocker arms feel very 'smooth' if moved by hand? I took the valve gear off but haven't dismantled it, just a spray clean with aerosol "brake cleaner", a wipe down with a clean lint-free cloth and a blast of compressed air. A couple of the rocker arms feel ever-so-slightly "graunchy", for want of a better word... Does that mean I will have to take the assemblies apart and inspect further? The tips of the rockers and the tops of the push rods don't have any visible wear patterns, they all look the same, smooth and polished...
...and one more question! What sealant-out-of-a-tube do I need for the intake manifold gasket, and the angled junction for the top rad hose at the front of the intake manifold, if any? Or should these both be fitted 'dry'? Sorry to ask so many questions fellas, hope y'all can enlighten me!