Clunkerball Run in a 1990 Festiva

[milehighbear]

Met up with Clunkerball Run (chuck), real nice guy. Small world he only lives half mile from me. Looked at head and put straight edge on it and has 1/8 to 1/16 gap between clyinder's and if he is going to Denver to New York, he is going to try and find a machine shop and have heads milled down. Will save him lot of trouble in long run. Good luck Chuck, waiting to see you again when get car going.

[Clunkerball Run]

You are the best Thom. Thanks again for taking a look and thanks to everyone on this forum for all of the great advice and info. I will let you all know how the head turns out at the machine shop.

[Movin]

Keep us posted on the run and take lots of pics!

[Clunkerball Run]

Ok, took the head to the machine shop and it was for sure warped. He had to mill it down 30 thousandths. Looks great and he cleaned it up too. We checked the new head gasket (FelPro) and he feels I will be ok with with the head milled that much. His worries were not increased compression but rather slightly retarded timing due to the head and cam being lower now. He said worse case it would just knock when hard on the gas and at altitude. I am putting it all back together tonight and hoping for the best. What do you guys think? Is there any concern with the lower head and timing? What about the increased compression?

[FestYboy]

the retarded cam timing isnt a bad thing for a stock cam if you're all highway. keep 89 in it and run about 6* ign timing, you should be good.

[91mcnasty]

I'm not sure how much room we have to work with on the NI motors but someone here will, just time it right and you'll be fine

Glad to hear your getting her back together so quickly! Good lick!

[Clunkerball Run]

yep. Knuckle deep in grease right now getting her back together. I will let you all know who it turns out.

[Clunkerball Run]

Ok, i was up until 4:30am putting the head back on. Due to the head being milled 30 thousandths it was hard to get the cam and crank sprockets to line up. Finally got it and she is running great. With the increased compression she can now do 0-60 in 20 seconds instead of 30 (just kidding). The car is not running hot at all and no steam from radiator cap or the overflow canister tube. The heater even works great now. HERE IS THE BIG PROBLEM NOW......there is light steam coming from the radiator; not the cap but the entire radiator. Its like steam is just leaking out of all of the vent surfaces of the radiator. It is just kind of leaking out as steam and there is no hissing or spraying. Does this mean I have a bad radiator now?

[FestYboy]

nah, it's just burning off the spilled coolent trapped in the fins.

[kartracer46]

Cool, glad to hear it is up and running strong!

[milehighbear]

Chuck you should be ok. As we discussed, wash radiator off and run for awhile and coolant should evaporate out of fins and be good. Just keep track of coolant in overflow bottle and temp guage and you should be good. Nice talking to you earlier.

[91mcnasty]

Glad to hear she's up and running again, let the fun begin!!!

[Movin]

Pics of the trip!!!

[CharlieZ]

Waht a great thread of helpful information.

For whatever it's worth I'd run the lowest pressure radiator cap I could find.

Good luck.

[FestYboy]

^ NO!!! if anything, run a higher pressure cap, never lower. you really don't want to have to deal with flash boiling in a coolent system.