engine rebuild nightmare

[vinnie098]

my friend and I rebuilt the engine in my '89 festiva and it ran perfect for about 500 miles before it started blowing all my coolant out of the overflow tank for my radiator. at first I thought i had a bad thermostat, then I tried the radiator. But then my step dad had said it is probably a blown head gasket or the head isn't seated right on the block. He said you have to reshave and plane the head every time you take it off. Has anyone heard of this practice. Or have any sound advice as to what to do?? I'm tired of pulling the engine out of this thing, seeing as it has a carb, it makes it a big pain to disconnect and reconnect everything... I would take any advice on the matter, I'm really trying to find the easiest route to getting this tin can back on the road. Thanks and have a good day!

[tooldude]

Take the radiator cap off and run the engine until warm, if needed (so the thermostat opens). If there is cylinder combustion entering the coolant passages, you should see bubbles in the coolant. If there are no bubbles, pressure test the cooling system to determine if there is leakage anywhere. If leaking, all possible points have to be eliminated to isolate it to the head gasket. (If enough coolant is being sucked into a cylinder, you will see white smoke from the exhaust). At that point, the head must be removed and checked with a straight edge. If it's warped or has material burned away, the head must be milled and also checked for cracks. The head does not need to be milled just because it was removed, but only if necessary. Also, the block needs to be inspected as the leaking hot combustion gases can burn away material from the deck if that has gone on too long. The block also should be checked with a straight edge. If it's out of tolerance, that can also cause head gasket damage.

[old_biker]

my friend when he rebuilt engine in 1 of his, bought a very cheap rebuild kit, head gasket blew almost immediately, plus many other issues, & thats why engine uses oil, bad quality rings. kit has mismatched rod bearings & he had to re-use a few old ones, or risk several week down time waiting to ship back, & get new kit shipped out, & hope it was correct

[ricko1966]

You only surface the head if necessary.Tooldude already covered that though.If it ran 500 miles and then your problem started I am thinking your stepdad is probably right.Does the engine have a miss in it?If there's a miss a blown headgaskets usually pretty quick and easy to check.Pull the plug wires 1 at a time until you find the cylinder with the miss pull that plug and hit ithat cylinder with compressed air with the radiator cap off you'll blow water out of the radiator.The dist rotor has to be pointing at that plug wire so you know the valves are closed.On cars that have a ton of vacuum lines etc. I unbolt the manifold and leave as much connected as possible.Then push the manifold back towards the firewall then pull the head leaving the manifold where it is.A cheap way to pressure test the system is a cheap flush tee in a heater hose put a fitting in the cap and pressurized it with a weed sprayer.