Head Gasket Time

[88FestivaLX]

Any pointers or advice? Its an 88 LX carbed. Might pull the A/C off while I'm in there and put it up for sale too.

[collegeboi]

Have same question, carbed as well.

[lanemeyer14]

Get a haynes or shop manual and take your time. I did mine for the first time a few months ago. Not very hard but definitely took me a while since I had zero experience!

[88FestivaLX]

I'm in the same boat. I have the Haynes and the Giant Ford Shop Manual. I've just always put something like this as out of my league. I've been following the manuals, I just hate when it gets to a step that's like 5 words long and its says "remove all vacuum hoses etc". There's about 500 on this thing, ha. Didn't know if there were any special/certain ways to do anything or not.

[ohsoslow]

ive done thousand head gaskets (never a festiva sorry)
best advice is take your time!! mark plug wires and vacuum hoses, and soak everything a few times days in advance with pb blaster or similar (i personaly use caterpillar brand penetrating fluid)

set the engine at top dead center on the compression stroke (timing marks will line up) just to get that out of the way)

take your time cleaning off all gaskets get a few good razor blades (i'm very partial to spray can gasket remover) this stuff will make the tuffest gaskets mush in just a few minutes.

most head gaskets have a top and bottom so check em out first and make sure all the water passages match up.

other than that good luck. and try to enjoy!!! from the look of the festiva i would say its a cake job.

[jglutz]

Mark the timing belt to the top and bottom sheaves.
If you change the belt transfer the maks fro the old belt to the new belt.

Make sure, if you loosen the timing belt idle pully ythat it is properly re-tightened. therir is so much thread locker on the bolt from the factory that you could reach torque befor the inner mount is properly seated.

[lanemeyer14]

I'm in the same boat. I have the Haynes and the Giant Ford Shop Manual. I've just always put something like this as out of my league. I've been following the manuals, I just hate when it gets to a step that's like 5 words long and its says "remove all vacuum hoses etc". There's about 500 on this thing, ha. Didn't know if there were any special/certain ways to do anything or not.

Haha, yeah, the manuals are a pain in the butt sometimes! Tells you to remove something, then you have to turn to a different section to figure out how to remove that part. I made a bunch of little bookmarks showing all the parts and steps that I would need to turn to. I'm sure some of the others will chime in on the secrets that I still don't know!

[88FestivaLX]

It had a timing belt done right before I bought it (about 25000 miles ago). Its still looks good, but I may change it. That's what I was going to ask. The part that scares me the most is getting to TDC. Do I just put a wrench on the crank and turn until the marks line up? How do I get to it? Should I take off the passengers side mount and lower the motor to do it?

[ohsoslow]

in other articles there is a write up on tdcing your car. check it out.

[MTBOX]

Head Gasket time

To find TDC first pull the spark plugs out and put transmission in neutral,this will make it easier to turn the engine over.Take your distributor cap off when you are at TDC the rotor should point to the #1 plug wire.I take a long thin screw driver and put it in the # 1 cylinder.
Be careful not to wedge the screw driver between the piston and head while turning the engine by hand using the alternator belt.Turn the engine back and forth until you reach the
highest point of the screw driver that will be TDC and of course the rotor should point to the
#1 spark plug wire.The # 1 cylinder will be closest cylinder to the timing belt.

[WmWatt]

A few suggestions:
- photocopy the relavant pages in the manuals
- study the pages and write down the steps on a sheet of paper
- take notes and draw diagrams while doing the work
- if you have time take apart a 4-stroke gas lawn mower engine for practice

[ejp2fast]

i agree with the others... take your time and most importantly HAVE FUN! You may get frustrated, but just take a break and cool off. Also, a clean working environment helps a lot.

[88FestivaLX]

I'm just so afraid I'm not going to be able to do it. I have a lot of stuff off so far: air cleaner, radiator and fan, battery and tray, plastic timing cover, valve cover and few little odds and ends. The timing has me worried the most. I haven't put it to TDC yet. I can't get anywhere to turn it and can't bump the ignition b/c everythings off of it.

[ejp2fast]

is this manual or auto BTW?

[88FestivaLX]

Manual....really need to do a clutch too. car has 165,000 miles and has original clutch in it.