H6 Head gasket replacement

[CNY_Dave]

What are the dark gray stains descending from the round plugs?

Dave

[driveby]

Apologies for my last message.

Big thanks to Steve for posting any pictures of the job.

And thanks to Dave for asking an intelligent question about those pictures.

Does anyone know the purpose of those plugs?


-Jeff

[driveby]

Just took a closer look at the pics.

Dave, are these the parts you're talking about?

To the right of the crank sprocket, above the upper idler:


To the left of the LH exhaust cam sprocket:


Those leaks look very gritty to me...like maybe those 2 bolts on the front cover had loosened up and let in some dirt over the years? Plus maybe some penetrating oil applied for this job? Just guessing...

-Jeff

[CNY_Dave]

Originally Posted by driveby

Just took a closer look at the pics.

Dave, are these the parts you're talking about?

To the right of the crank sprocket, above the upper idler:


To the left of the LH exhaust cam sprocket:


Those leaks look very gritty to me...like maybe those 2 bolts on the front cover had loosened up and let in some dirt over the years? Plus maybe some penetrating oil applied for this job? Just guessing...

-Jeff

Yeah-
Those gray deposits seem to be under all the 'plugs', whatever they are.


Dave

[driveby]

Those "plugs" are bolt holes for the front cover. There are 3 inserts like that on LH, 2 on RH, plus 2 hollow bolts on RH. Seven bolts total on the face of the front cover.

But I only see the stain/leak/grunge/scorch/whatever at 2 of those "plugs". The others look clean.

-Jeff

[CNY_Dave]

Hmmm, didn't see the threaded hole in there, and was looking at one of the smaller pics, I guess.

Anyway, I was wondering if that was stuck-on 'crud' or just roughness.


Dave

[driveby]

It's definitely some kind of crud. Good catch.

But I can't tell from the pix if it's oil+dirt crud, or scorched oil crud.

Very interested to see what lies behind the rear cover...and beyond. Steve?

-Jeff

[Brianwsnc]

looks like some kind of sealant used by the manufacture. If it was leaking, the trail would be a clean oil trail, not dark and gritty. You have to remember, oil is flowing thru this engine and flowing oil won't crud up...

[driveby]

Excess sealant sounds like a good theory.

fyi...I was talking about external leaks...gunk coming in from outside.

Also...oil does not "flow" through the timing chain case. It is sprayed onto the LH timing chain by a (RH-up pointing) oil jet beneath the crank sprocket. And it is picked up by the chains at the bottom of the case. The areas shown in these photos are waaay above the sump line. All they see is some spatter from the moving chain & sprockets. So it makes sense that gunk could accumulate there.


-Jeff

[SteveB]

OK so the engine went back in on Sunday, started up right away and proceeded to sound like the timing chain destroyed all the guides. ****. I took the rest of Sunday off (started working on it at 5:30 am quite at 10:15 am and went to church to recover from the expletives).fficeffice" />>>
Today after work I removed the timing cover after pricing all the parts I figured would need replacing. I opened it up and nothing is broken. The timing of the crank to the cams is correct, but something is wrong with the adjusters I guess. There is slop that is not being taken out and I have to figure out why. I thought I did everything correctly but something is still wrong. I plan to remove the left adjuster and oil and re-assemble it as I don't like how it is working. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to look for in this situation? The one part that was not clear to me is how and when to release the adjusters. Do I do each one as I finish each assembly or do I release them at the same time? It would make the most sense to me to release each one as I finish assembling the chain. I am uploading another batch of photo's in Imageshack for your pleasure.