Re: [Amc-list] And he was a goober-tronic! (pushrod wasn't quite pushing)

[Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

I spend probably 30 - 45 minutes prepping for head gaskets. This stuff 
is old and going super slow is worth every minute, besides, I'd rather 
waste and easy 30 minutes than re-do a whole job...

I use a clean shop rag and a couple of single edge razor blades and get 
the deck and head down to clean bare steel. When I did the head it was 
fine, but the block was still in the car... some grey/black staining 
remained on the deck but careful scraping with the blade would remove 
nearly nothing.

You gotta keep the blade flat on the metal else you'll scratch gouges. 
Certainly, those gouges will be fractions of a mil and fill with sealer, 
but they interfere with detecting a clean surface, and look like crap.

The rag prevents crap from falling in the big holes. I follow the blade 
around with the rag.

Scrape, then rag with solvent. Blade at a 30 - 45 degree angle to the 
steel, use force! It's surprising sometimes that what you think is metal 
is a few mils of old baked on antique gasket, oil and sealer. Slide the 
blade as you push it, eg. shave it. If you move the blade in tiny arc 
strokes you'd be surprised how much junk comes off.

It shoudl be clean with solvent on a white rag! OK a tiny film of grey 
OK, but not black. And absolutely no oil.

It takes me 2 or 3 brand new blades to scrape an old block deck clean.

With the rag keeping crap out of cyls and oil, run a fine file over all 
the headbolt holes to see how much metal has been raised. If it's more 
than a tiny shiny ring the head will never seal. It's bad if it's been 
pulled up, but it's lo-tek, file the worst off it shoudl be fine unless 
it's crazy bad.

Run a tap down every headbolt hole to get the crap out. If you did this 
before it'll just be easier the next time.

I use Indian Head copper sealant with a brush. It takes 10 - 15 minutes 
to brush on a thin layer. I do all four surfaces. THIN! And let it fully 
dry before assembly. It won't harden all the way, it'll stay tacky. I 
think you have like an hour or so before it's useless, no need to hurry. 
It should not be wet when you assemble it; the solvent needs to mostly 
be gone before the engine is hot.

The hard part is to put the head on WITHOUT SLIDING IT else you ruin 
your nice pattern of sealant. You really should drop it exactly straight 
down into place with zero sliding. This is not easy. The newer blue 
gaskets you assemble dry are a hell of a lot easier for this reason alone!

Go slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow 
slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow slow 
slow slow slow slow!

Wire brush all the headbolts clean clean clean. Oil lightly.
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