You may remember a thread of mine from earlier this year: Diagnosis Confirmation.

It's time to dig into this car and resolve the problem...I've looked at the threads on pulling heads and there's a lot of great info that I've been able to glean. But, before I jump in, I'd like to hear from 60X gurus about anything they think I need to do or look at while the head is off.

FWIW, I still need to pull the exhaust manifold and confirm the head gasket oil leak at chain gallery/#1 cyl interface.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

have a reputable machine shop check the head for cracks, warpage, any flaws that could pose an issue.

while its out... see how the valves are doing and see if they need any work...

powder coat it?


"while your in there" gets expensive .. but you already knew that

I was thinking of the ancillary items that may not be found in the head gasket kit...etc.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Do the valves, port it and polish it.

Replace the prechambers

Replace the cam and lifters

While you can see them, check the pistons for burned spots and check the cylinders for sealing and 'trueness'

It all depends on how mush $$ you want to throw at it.

Once the head is off it, you might as well do the bottom end too...

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"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

Oh I forgot...

Change the turbo to a VNT.

Check, clean and polish the intake manifold

clean the exhaust manifold


All these things are off so it is easier to do it then.

If yo are pulling the engine, do the rear seal too
etc, etc, etc...

__________________
"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

Get real. This car cost $650; read on...

300SDL
300SDL
300SDL
300SDL
300SDL
300SDL
300SDL
300SDL

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Randy, it's too expensive to consider any head work on that vehicle. The cost would far exceed its value.

I'd just replace the gasket and clean the oil galleries to the cam........as Dave mentioned.........and button it back up.

As soon as you start with the head, you're looking at a $1K by the time you're finished with "while I'm in there.........".

Yeah, it seems like a halfassed fix but that's probably what I'll do. The beast just isn't worth a whole lot of money and time...getting it running for another 20-30k miles would be just fine with me. I'm precariously close to saying 'pi*s on it' and buying a Ford Taurus...oops, was that my out loud voice?

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

I'd do what Brian suggested. If you start digging you will get to $1k+ real fast.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Sybil doesn't want too much attention! Do as Brian suggested and then let Sybil roam.......
What an appropriate name you chose as it turns out, eh??

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Mama likes her 'plus-size' cruiser. I'm destined to keep it running forever...and, now that I don't do the 8-5 thing anymore, I should have just enough time to be able to to that too.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Gasket set in hand, I'm setting out this afternoon to pull the head on Sybill - car of many personalities.

Pray for me.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

So, its been a couple of years since I posted to this thread...mainly because I haven't had any time to work on the SDL since we moved up here to the farm.

Fast forward to today and finally, after a lot of other things getting accomplished, I pulled Sybill's head and to fix the smokescreen application (bad head gasket at #1).

I have it off and am waiting for a few parts so, I decided to check the Forum and see what I'd written before and wouldn't you know, the last post to this head gasket thread was almost EXACTLY two years ago.

Gawd, that's scary.

Sho 'nuf, it's the typical oil gallery failure at the #1 cylinder. And Lordy it's a 014 head too. But, I'll be damned if I can find any cracks in it. While I have it off, I'm replacing all the glow plugs because those darlings look like a gin-yoo-wine PITA to replace once the manifold is in place.

Maybe by Monday or Tuesday Sybill, car of many personaltities, will finally be back on the road.

__________________
Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.