If you do a complete cylinder head rebuild, you will be rewarded with:

An engine that uses 1 qt every 500 miles.

An engine that may bend rods due to new found power.

Really, having good valve sealing on worn rings will draw lots of oil into the combustion chamber. Not only will oil consumption increase, compression ratio does too.

Your friend that has worked on some diesel heads, is he a mechanic or someone that has done some at home repairs? If mechanic, is he heavy equipment or light truck?

Him not "skimping" and wanting to throw every part at the head could be considered not knowing what parts are worn but are reusable Vs what parts are too worn to continue. Another consideration is that heavy equipment engines need to run at full power for extended periods so they need better parts what would survive in a lightly loaded automotive app.

There is always a risk in patching up a worn engine and something will always be left undone. If you do all those "just one more things", you end up with a rebuilt engine.

So, if this engine was running and driving, would you have removed the head for a total rebuild? If not, pull the head, change the prechamber, look the head over for obviously burnt valves and reinstall. ( exhaust valves will always leak a slight bit on a worn motor )

The next step, if the car is worth while, have a spare engine waiting ready to go. A 606 swap is probably beyond your level due to mods needed, but a 3.0 603 is supposed to be a drop in, others can speak to the specifics.

Great advice. This confirms my gut feeling which is don't fix it if its not broken especially with this of all engines. Bert the Troll making stew, "Just needs a sprinkle of squirrel dung.... Ooh. That is beautifully balanced, that is."

Its a hard call. With luck welding/gluing the prechamber to the removal tool may work.

If no, what do you think of knocking out the prechamber out with wood dowel and hammer from behind once the head is out? No experience, but I am thinking one would check the head out after this to make sure it was not damaged by the removal? If the valve seals are still good, would there be harm in replacing them so that they don't fail later? If the seal or lifter is failing and it is left in place, will the continued detioration likely be slow, or is the engine going to be in trouble anyhow within a few years? I am sure its hard to make a call without actually being hands on with the engine. I'd rather lose the engine now while I am unemployed and have some time on my hands, rather than a year from now.

For the record I don't have direct experience in removing these prechambers but I have removed countless stuck / broken bolts / parts as well as having built / repaired countless engines.

I'd do a couple of things, use a heat gun ( torch for those with experience ) to heat the chamber / head a few times. Aluminum expands at a greater rate that steel so the thermal swings might break the carbon / corrosion bond. There is a chance of oil burning when you do this so keep something handy to put it out.

Can you clean the threads and screw the tool in farther? Some other tips. A slide hammer isn't always the best approach as the impacts can tear up poor threads. A U shaped bracket used as a puller base might be a better approach. Take a look at a General Motors steering lock plate removal tool for an example.

It can also help to pull on the prechamber just until it stops moving and no farther, tap it in then pull again. This works the corrosion out of the joint.


Sounds fine to me.


I'll clear up some of my terms as some terminology gets fuzzy.

_Valve SealING_ is a quality measurement. This speaks to the valve face and valve seat. A valve grind cleans up these surfaces so they don't leak air. This is where good valve sealing with worn piston rings causes increased oil use.

_Valve SealS_ are the rubber / metal lip seals that seal the valve stem from oil. These are worth changing if the head is off they can even be changed with the head on if needed. They don't age well and on overhead cam engines show their age earlier than a cam in block engine.