Nice hot day to do this work, sizzling at 98 here. The 27mm craftsman deep socket $11 fit the fuel injectors, nicely, its flutes go up 1.7". And the Harbor Freight compression tester worked. Cold (actually pretty hot in the sun) compression numbers were 320 straight across, except I couldn't get the #5 injector out, and decided not to push it. #2 read 350/320, and #6 read 320/310.

The good news is the compression looks pretty even, so maybe it is something like Sixto's story of the guy who relpaced his engine, and later found it had sucked turbo parts. I found alot of oil in the intake manifold. So I should inspect the turbo (how?). And replace the turbo oil seal?

I still can't find the source of the clack, no clack today while turning over with the fuel lines off the front 3 (it ran and died) and then all six off. Even with the lines connected, the engine did not run more than a 2/3 seconds yesterday. with over 10 attempts. Previously, the clack only happened after 5+ seconds of warm up or on acceleration/under load. Note: the clack did not manifest itself when the smoke started showing 2 days earlier. Evolution from smoke to clack has been over 4 miles and a few days of running tests. (intermittent decible ranges some low then some higher, appear synchronized to 1 of the 6 cyl cycles.

After I get the triple square tool, I can pull the head. Prior to that I should measure the chain stretch (how?), and have the process and tools to slip it off (how?) to remove the head.

I was afraid of that. :mad: Thanks.

Any other way to determine whether the seals are leaking?

If I were to remove one valve spring retainer (for inspection, to see what kind of seal is in the head) is there an "easiest" one to remove? Or is it more a question of the amount of preliminary work (removal of the camshaft, etc.) being such that you might as well go ahead and just replace the seals and be done with it?

If the leak is severe, you should see some buildup on the valve stem looking through the intake & exhaust ports.

However, (there's always a however) that is not really conclusive, I'm having new valve seals put on a head while it's out, just because I don't want to do it in another 10,000 miles (or less). $50 plus the seals.

Oil in the intake tract is normal, due to the PCV tube feeding into the turbo inlet. It's not usually a failed turbo seal, but that is possible. Normally you gauge this by oil consumption... if the engine is consuming excessive amonts of oil, and/or blowing blue smoke, then the turbo seals would warrant investigation. But the presence of oil in the intake tract doesn't mean anything significant by itself...

:1eye:

Thank you, Sixto and Dave
 

Thank you, Sixto and Dave.

I am now driving again. And the car drives strong and fast, and I did it all by myself! (Not!) I did it with a ton of sometimes step-by-step diagnostic and disassembly guidance from Sixto. He gave me the confidence to delve into the engine... somewhere I had never previously ventured. After getting pretty even compression, my indy's blown piston theory was discredited. So I got the head bolt tool and removed the head. Another indy recommended a great one-man rebuilder who looked at the head and almost immediatly found and pried out a small piece of flat metal from the (almost invisibly) blown headgasket lodged in the oil passage between the #1 cylinder and the timing chain. He and a cluster of neighboring indy mechanics theorized that the metal cut the supply of oil, cutting the oil in the #1 therefore not cushioning the valve, causing ths sometimes louder knock sound as it slapped up and down.

The rebuilder said he had done about 5 other 603 heads, but that they were all in very rough shape, and may have all had cracks, which my #20 head did not and he said it was in pretty good shape, and pretty straight. (The head may have been replaced by a PO. The car has 289K miles.) But because I plan to keep the car, and had a lot of blown oil to clean, and a turbo to rebuild, I took his (and Sixto's) recommendation and got new valve guides and stem seals, slightly reground valves, sweetly reseated, and a light shave. (I'm certain that many of you would have been very interested to see the other jobs he had in his shop: 12 cylinder lambo heads with 4 valves each, big BMWs, 4 cylinder VW diesels...)

Later, I reattached my rebuilt turbo and de-oil-gunked the ex-and-in-manifolds, and hoisted the head plus turbo back in with positioning help from my 13 year old son. We nailed it cleanly. Then the fun began - getting all of the nuts and bolts corrrectly torqued, and trying to reinstall the accelerator linkage to both the intake manifold and IP, around the fuel lines, and torquing those alllens that needed a full array of 5mm allen tools, sockets, extenders, ratchets and various grip attachments.

I'd advise anyone pulling a head to remove the turbo oil return line from both ends. Or at least loosten the top two 5mm allen bolts (between the turbo and the ex-manifold.) And doing this job with the radiator in place made working on the timing chain pins really dificult, and made turning over the engine manually (after reassembly, but before ignition - to test that the timing chain and the cam marking and the TDC all lined up (that the chain had not skipped a link and kibosh...)). But after pulling the head, the cylinder walls band the lock really looked pretty good, so I left the radiator there.

And I really want to thank Dave for creating and sharing his photo archive website which provided all kinds of help and insights that developed as I learned and studied the pictures.

The learning never ends. Thanks again -John

Was the number one cylinder bore quite oily or had the excess oil introduced been burnt in combustion?The number one exhaust runner more oily than the others?

Earlier in the thread I was going to suggest a comparison of the injectors or glow plugs with the number one. If the oil passage leak is pretty bad there will be visual evidence. Simpler still is rolling over the engine with the starter.If oil sprays out the open number one injector or glow plug hole you have your answer.

The last few times I suggested this it was not done by the members with the problem. Yet it turned out to be the problem. There is no need to remove the head to diagnose this particular problem. Your presence of a new noise held me back as well. Normally the failure of the head gasket from the oil passage to the cylinder bore is not combined with a new noise.

Now for the indy. If he has experienced a fair amount of 603 engines. There is no way he could miss this in my opinion. Unless he was going to just change the gasket and charge you for major work. The ethics in the car service buisiness leave so much to chance I will not farm out auto repair work.