So, I too am in the middle of a HG job on the 80. The gasket didn't technically blow, but after I overheated it when the water pump went bad and I lost a bunch of coolant w/o noticing. I decided to do the HG (and a bunch of other PMs) since it seemed inevitable from the research I did here on MUD. When I got it off, I saw that it was starting to show the common signs of failure @ # 6.
I've been debating if I should do the head while I have it off, or just clean it up and put it back on. I borrowed a piece of precision ground flat stock from work to check the flatness of the head. I found I can get a 0.004 feeler under the flatstock in places. The head also has dimples around the cylinders where the fire rings of the old gasket were that may affect the sealing of the new gasket. I think a minor resurfacing of the head is in order. Because I can't do this at home and my standard valve spring compressor won't work on the 1FZ head to even change the valve seals I have to find a machine shop I can trust to do it.
Has anyone worked with a shop in the Richmond VA to Washington DC area that they would recommend for this?
BTW, It's a 1997 with 130K. I can post pics and more details, but we seem to be drowning in HG threads right now. I might have even pushed out an oil galley plug like Dan did here since I had an oilslick under the truck after the temp gauge pegged (shut her down and towed her home as soon as I noticed). Timing cover & oil pans will be coming off soon to check, but I need to digest the pile of parts already in the floor before it gets bigger.
Tim Minner
I've been debating if I should do the head while I have it off, or just clean it up and put it back on. I borrowed a piece of precision ground flat stock from work to check the flatness of the head. I found I can get a 0.004 feeler under the flatstock in places. The head also has dimples around the cylinders where the fire rings of the old gasket were that may affect the sealing of the new gasket. I think a minor resurfacing of the head is in order. Because I can't do this at home and my standard valve spring compressor won't work on the 1FZ head to even change the valve seals I have to find a machine shop I can trust to do it.
Has anyone worked with a shop in the Richmond VA to Washington DC area that they would recommend for this?
BTW, It's a 1997 with 130K. I can post pics and more details, but we seem to be drowning in HG threads right now. I might have even pushed out an oil galley plug like Dan did here since I had an oilslick under the truck after the temp gauge pegged (shut her down and towed her home as soon as I noticed). Timing cover & oil pans will be coming off soon to check, but I need to digest the pile of parts already in the floor before it gets bigger.
Tim Minner
