You could take it to a carwash and pressure wash it.
BradMph is right. If you overtighten those cover bolts you could distort the casting. The Haynes manual specs the torque for the valve cover bolts at 60 inch pounds. That's only 5 foot pounds. If you have a torque wrench for putting the head back on you can check if it will go down to 5 ft. lbs.
Yes sir no sir I did not ever tighten those bolts nope not me! I undid them last week to start this & just saw how they're deteriorating. TY and I won't overtighten anything at all for sure will keep patience and torque specs handyOriginally Posted by BradMph
#1 likely not strong enough #2 torquewrench for EVERYTHING (yay tools!)
Mhm yep Yes sir no distorting castings ever, nooo problem, will keep that in my head, too. I'm only blonde on the inside - no wait, well, okay, so don't distort, got it. OK yes!!! Great idea I'll see how low the torque wrench will go and if it won't go down to 5ft lbs, I'll find one that does!!!
I'm a super strong believer in torque wrenches more than ever before since my BF broke a bolt in my car head and still hasn't managed to get it outstrong can be a terribly bad thing. Careful & patience & perfectly specific is the only way!
Thank you guys very very much, the head SHOULD go back on today as soon as I get a helper. Not going to try balancing everything by myself for this one.
No head today. ALL day cleaning the top of the block. Got to the bolt holes & thought no biggie - but there may be a problem.
Are the head bolt holes in the block supposed to all be blind holes?
Because I think there may be an issue with the head bolt hole in the back on the driver's side (looking at the block from the front of the truck).
I was cleaning off the surface w/ a clean rag and brake cleaner, and then using Q-tips to soak up any/all liquid that fell in the bolt holes. I even used a vacuum to suck off / out any thing & everything possible, holes included. Then I was went to go concentrate on just the bolt holes, filling them w/brake cleaner, especially one of them that has a little rust...
But when I took a break & went back out to continue with the q-tips there was black fluid that sure as heck looked like oil in that bolt hole again... oh sh*t, oil ?MAYBE! I'm not sure what I did!!! Or the order I did it in since I was exhausted from standing on bricks to reach all the way into the truck all day. OMG.
So then I came back in, got more qtips, went outside, DRIED EVERY HOLE, and now I'm waiting to go out and check that back hole again to see if it stays dry or not.
I don't want to bolt everything back up just to find out I have a cracked block. I don't even know where the oil passageways run through the block anyways so for now just waiting to see if it stays dry, and search google to see if anyone has a diagram of the inside of the engine
OTOH it could very well be just me being dumb again. JUST IN CASE thought I should mention it since it could have happened to someone else.
I recommend running a bottoming tap down those bolt holes to clean the threads properly. I would then put the spray tube from the brake kleen can to the bottom of each hole and blast them out from the bottom up. After that, I would use an air gun from a compressor or air pig, and put it to the bottom of the hole and blast it out again to dry up the brake kleen.
Ok thank you! I've been reading that along with head bolt info here.
The oil is draining from the bolt right now, and going to take off the filter when that's done. It looks a little thick/dark but no gloops in it that I can tell yet. Will double-check and stick something in the oil pan drain hole to make sure no gloopy oil on the bottom. I REALLY don't want to have to pull the oil pan -- I did such a nice job sealing it up only a few months ago. But will if I must.
The suspect bolt hole in the back corner on the drivers side sat overnight without me messing with the block at all ~ and it was perfectly dry & clean inside this morning when I checked before draining the oilpan ~ WHEW!!!
Super appreciate all the tips I can get, trying to not rush it though I sort of want to, lol, I miss driving it.
All done! All 8 holes are super clean and even & thread real nice & even on all of them now, I am extraordinarily relieved over something as simple as good threads
Just started to springle rain as I was finishing up with the last (of course semi-stubborn) hole, so I'm inside waiting for another clear spot in the weather again. Next house = 3 car garage, 2 bathrooms, 1 bedroom. Don't want to chance getting any parts wet.
Do like I did - 4 car garage with a full height 2nd floor loft with a level yard and a detached house. BTW, it is 3 bdrms 2 baths with a 3 1/2 seasons room.
Pennyman1
The best Dodge that Dodge never made
Living the D-50 lifestyle since 1980
Ooooohhhh that sounds like pure heaven!!!!!!! Seriously!!!!!! Love the way you said "detached house" instead of "detached garage" HAHA! Love it!!!!!!
the level yard, did that here, finally leveled it 95%... took way too long. Been here way too long, still in my first house, worked insanely hard for the simple little thing it is, sentimentally attached. My parents' -wow, okay for the first time ever I'll type- "my mom's" place is mostly hills & sloped to hell & high heaven, big but mostly useless other than buffer space from neighbors/the main road. Ridiculously inconvenient. Again, no garage, just a giant oversized carport type set up & giant old barn that I wouldn't trust a horse in, never mind a vehicle. Man your place sounds dreamy
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