Compression Issue

jscraiderfan said:

Took both heads over to the machine shop today and needless to say I wasn't there long, the guy took one look at the exhaust valves and knew they were all bad. They did test it for leaks using two magnets and some fine metal powder like stuff. never seen anything like that done before. Basically all the exhaust valve seats are bad and they did confirm what I discovered about the Intake Valve on Cylinder 3 having a leak as well.

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that sounds like magna fluxing. the powder is magnetic and will show cracks.

jscraiderfan said:

I've heard mixed opinions on decking the block, some say it causes compression issues cause you're lowering the deck height and too much you gotta start using gasket shims I have heard about the FelPro gaskets being somewhat forgiving but even still i'm concerned about it not holding up more then maybe 50K miles, from what I can tell from closer examination of the OEM Gasket it was on the road to failing.. Fortunatley the fire ring areas on the block all look good so theres that..

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Valid concern, but I would say that if you're taking off enough surface to affect the compression or need a shim then the block was in bad shape to begin with. Honestly, if you can clean up the trouble spots and seal your gasket correctly I would think you'd be ok, though I would defer to any more experienced advice.

jscraiderfan said:

Curious Question though.. What about using small amounts of JB Weld in the pitted areas to fill em in, and just using a razor blade and fine sand paper to make it flush with the rest of the block deck? I've read some places and seen a few YouTube videos saying that could help. I've had success with JB Weld in the past plugging a radiator hole more then 10 years ago thats still holding up to this date in our 85 E150, obviously this would be drastically different.

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Oddly enough I had a similar thought, but I'm honestly unsure. Some anecdotal stories have JB Weld holding up for longer than the truck and others have it failing immediately and mucking up their engine. If I were desperate or had a spare car and enough money to replace the block if I were wrong I could see myself giving it a try. Definitely not my area of expertise.

jscraiderfan said:

Also one other note... I've noticed that 1 out of the 16 head bolt holes is deeper then the others, the one closest to the water pump on the passenger side of the block.. Does this hole go into a cooling passage in the block or something? I mean obviously with the heads on it shouldn't matter the bolts should all be same and all i'm just curious. I filled 15 of them with brake cleaner to clean em out each one took a couple seconds.. Spraying into that one however seemed like an eternity and never filled. (not worried about the coolant as i'm flushing that anyway)..

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Can't say for sure because I don't have the manual for your year, but I'd say that it's very likely that bolt goes through a coolant passage. Which brings me to a piece of advice I picked up on those:

When a head bolt goes through a coolant passage you lightly coat it with some kind of sealant at the bottom third of the threads. The other half of this is that if you do something to one head bolt (oil, grease, sealant, teflon tape, etc) then you should do the same to all the other head bolts on that side. The reason for this is torque symmetry: if one bolt has sealant and the others don't then that one bolt will likely show a falsely higher torque reading when fully tightened so they won't exert even pressure on the head & gasket, meaning you have a higher chance of warping the head or allowing a leak depending on it's location.

TL : DR -> If you suspect a head bolt goes through coolant passage, seal it. Whatever you do to one bolt do to the other 7.

Well I ordered those reman heads from eBay, should get em by the 4th of next month so this is where i'm glad I coated the block deck and cylinder walls with a bit of WD-40. Used my Grinder and made a homemade thread chaser with one of the old head bolts. Seemed to work pretty good with a lil oil on it, got the bolt holes pretty cleaned out... I just wanna have this this truck running again with no misfire....

ForTheLoveOfMonkeys said:

Oddly enough I had a similar thought, but I'm honestly unsure. Some anecdotal stories have JB Weld holding up for longer than the truck and others have it failing immediately and mucking up their engine. If I were desperate or had a spare car and enough money to replace the block if I were wrong I could see myself giving it a try. Definitely not my area of expertise.

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See thats what i'm worried about.. Gumming up the motor I figure since the pitting isn't deep may just gamble on the felpro gaskets sealing everything up as I got the block deck pretty clean otherwise. (Red (fine) Scotch Brite pad with a little WD-40 to minimize abrasions going into the engine helped finish that job up). Of course if it ends up blowing in 50,000 miles I may regret that decision but at that point if that happens i'll look into just replacing the engine if I keep the truck cause I dont wanna tear it apart again.

ForTheLoveOfMonkeys said:

Can't say for sure because I don't have the manual for your year, but I'd say that it's very likely that bolt goes through a coolant passage. Which brings me to a piece of advice I picked up on those:

When a head bolt goes through a coolant passage you lightly coat it with some kind of sealant at the bottom third of the threads. The other half of this is that if you do something to one head bolt (oil, grease, sealant, teflon tape, etc) then you should do the same to all the other head bolts on that side. The reason for this is torque symmetry: if one bolt has sealant and the others don't then that one bolt will likely show a falsely higher torque reading when fully tightened so they won't exert even pressure on the head & gasket, meaning you have a higher chance of warping the head or allowing a leak depending on it's location.

TL : DR -> If you suspect a head bolt goes through coolant passage, seal it. Whatever you do to one bolt do to the other 7.

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Oddly enough I didn't notice any old sealant in that hole or any of the others for that matter, I tried shining a light down there and seeing if the light was visible in the coolant passages, nadda. This is where I would love a detailed break down of this engine (every nook and cranny) but short of coughing up for a Shop Manual (and by that I mean the ones like you'd find in a Ford Dealer Service Dept, not Haynes/Chilton) or an AllData Subscription I doubt i'll get that. I agree though if I end up using sealant it only makes sense to do it for all the bolts on that side.

She is fixed

And i hope i'm not speaking too soon lol. But it runs and runs smoothly so far so good no misfires or leaks, Filled it up with water (no antifreeze yet wanna make sure its not gonna leak everywhere) ran it for awhile even took it for a little drive, not sure if the power has increased (i'm sure it has) but at least I don't have to ride the throttle at idle anymore. I did have a small exhaust leak when I first started it, stupid Y Pipe wasn't tight all the way (thats what I get for using an impact). Took care of that, it has new spark plugs but didn't replace the wires yet thought i'd be ok for now.. Well I kept hearing what sounded like a spark periodically while the engine was running, traced it to a bad wire, found out which one the old school redneck way Its not affecting the way it runs but I know I need wires soon, oddly enough the spark went away when I rotated the wire (bout the time I got zapped). Reused my old water pump and thermostat which may come back to bite me in **s later but not gonna worry about it now I just need it smogged so I can get my plates and title.

Also it seems I fixed my temp gauge too I did replace the sender with one I got from the Junk Yard, also put a Temp Sensor that I got from the JY too. I'll likely get new ones down the road but for now these are working.

Glad to see you got it sorted out.

I am waiting on delivery of my ebay heads for my 2000 3.0 with 180,000 miles on it. I have been battling misfires and varying compression on it for a while now.

I bought a set from MS Pros in California, but they just took my money, never replied to any contact and never shipped them. They had a scheduled delivery of no later than the 10th of May. So I am getting my money back from them and ordered another set from The Cylinder Head Shop in West Virginia, and they shipped them the next day.

The new heads should be here on the 14th of May. I already have my gasket kit and new head bolts here.

I am also considering polishing the combustion chambers and removing casting flash from the runners and possibly port matching the intake side and where the upper and lower intakes bolt together.

Fordblue213 said:

Glad to see you got it sorted out.

I am waiting on delivery of my ebay heads for my 2000 3.0 with 180,000 miles on it. I have been battling misfires and varying compression on it for a while now.

I bought a set from MS Pros in California, but they just took my money, never replied to any contact and never shipped them. They had a scheduled delivery of no later than the 10th of May. So I am getting my money back from them and ordered another set from The Cylinder Head Shop in West Virginia, and they shipped them the next day.

The new heads should be here on the 14th of May. I already have my gasket kit and new head bolts here.

I am also considering polishing the combustion chambers and removing casting flash from the runners and possibly port matching the intake side and where the upper and lower intakes bolt together.

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That sucks about MS Pros, maybe they didn't have the heads in stock, I ran into that issue once with an eBay seller over an AC Compressor it was listed as available but they actually were out of stock. Still tho no communication or anything is poor business practice but at least you were able to get your money back.

I'm hoping these heads last awhile, so far truck is running good even got the smog done yesterday, hopefully the valve seats hold up longer then the originals did i'm fairly certain had i kept driving it like I was it would have eventually lost all cylinders just poor quality on Fords part (I wonder if it's only the 3.0 that has the valve seat problem?) I know some might say well it went 140K before that happened, yeah but my Saturn has almost 230K and its never had a valve seat issue, nor has our 85 E150 Van. I'm just glad its up and running, hopefully the heads fix your problem too..