2000 4 cyl 2.5L Ford Ranger Trying to remove cylinder head

[lordkyleofearth]

Yes. They milled it for flatness. Should I ask how much?

Is that a valve clearance issue?

I also heard I could use a little vaseline on the gasket to help keep it in place, while I put the heavy cyl hd back on. Any ideas on placing heavy cyl hd, seeing how it is heavy?

Should I use that orange/red loctite on the cyl hd bolts?

John

The gasket won't move; the dowel pins hold it in the proper position. Piston TDC is the same regardless of whether it's on an intake or exhaust stroke. Just look at cylinder #1 an check if the piston is at its highest point, that is TDC. After that, set the cam gear marks to point at the correct points and bolt it all together. Double check the marks and slap a belt on it.

 

[johnrhadfield]

Today I put the cyl hd back on. A couple of mistakes a put petroleum jelly on the gasket to help keep it in place while I put the cyl hd on(per anold timer at Fordhouse). Later I read in the Chiltons that no oil should be on the mating surfaces. So that was conflicting info. Luckily I had removed most of the petroleum jelly with rags and carbeurator cleaner, because it didn't work holding. The dowels were stuck in the top. I tried to pull them out and they did not want to budge. So I put the gasket on the top and practically crawled inside the hood and grabbed the camshaft like six pack handle and lowered it onto the block. I slightly raised the cyl hd on both edges checking to make sure the gasket was in place. Only problem was gasket fell off at one point and I bent the corner edge of one corner. It kinda cracked it, but not all the way. The crack was between a bolt hole and water jacket, not a cylinder. I'll find out if I did ok when I get it all together and start it. Other than that I tightened the cyl hd bolts in correct sequence and with a torque wrench at 51 lbs. I tightened in sequence starting at 25 lbs then went to 35 45 then 51lbs. Twice I tightened to 51 lbs and then tried to turn each a quarter turn more, some would turn more some wouldn't.

Earlier I spent most of the time cleaning the top of the block with a razor gasket cleaner, then WD-40 and then carbuerator cleaner with rags to clean everything out. I tried some Scotchbrite mulipurpose pads also.

I cleaned the valve cover and put the new gasket on it, just as the sun was setting. I packed everything up and towed my Ranger home.

I am waiting for Sunday morning.

John

 

[johnrhadfield]

The gasket won't move; the dowel pins hold it in the proper position. Piston TDC is the same regardless of whether it's on an intake or exhaust stroke. Just look at cylinder #1 an check if the piston is at its highest point, that is TDC. After that, set the cam gear marks to point at the correct points and bolt it all together. Double check the marks and slap a belt on it.

To lordkyleofearth:

One thing I forgot to mention, before I put the cyl hd back. I put the block at #1 TDC(flush with the top of the block) and I turned the camshaft(not easy) until the valves both closed and 1 pointer was was at 5 o'clock and another pointer was at midnight. I had made marks with whiteout previously and they line up to.

Tommorrow I get to put the belt on with the tensioner. I remember the tensioner was a bit tricky to remove. I had to use a pry bar.

Well looking forward to daybreak.

Thanks,

John

 

[johnrhadfield]

Just be nice to know how much it was milled.Nothing on the gasket.If you are worried about it moving around,pull the dowels and put them in the block.Head is not that heavy,get two guys to put it on if too heavy or arkward.No loctite,just torque to specs

I wish I had read your post before yesterday morning when I had started. I am concerned about the petroleum jelly I put on (most was cleaned off). Some still on one edge to try to hold it place. To those who might try that in the future it doesn't work well anyhow.
Should I punt and go get another gasket and cyl hd bolts now? Or just keep going see what happens and tear it down again later, if the petroleum jelly is bad for the gasket?

Thanks,

John

 

[johnrhadfield]

I decided to proceed the verdict will be in when I am done. If I need to do over for one reason or another, then I'll just be faster at learning to take apart and put'er back together.

Slow day. I ran into a suspension issue. Part is only 14 bucks but I am having trouble unscrewing both ends. I think Autozone said this is a sway bar? You can see from the pics the top is loose. I unscrewed the bottom nut no problems, but the top is flanged under so the crossing bar so I can't pull the bolt out, nor could I hold the bolt without tearing up the threads to unscrew the top nut. Maybe i need to put a visegrip on the bottom part of the bolt and just ratchet the top nut off.

http://www.4shared.com/photo/gjZrmrYm/IMG00258.html
http://www.4shared.com/photo/vRvJ0P2w/IMG00259.html
http://www.4shared.com/photo/5qs0-4Aj/IMG00260.html

The second problem I ran into was with the timing tensioner bolts. I could not find any pics as to how they go. Here's how I have them and I know at least the spring is wrong, Would someone doublecheck this?

http://www.4shared.com/photo/zxfjxbGp/IMG00254.html
http://www.4shared.com/photo/XsC2FBRX/IMG00255.html
http://www.4shared.com/photo/R_Lc5Doy/IMG00256.html
http://www.4shared.com/photo/qw8NFZNX/IMG00257.html

By the way I should have read the Chilton manual where it said "no oil" for the petroleum jelly mistake.

John

 

[johnrhadfield]

The suspension has been "squeaking" for a long time, but the xtra towing - towing it into town to work on it and the towing I did especially from Cedar Hill(south of Dallas)(when my Ranger broke down over Labor day weekend) to San Angelo has been a little xtra rough on the suspension. I built my own tow hitch from the Tahoe to the Ranger about 8 months ago.(No welding - just ground out a strong 5/16ths rectangular tube of steel to fit near perfect between frame rails and I used the original Ford holes with grade 8 bolts) My Ranger is alive today, because I did. Labor day weekend and no storage units in Dallas were even open to rent. The towing bill alone at over 300 miles would have been very expensive. As it was my family brought me back to San Angelo and I drove back to Cedar Hill and towed my Ranger back to San Angelo at about 100 bucks fuel.

On a bit of a bright note today I found out why my oil pressure guage would work off and on for the past several years - for 2 1/2 inches next to the sensor the 2 wires on the sensor were completly bare! and either touching each other or grounding out somewhere. For now I used liquid electrical tape to completely paint all bare wire, then wrapped each 1 individually in real electrical tape. They must have just been touching/not touching because the guage would jump then read normal oil pressure then no oil pressure.

John

 

[4b316]

If it is the sway bar,you should of gotten in the new kit a bolt with the 4 rubber bushings.We just take a sawzall or a torch and cut the bolt in the middle and pull it out.The tensioner picture shows that you have it in right just rotate it till the spring is against the post then pry it back to install the belt.That is a new belt,isn't it?

 

[johnrhadfield]

If it is the sway bar,you should of gotten in the new kit a bolt with the 4 rubber bushings.We just take a sawzall or a torch and cut the bolt in the middle and pull it out.The tensioner picture shows that you have it in right just rotate it till the spring is against the post then pry it back to install the belt.That is a new belt,isn't it?

To 4b316:

Seeing the timing tensioner has everything to do with proper tiiming, I thought I'd doublecheck before I put pressure on the tensioner with pry bar. I think I figured out what was blocking my understanding of the tensioner. I was trying to put the spring under the post and to the inside of the smaller post, but I was trying to do it with the adjustment bolt in the hole(but not tightened down). The adjustment bolt in the hole was stopping me from swinging the tensioner far enough to the side to get the spring under the larger post and inside the smaller post.

Do I have that right?

I also went to Ford today and they printed some pictures of most of the little parts and bolts and manifolds etc...

I also talked to the old timer again at Fordhouse. He said he used to race stock and drag. He said the petroleum jelly will evaporate.

Thanks

John

 

[4b316]

http://www.rangerpowersports.com/fo...-amp-2.5-Timing-belt-removal-amp-installation. this is a good sticky on timimg belt installation

 

[johnrhadfield]

Not much time to work yesterday or today. I did manage to get the tensioner on(using a pry bar). I lined up all the marks (including the ones I made with whiteout on the belt). I let the spring go naturally then tightened the adjusting bolt and the belt skipped when I turned the engine. I haven't had time to read about how much tension to put on the belt yet.

Will read up.

John

 

[Duane867]

I'm concerned about the crack you made in the gasket installing the head Jon.
as well as just how much exactly they milled the head down. When you mill a head you usually have to make it up with a thicker gasket if over 10 thousanths or so has been milled off the head. The crack concerns me because its near a water jacket. fairly high pressure builds there under use and water under pressure will find the path of least resistance.

The petroleum jelly will not evaporate regardless of what mr. racer said ( never heard of that trick in my life honestly. I race, my family races, and I have been around racing all my life. You don't use anything on a head gasket but a new dry gasket. thats sort of the hole point. You would however use grease of petroleum jelly on say an oil pan gasket so it will stick on the block and align the holes when you lay or press the pan the pan on)
The petroleum jelly will absorb into the gasket material and bake in. Shouldn't cause to much of a problem if you didn't use very much and got as much as possible back off.


Did you have the block tested ?

 

[johnrhadfield]

To 4b316: Thanks for the sticky. My bad - Chilton's says 30-33 ft lbs of tensioner pressure against the timing belt. I will be getting a new timing belt Saturday. Debating on tensioner. I will check for wobble in the tensioner. Trying to save money, but I don't want to be penny wise and pound foolish.

I'm concerned about the crack you made in the gasket installing the head Jon.
as well as just how much exactly they milled the head down. When you mill a head you usually have to make it up with a thicker gasket if over 10 thousandths or so has been milled off the head. The crack concerns me because its near a water jacket. fairly high pressure builds there under use and water under pressure will find the path of least resistance.

The petroleum jelly will not evaporate regardless of what mr. racer said ( never heard of that trick in my life honestly. I race, my family races, and I have been around racing all my life. You don't use anything on a head gasket but a new dry gasket. thats sort of the hole point. You would however use grease of petroleum jelly on say an oil pan gasket so it will stick on the block and align the holes when you lay or press the pan the pan on)
The petroleum jelly will absorb into the gasket material and bake in. Shouldn't cause to much of a problem if you didn't use very much and got as much as possible back off.


Did you have the block tested ?

I got most of petroleum jelly back off.

I did not have the block tested because I am trying to save money. I guess I am really testing it "real time" it will work or it won't, by putting it back together. I had to draw a moneyline somewhere. The engine is a 2000 so it's worn out obviously and a machine shop is certain to find more problems of wear on such an old engine.

Winger just basically said "was it running good before the incident?" which it was.

I did do a test with WD-40 I lowered the pistons to all about half. I sprayed about a half inch of WD-40 in each cylinder. It did not leak after an hour.

I did use a level straight edge which already said was not sufficient.

The cyl hd was about 6 something thousands warped not 10. Engine Pro said that was not too bad. I did ask how much it was milled, and they did not have that info available at the time.

I have moved the engine around with timing belt. It's not perfectly easy to turn (some resistance (easier to turn at some points than others)), but I don't feel or hear any dead stop binding.

The old timer said I could use an asbestos gasket from Felpro because it is thicker. He said he is not sure if they still make them because asbsestos has been outlawed.

So if it doesn't work then I take her back apart and redo more of the engine. "New" reman cyl hd should be ok to move to another block if need be?

I too am concerned about the bend/crack in the corner. Hopefully the gasket will expand some. It wasn't a definite crack all the way through, I don't think. It was a definite bend with a slight crack.

Thanks,

John

 

[johnrhadfield]

RAfter trying again and again and again the new belt and tensioner seemed to want to roll off the edges of the sprockets. I tried old tensioner new belt combo - same poor result. I put old belt and old tensioner back on they did much better. Anyway to move or doublecheck what might be causing belt to want to move off the edge of sprockets? Will belt fall off or will the cover and leg of power steering "guide" the inner timing belt back on?

Timing belt is keeping time correctly.

That's about all I did on Ranger because the Tahoe broke down at Sonic. It wouldn't start. Long story short I spent 3 1/2 hours pulling testing and reinstalling a good starter. While I was tortured by repeating music at Sonic. It nearly drove me crazy. In any case The problem was the starter relay. I should have checked that first, but did not know about it.


John

 

[4b316]

Did you install the belt guide behind the cam gear?Timing belt should run right in the middle of the gears,not rubbing against anything in the back?Coming off the front or the back?Tensioner not setting over the plastic cover?

 

[johnrhadfield]

Did you install the belt guide behind the cam gear?Timing belt should run right in the middle of the gears,not rubbing against anything in the back?Coming off the front or the back?Tensioner not setting over the plastic cover?

To 4b316:

What is the belt guide behind the cam gear? is that the circular metal plate with the timing mark on it?

It's trying to roll off the front towards radiator. Not really much at all with old belt and old tensioner. Only trying to hint at rolling off on crankshaft.

Doesn't appear to be rubbing against anything in the back. Now I am thinking though maybe there is some grease/dirt below and behind crankshaft. I will double check that.

Here is an update/status video I took earlier showing a few things. I'll try to improve the lighting next time(and shorten the file). This file is 100 mg for graphic detail, however, people will need dsl probably to download it in a timely fashion.

.AVI Video works best opening with Realplayer. I download file, right click on file "open with" then Real Player.

http://www.4shared.com/video/TJbGX6aM/MTVP0004.html

Tensioner is not on plastic. However, 2 bolts are in effect. The adjustment bolt and the pivot bolt(of course you know that, I am just trying to be clear in what I am saying). I learned to tighten pivot bolt all the way then back off a little then installed adjustment bolt. That is just to get the spring in and tensioner on. Then I used pry bar to push tensioner all the way back. I tightened down adjustment bolt then put the belt on released adjustment bolt then tightened pivot bolt then tightened adjustment bolt.

I rotated the engine many times the video shows current status of belt. It's keeping time correctly. Belt concerns me though It appears ok with old belt and tensioner however the belt is off a little off the crankshaft gear. I can only turn the engine manually so much. I don't know if it is slowly working it's way off or is going to stay.


Thanks,

John