Blown head or something else?

[Tedybear]

Trying to think of a safe way to get all the grunge out. Changing the oil afterwards might get the bulk of it out---Leaving the plug out and letting it ozz would..

What about letting something like engine flush being poured down the return lines and then letting it run out the drain?

This is a bit of a toughy without dropping the oil pan and doing a full clean out of the pan and screen.

S-

 

[aeidian]

Trying to think of a safe way to get all the grunge out. Changing the oil afterwards might get the bulk of it out---Leaving the plug out and letting it ozz would..

What about letting something like engine flush being poured down the return lines and then letting it run out the drain?

This is a bit of a toughy without dropping the oil pan and doing a full clean out of the pan and screen.

S-

Oh the pans coming off. With the top end of the motor off, it's nothing to take the mounts loose, jack up the block and put blocks between the mount and frame. Then I can pull the pan off and clean and inspect.

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[aeidian]

You'll need new head bolts regardless. The 2.9 uses "torque to yield" bolts and can not be reused.

If everything looks good? I'd suggest carefully removing the lifters from that the one that gave you the low reading and peek at the cam lobes. Mark the lifters for reinstall, as once they are run together? They are considered a matched set.

It would not surprise me to learn the camshaft's lobe where in bad shape, and that would cause the valves not to open all the way, thus creating low compression.

Just remember one thing while cleaning--Anything you use will make it's way into the oil pan via the drainback holes. You might want to consider leaving the drain plug out and letting everything ozz out.

S-

Also some the rods had a little play in them. They ran up to what looks like an Allen screw. Are they supposed to have wiggle in then or should I tighten them up when I get it back together.

EDIT: not Allen screws, bolts with an open center.

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[aeidian]

Got the pan off today, and it was a nightmare because I stripped one of the torx bolts on the oil pump when I was trying to get it off. Took a fair amount of tricks with a chisel, dremel, hammer, screwdriver, and other odds and ends to get that stripped one off. I had real trouble getting the pump to drop down, even though I turned it so that the pickup screen tube wasn't caught on the baffle. The shaft that goes up to the distributor came out with it, I read somewhere else that it's supposed to stay up in there, but mine dropped out. Once I got that done, I was able to slide the pan forward and pull it out and up through the engine bay. Going backwards wasn't possible because it wouldn't clear the bellhousing on the transmission no matter how high I jacked the transmission and raised the motor. I had to remove the radiator, fan, and shroud and it still took some angling to get it out.

A couple days ago I drained the pan with the heads already off and there was clearly water in the pan, the bottom of the pour out was water and the top was oil, so clearly oil sits on top of water. I let it sit for hours with the plug out to get what I could out. I filled the block with the heads off as full as I could get them to see if there would be any water loss. I put the plug back in and then today, a couple days later I went to pull the pan out. What I found was a milkshake consistency in the bottom of the pan. When I pulled the baffle off there was a snot mixture sitting on the rear portion of the baffle. I took some photos below of what looks like a crack in the block, but it's not over where the baffle is and I don't know if it's a crack, or just production ridges or whatever because there were similar ridge lines near other cylinders. When I refilled the block with the pan off I didn't see any water coming out whatever this is. I'm convinced that water is still going through the block SOMEWHERE though, because I found water in the pan after I had drained it days before and there was snot on the baffle.