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When fixing HG. Replace head?

605 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Turboy 
#1 ·
Sometime in the next few months I'm going to take apart a lot of the stuff on the 9k. One of the repairs will be the headgasket.

1996 9000 Aero with 101k miles.

I THINK it's weeping, as my oil leak coming off the front right of the engine (OUR right side when looking from the front, into the engine bay). I've yet to do a compression check though... Anyway, I have barely been abusing the car as I don't want to cause any sort of warpage of the head.

I've heard some argue that it is better to use the same head as opposed to getting it 'decked' and all that jazz...

The car will be modified to exceed factory power levels, so I don't want to worry about a headgasket issue due to an imperfect surface between the head and the engine block...

What should I do?
 
#2 ·
Oil leaking from there is common and not an indication of a head gasket problem. This engine has a weird head that overhangs the block at the clutch end causing all manner of oil and water sealing problems that do not affect compression.


If all you have is oil seeping from the front corner of the head joint at the bell housing that engine could run forever without a head gasket failure. if you look at the pictures or diagrams of this engine you will see that the head gasket has to make an oil tight seal at a right angle with the head and the rear engine cover. Dumb design.
 
#3 ·
Superaero said:
Oil leaking from there is common and not an indication of a head gasket problem. This engine has a weird head that overhangs the block at the clutch end causing all manner of oil and water sealing problems that do not affect compression.
+1....

Take off the valve train cover and re-tighten the head bolts in sequence. Then steam clean the engine and see if that helps.

With "only" 101K miles, you can increase power safely without going into the engine...
 
#5 ·
Superaero said:
Oil leaking from there is common and not an indication of a head gasket problem. This engine has a weird head that overhangs the block at the clutch end causing all manner of oil and water sealing problems that do not affect compression.


If all you have is oil seeping from the front corner of the head joint at the bell housing that engine could run forever without a head gasket failure. if you look at the pictures or diagrams of this engine you will see that the head gasket has to make an oil tight seal at a right angle with the head and the rear engine cover. Dumb design.
That does sound like a stupid design. I replaced my valve cover very recently, and i still have leakage...
 
#6 ·
Get the cover very clean, use a new gasket, and a very thin bead of form-a-gasket goo on the inside edge of everything.

Saab dealers fix them this way plus for me they added a huge bead of goo on the very outside edge, was oil tight for a decade but took some work to get off.
 
#7 ·
mike saunders said:
+1....

Take off the valve train cover and re-tighten the head bolts in sequence. Then steam clean the engine and see if that helps.

With "only" 101K miles, you can increase power safely without going into the engine...
Hehe I already have. At just about 100k miles , I took off the valve cover, cleaned the surface of the little junk that was there, and then tightened the head bolts in the specific order...

I won't be going into the engine don't worry :) Not unless im going for 500-600 bhp of parts on the floor (i think thats what it was called)...

I guess I just need to do a compression check. If im still paranoid, I might have a shop do an overnight pressure test...
 
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