DIY XE 'porous' in car head fix
Having done the homework, and had a dry run on an 'off the car' head, today I did the fix for real on the head in the car.
My objective was to do a similar mod to the professionals that you have to send your head to i.e. insert a liner tube into the center cross head oilway so that there is more metal than just the weakspot in the head casting between the high pressure oil and low pressure waterways. In my case I could not bore out the hole and press fit a liner, I am relying on a tight fit radially groved liner and Loctite.
The job was more straightforward on the spare head, which incidently was not porous, as it had been chemically cleaned, i.e. no oil in it. It also allowed me to accurately measure for the liner tube size and final position.
The engine has to be stone cold. Then with the head in the car it meant:
- expose center oilway blanking Allen headed grubscrew by removing heatshield
- drive in a T40 torx key into the Allen key hole (it will be in too tight to use an Allen key) and loosen it with an airgun
- position rag to absorb oil and remove grubscrew
- remove rocker cover
- measure torque setting of center front headbolt, then remove bolt
- once the oil has drained out, clean out oilway with wire brush
- dry out oilway with cotton buds
- spray oil remover in and use more cotton buds
- librally cover brass insert tube with Loctite
- tap tube into place using special drift to avoid damaging the tube
- the tube is in place once it has cleared the front headbolt hole
- cotton bud the oilway to remove excess Loctite and the make sure it is clear
- refit grubscrew with Loctite, replace headbolt to very slightly over previous torque, replace rocker cover, replace heatshield
- do not start engine for 24 hours to allow Loctite to cure.
My engine had very little sludge in the water as the problem was not too serious and I changed the water every 200 miles. Even so I flushed it out properly and changed the radiator just incase there was sludge in the bottom (there wasn't).
Now we run it for a while to see if the mod has worked!
Having done the homework, and had a dry run on an 'off the car' head, today I did the fix for real on the head in the car.
My objective was to do a similar mod to the professionals that you have to send your head to i.e. insert a liner tube into the center cross head oilway so that there is more metal than just the weakspot in the head casting between the high pressure oil and low pressure waterways. In my case I could not bore out the hole and press fit a liner, I am relying on a tight fit radially groved liner and Loctite.
The job was more straightforward on the spare head, which incidently was not porous, as it had been chemically cleaned, i.e. no oil in it. It also allowed me to accurately measure for the liner tube size and final position.
The engine has to be stone cold. Then with the head in the car it meant:
- expose center oilway blanking Allen headed grubscrew by removing heatshield
- drive in a T40 torx key into the Allen key hole (it will be in too tight to use an Allen key) and loosen it with an airgun
- position rag to absorb oil and remove grubscrew
- remove rocker cover
- measure torque setting of center front headbolt, then remove bolt
- once the oil has drained out, clean out oilway with wire brush
- dry out oilway with cotton buds
- spray oil remover in and use more cotton buds
- librally cover brass insert tube with Loctite
- tap tube into place using special drift to avoid damaging the tube
- the tube is in place once it has cleared the front headbolt hole
- cotton bud the oilway to remove excess Loctite and the make sure it is clear
- refit grubscrew with Loctite, replace headbolt to very slightly over previous torque, replace rocker cover, replace heatshield
- do not start engine for 24 hours to allow Loctite to cure.
My engine had very little sludge in the water as the problem was not too serious and I changed the water every 200 miles. Even so I flushed it out properly and changed the radiator just incase there was sludge in the bottom (there wasn't).
Now we run it for a while to see if the mod has worked!
