89 - 2.5 head questions

My dad's 89 Olds wagon is spewing anti freeze and along with anti freeze in oil also pressurizes the radiator so he has at the very least a bad gasket, maybe worse. It is a 2.5 and while we have a GM service manual I would appreciate any tips on removing this head. Never fooled with a 2.5 as far as doing this. Plan on taking it to a shop for testing, unless we see obvious problems. How difficult a procedure is this?

To add, it has been suggested I replace the head bolts, even though Gm manual does not specify. We are going to pull the head this coming weekend, just wondering if anyone has done this on this particular motor? 89 olds cutlass ceira wagon, 2.5L. Have a question on the torque on the head bolts as well, manual is not clear on that. says to tighten in a criss cross pattern (same as any head) but, after torqued to 25ft lbs, says to turn 3/4 turn. usually i see head bolts torqued up to a maximum point, not a 3/4 turn etc.

I have not done work on this engine but the book states to remove the head just like any other, nothing special but I recommend that you label everything so that it goes back together easily. As for the head bolts the torque sequence is 10 6 2 3 9
8 5 1 4 7

All head bolts are to be torqued to 18 foot pounds on the first pass, then in the second step of torque go to 26 foot pounds on all bolts except #9 this one stays at 18 foot pounds. Mark all bolts with a marker and then turn each bolt 1/4 turn additional. You must apply sealer to bolts #9 and #10.

Thanks very much. We have a service manual but it did not mention the sealer and I was confused on the torque specs. Really appreciate it. Just curious, would you advise replacing the bolts?? I did not see that either in book, but, was told that it was recommended. The old car is not worth putting a lot of money into, but, I want to do the job properly.

The book I have does not say that they are torque to yield but my philosophy has always been to air on the side of caution so that I didn't have to redo the job. So if you are in doubt replace them if for nothing more than piece of mind.

Sounds like good advice. I see they are not a lot of money so unless we find major trouble with it I'll buy a set of bolts. Thanks again!

jsgold,

Did you already do the head job? I had a '88 Olds Calais that had the 2.5 and have done a head replacement 2 times. Just wondering.

No, we are supposed to pull the head Saturday morning up at my dad's place. Unsure how tough this will be. I am concerned that the old one may be cracked with the way it was acting. A lot of pressure in cooling system, a LOT of coolant in oil, really blowing out steam when he got it back home. How difficult would you rate this, as far as removal goes?

Actually, I found the heads on my 2.5 Calais to be one of the easiest heads to replace that I have ever done. I think you have more experience than me, so you should find it a snap. You will want to replace the head bolts and I think you already know, there is one bolt that has a different torque than the rest. The Haynes manual does recommend replacing the bolts and I believe they are torqued to yield. Haynes is really good on this engine. You will find it an enjoyable repair I am sure. By the way, this engine is notorious for bad coil packs, so you may want to just replace them while you are at it.
Good luck,

Mike

Well, the head came off failry easily. Just a lot of hoses and wires to deal with and it is heavier than I thought it would be. Of course being made of cast iron does not help. Gasket was in bad shape. Do not see any cracks in the head but brought it back to my house along with the intake and exhaust manifolds (still attached) for better look. Am going to drop it off at a machine shop for a second opinon and possible additional work(seals etc). If all is OK I guess we will put it back together later next weekend. As for the coil pack, yes they are bad about failing. In fact we had to replace the igniton assy last summer which was a real pain. No room to work, had to use mirrors, block up motor, unhook engine mount, you name it. Without the head and manifold it is right there, easy to get to. Oh well, hopefully we won't have to do either of these things again on this old car. Will post when it is fixed. Thanks for all of the input!

Well just an update, the head is indeed cracked. I saw nothing myself but after taking to a good machine shop where it was disasembled, cleaned and checked there was a hairline crack under the exhaust valve, non repairable. Only cost me 25 bucks to do this(would have been 112 to re assemble, install new seals,have it decked etc. had it been good) so I am glad I did this although I wish it had been a different outcome. Now looking for another head. These folks have one for 250 bucks, may be a week or two before we have enough cash to get it but that seems a fair price. Just an example of how a person should get these things checked. Would not have seen it on my own.

Check car-part.com for a good used one. They are getting hard to find but there should be a few out there. This should save you some money.

Thanks for the information. Will save this site on my favorites as it looks very helpful. Am trying to get one off Ebay right now, unit is rebuilt, seller 100% rating, might be able to get < $150. If not then I will look at this site some more.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8048713395&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3ABCA%3AUS%3A11

Just one question on the head bolts. We will finally start putting this old car back together next weekend and I noticed that only one of the new studed headbolts (I assume number 9) has thread sealing compound on it new and number ten does not. I have d/c and this is the way new hedbolts come for this engine. I still do not see anything that mentions this in GM manual, other than torquing and sequence, so I am wondering if I should just install as is or get some kind of compound for the other one? If so, what type do i get?

Just install as is. They often come new with the sealer on the ones that need it. If you put sealer on other bolts you may not get proper torque. also if I remember correctly the No. 9 bolt has a different torque number than the rest anyway. Probably the only one that enters a water jacket.

Just to update this thread here is where we are. The repairs are completed, seems Ok so far. We ended up having a machine shop repair the old head, as the crack was repairable, but not by the local shop. Looks great. Cost 250 bucks but it is totally rebuilt, decked, etc. and guranteed. No major problems although we had concerns with the head bolts, as far as proper torque, and the exhaust manifold gave us fits. Most things were pretty simple, just a lot of small stuff to put back together. We used a torque wrench to get the proper starting point and then got the bolts as close as we could to the 90 degree additonal. May not be exact but should be OK. I had the exhaust manifold welded to fix two cracks, but the fellow overheated it and one end warped so we had to fight it to get it on. Still, it was not bad overall, just hope it holds up OK. We rebuilt the throttle body, replaced the gasket material on the back lifter pan cover, and replaced plugs along with a number of other things such as thermostat and so forth. The engine struggled to idle on it's own for a minute or so, but seems to be doing fine now. My dad forgot to renew his license so he has to wait until Monday for the big road test.

Just a final bit of information as I close this thread out. Car runs excellent, idles well and no longer leaks oil as before. (When replacing the head we replaced most all other gaskets we could get at as well) no anti freeze in oil, and only problem we see is the radiator is leaking a bit, but an easy fix. The car needed to be run to help reset idle and blow out old crud in exhaust system where it sat for so long and it runs smooth. Thanks for the very helpful advice, it was appreciated!

Just a follow up, car continues to run well, but we had a major oil leak that turned out to be the oil sender unit, which was in a tought place to work with. Would suggest that anyone doing this go ahead and replace it as for us it was a $8 part that wound up costing a lot of time later. May be overkill but wish I had done it when we had the intake removed before.