head work?

[J-Ri]

I'm taking the head off my 2.4L engine to replace the gasket (just begining to seep coolant) while I have the engine part-way apart for other work. It is still on the engine, so I don't know what condition it's in. Obviously if something is wrong, I'll correct the problem, but lets assume it looks good when I take it off. The engine has 194,000 miles on it, and I have no reason to think the head has had any work done on it (although knowing these engines, it has more than likely been off at least once for a gasket before).

I will be keeping this car until it rusts apart (still a long way off, for me easily another 200,000 miles), so should I have any head work done, and what should I do? I was thinking about replacing the cam followers (lifters) because the timing chain tensioner was bad, and assuming the tensioner pressure valve is similar to the follower pressure valves, one or more may be close to failing (if they're not already, I couldn't hear a damn thing until the chain stopped slapping around). I was also wondering about the valve springs, I remember reading that they can weaken and break with wear, but is that 200,000 miles or 1,000,000 miles?

A guy I work with also though I should replace the oil pump while I have the engine this far apart, any thoughts on that?

[skibum1111]

A reputable machine shop can check the head for you. Have them pressure test it and check it for warpage. As for the valve springs, I've never had one break and I had 270k on my quad when I sold the car. The lifters should be ok depending on how often the oil was changed, so take a really good look at them. As for the oil pump, I think you have to drop the pan to get it out. My 95 2.3 quad had the pump running off the balance shafts, not sure if the 2.4 used the same system.

[J-Ri]

I don't think the oil was changed... much. I bought the car cheap enough that I could have bought a new engine and still spent less than bluebook on the car so I wasn't too concerned about it at the time, now I want to know what's on the verge of failing while it's still easy to do . I changed the oil twice when I bought it and ran a few bottles of seafoam through the crankcase and then some Marvel Mystery Oil... now the oil stays new looking for 2,000 miles and still really clean at 3,000, but I don't know how much crap is trapped inside the lifters.

I would have to remove the oil pan and balance shafts to replace the oil pump, which is why I didn't want to replace it, but I thought I'd get a second opinion before I left it alone.

[skibum1111]

What kind of oil pressure were you showing before all this happened? I still had 60psi at cold idle, and warm idle was around 35psi with 5w30. This was recorded with a mechanical gauge after I changed the head gasket, and it convinced me that the pump was still good. Lifters were clean, but I'm anal about changing oil.

[J-Ri]

That's something I probably should have checked, but I had no thought of replacing the pump until this guy told me I maybe should think about it.

The low oil pressure light goes off almost as soon as I start cranking, so I'm guessing the pump is probably good enough. I can't say I've ever seen an oil pump fail anyway.