88 caprice head replacement?

[PeteA216]

I used RTV silicone on the threads of heads bolts. I was told to by one of those "How To Rebuild Your Smallblock Chevy" books.

[silicon212]

I'm out on RTV for the head bolts, because it could get damaged by certain coolant mixes. I personally use Permatex #1 - it works great and is what the factory used.

[kevn83]

The HM was awesome... expensive but good.

Back to the car... I believe my repair manual said something about putting grease on the ends of the push rods so they would not be damaged on start up. I Guess it takes some time for the oil to get back in the valves...


also, the head bolts had some kind of sealant on the threads when I pulled them out... It was red and had a strong ordor to it. I figured that that they needed to be sealed since they were going into the water jacket.

thanks for the help

[PeteA216]

The grease you're talking about is a pre-lube kind of thing, you can find it at any auto parts store. Red is supposedly good.

Permatex... I've used that stuff before. I've got a couple tubes in the garage. It works great for sealing just about anything.

[bobss396]

I used to use a Lubriplate brand of grease on pushrods, only at the rocker end. It was made for engine re-assembly. I haven't seen it in years but any good auto parts store should be able to give you something equivalent.

I've always installed head bolts clean and dry or with a spritz of WD-40 on them. Anything else can have an impact to the torque and give you false readings.

As far as the intake manifold and water pump bolts go, use a sealant only where they pass through the water jacket. This means the main 4 water pump bolts and some on the intake manifold. I'd have to see one in front of me, but this is like a mental note thing that goes on during the disassembly stage. A little smear of Permatex on all the threads of the intake manifold bolts would be ok. Since that torque is not that critical, you'll be ok. Just apply the sealant consistently.

Hopefully you have a decent shop manual for reference, I'm sure I'm leaving something out. Follow the manual in place of anything I've come up that contradicts it.

Bob

[kevn83]

Hey guys I have another question... A very important one.

I do not know if I need to use sealant on the head gaskets.. it is the metal kind... but it has places where there is soft metal... the whole gasket was covered in a thin layer of blue sealant or something.... The gaskets are from felpro... also I don't know which way they are suppose to go on... I did not see a label that says this side up? so does it matter which side goes up? I did notice that one side has three hard metal circles with a little strip of soft metal between the holes and the other side has hard metal around the holes and also between them... I hope that makes sense to someone.

The instructions provided by felpro were confusing to me... it said something like use sealant on head gaskets if they are metal and install dry if composite. Can someone make sense of this for me... My head gaskets are metal but they are made of hard metal and the softer kind... plus the metal surface is cover with a thin layer of blue (something)... so any help would be greatly appreciated.

They are the gaskets for an 88 caprice 4.3L from autozone that are $9.99.

[Blue Bowtie]

You have "Print-O-Seal" composite gaskets. Install them with the printed side facing up. Use no sealants. Clean the deck and head surfaces thoroughly. Use a solvent to remove any staining. Lacquer thinner works well for this. Clean the head bolt threads, then coat them with anaerobic thread sealant (NOT thread locker). Torque them to the specification in three steps (45, 55, then 65 ft/lb.).

[kevn83]

awesome... thanks for the help.

[kevn83]

Hey Guys I have another ?...

I got the manifold back on and should get to the the distributor later today or tomorrow... Now my main question concerns the valves... How critical is the valve adjustment? I was reading that I need to crank the motor until I get each one at Top Dead Center starting with the #1 piston and so on... How tight do the nuts need to be?... according to the the manual I have I am only suppose to tighten the nut 3/4 turn after the push rods feel some tension (when the piston is at TDC). Right now I have the nuts on the rocker arms pretty tight.

I don't want to hurt the motor by having the rocker arms too thight or by having them too loose.

also, should the base of the distributor have marks that line up with a mark on the manifold. It looks like there is a v notch on both parts... The marks point straight back towards the fire wall.

Thanks