legacycentral bbs

Read the recent post by me about the exaust valve I broke. Later in the thread I have a story about head gasket replacement. The moral is -

CHECK YOUR THERMOSTAT
They can fail to a point that they dont open (or open just barely). If you want to test it get a candy thermometer and boil it to the temperature its rated at because even a dead thermostat might open at extreme temperatures.

Yeah, these cars are getting old and age is worse than the mileage itself. A friend of mine put 315k on a Cavalier, but he did it in 6 years.

Well I figured I owed a thread an update.

I got the heads put back on yesterday. I didn't fully disassemble the valve train and did my best to spray the heck out if with brake cleaner to get it all clean. Hopefully I don't have too much little grit in there. And hopefully the head gaskets are on right. I've never done them before but I followed the procedure - with the exception that I went straight to the final torque before doing the 90* turns. I'd read that several people were skipping the whole back the bolts back off thing with plenty of sucess.

I got the downpipe unbolted from the turbo and the catback exhaust hangers is the only thing holding it up in place. My 3" TBE should be in Friday and I'm waiting to get it put on before I putt my intake mani back on and finish up the engine side of things.

I am fighting the seals for the coolant crossover pipe but have them soak in PB blaster to get them out.

I have the AC condensor pulled out and room opened up for my external tranny cooler. I plan on installing another one inline with the stock cooler. This should help the tranny hold the extra power from the TBE and TMIC.

It's been an adventure to get where I am now but I think it's all going pretty good. I'm nervous that somehow I didn't do the HG right (mainly because I don't want to have to do this all again if they don't hold). The upshot is that my heads and valve covers are all nice and clean now and the engine bay should look pretty decent once I'm done.

I'll post back with more updates as I finish up this project.

Many thanks to everyone who's given input/help on this project.

Latest update - IT RUNS .

Last night my friend came over, thanks much, and helped me finish up the exhaust.

I still don't have the intercooler in, need to get the silicone couplers and my BOV is setup as atmospheric right now until I get the TMIC in. There are couple of hoses that are a little 'rough' until I plumb in the TMIC.

But, I filled all my fluids, hooked up the last connectors, and on the first turn of the key she started right up. Sounds great, running pretty rich (O2 was still disconnected) but she does run. Tonight I will finish up a few wiring in the cabin and over the weekend I'll make sure all the seals are holding and the HG R&R is holding.

I will start a new thread after the weekend with plenty of pictures and a sound clip.