......and the Isuzu is back in white....
It's been over 6 months, and took place at two different houses..... over much debate I got tired of seeing the truck sitting in the driveway and wanted to do something about it.
So the reasons why I havn't put it back together yet....
-Once the head was removed, #4 piston was chipped from headgasket... figured it would have to be replaced, which means rebuild whole engine, or replace engine
-all parts were thrown in a box durring the move, nothing was organized or labeled, looking at everything became overwhelming.
-lazy?
Reason why I decided to put it back together....
-I got tired of looking at it sitting there
-Really didn't care what the outcome was, as long as the engine was in one piece... figured it would be easier to swap in a reman long block
-I really, really missed driving a 5spd... and this was the cheapest and most practical way to drive one again.... this was actually probably the #1 reason. Now I have something to tow my trailer with.
So after Church, all day Sunday I worked on the Town Car... replaced front rotors and pads, rear pads and rear sway bar links... didn't do the '98+ upgrade, but still, no more vibrations, stops really nice now... and those rear sway bar links.... WOW what a difference in handling!
So then I was feeling pretty good being that I got all that done... so I told myself, I am just going to put the 2.6 back together, I have a full factory Isuzu gasket set I bought off a forum member, I really didn't think it was even going to run.... piston was chipped, I never took the head to a shop to get cleaned and checked... I also didn't put my low-end torque cam in, I'll probably end up selling it or something. When wrestling the headgasket/intake manifold on the block, the gasket kept moving and the dowl pin chewed it up a little... but.. I didn't care, so on it went.... for a while I thought the new gasket was damaged and causing it to leak... but... seems to be fine.
End result? the thing runs great, starts right up, in fact everything seems to be the exact same way it was, I've already put over 100 miles on it... I couldn't believe it myself. It's pretty much done now, just a few final things like putting a couple pullies on, connecting the AIR pump, p/s pump and A/C compressor... right now I just have the alternator and waterpump connected with a belt... I also don't have the cooling fan on it, so if it sits idling for several minutes it'll start to get hot... as long as it's moving it's fine.
It's awesome to have it back though, I really missed driving it, and I enjoy the utility... plus I can now tow my trailer... but it is just really fun to drive a 5spd again. Tires only had less then 500 miles on them too... so I get to enjoy them again..... 6 months.... long time.
Anyway, here is the video I took of it the last time it ran, with the blown head gasket, at the old rented house.
Before anything came off:
exhaust manifold, valve cover (and all the things bolted to it) front pullies/belts and timing belt cover removed...
where the h/g blew:
Then I found the chipped piston, which is what really put a hold on things. If it was to come out, it could be done with the block in the truck, but it would be alot of work, so I started looking around for a parts truck with good engine, or engine for sale... I really thought it would give me problems.
Also found this when I took the intake manifold off the head... only reason for that was because I was going to bring it to a shop to get cleaned up, milled down and my cam installed. Not sure what, if any role this had...
So fast forward to this past Monday... here it is... pulled it at the end of the driveway a couple weeks ago with the Cub.... tarp is over it to keep it dry, the soft top will leak in heavy rain, so I figured it's gonna sit for awhile, keep it dry.
Yup.... not much has changed in 6 months.... man I got tired of looking at that
Factory hone pattern
135k is when the head gasket let go.... The fact that the engine was never able to get to operating temp, or anything above "C" before I bought it may have had something to do with it, I dunno tho.... head gaskets are semi-common on the 2.6.... though it is pretty much the only problem with them and normally it's not that big of a deal. Now that I did it, it really isn't too bad.
there it is again
Yup, everything is thrown in boxes.... isn't this the perfect way to do major engine work?
