81 Ford Granada - Leaking Head Gasket

[tony1963]

I have a very original and well preserved 81 Ford Granada that is sporting about 42k original miles. I bought it with 32k original miles. It is a 200 6-cyl automatic sedan.

Last year I noticed some coolant leaking down the LH side of the engine block. It wasn't always there but never when the engine was warm.

A few weeks ago, I replaced the original cap/rotor because the car had developed an intermitted miss at idle. After the replacement, it was fine. but it started again. I the spark plugs. The #2 and #3 plugs had a lot of crud on them from combustion byproducts.

Seems that the head gasket was leaking and now it blows steam at idle so I'd say that it has gone.

Any tricks on doing this job? I guess that the original gasket is the steel shim which no one uses anymore.

Advice and tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[JackFish]

That leak is very typical, don't lose any sleep over it. I doubt that it's blown, in fact at 42k it's hardly even broken in.
Where is this steam coming from?
Water condenses in an engine, that steam is probably moisture burning off.
Probably needs a good hard drive to blow off some carbon and condensation.
I'd put some Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant in the gas, some Auto-RX in the oil, and drive like it like I stole it for a while. Some may suggest a Seafoaming. The head gasket can be replaced but no one makes the steel shim anymore and you'd have to have the head milled to compensate for the thickness of the modern gasket.
Oh and do a compression check.

 

[tony1963]

I have been driving it quite a bit during the year that I have had it, back and forth between Birmingham and Chattanooga, so it has got plenty of exercise.

It is leaking enough for the coolant to be low in the radiator often and now the steam out the tailpipe. It wasn't cold enough in Birmingham on Sunday to show steam. It was about 65 degrees and it also smelled like coolant out the tailpipe.

What tips do you have for changing the head gasket? How much should be cut off the head? If I just true up the head, will the compression on a new modern gasket cut HP enough to justify the need to cut the head a lot?

 

[early ford fan]

have you tried retorqueing the head bolts?with the steel gasket it seems it couldn't hurt to try.

 

[tony1963]

I have not attempted to retorque the head. I suspect that the head gasket has actually corroded and that even if you could torque it down, it wouldn't last long.

After nearly 30 years of service, I'm inclined to just change it and get it over with.

 

[JackFish]

There's a sticky at the top of this form with a link that has plenty of info:
http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1027

 

[JackFish]

Milling is pretty cheap relatively speaking. I dunno, maybe $40-100, depending on where you live and who you know.

Does your car have that cat converter that's attached to the exhaust manifold?

 

[tony1963]

I'm really not concerned with the cost of machining as I've had it done before. It's a great value, in my opinion.

The vehicle has a large bowl shaped device that bolts to the exhaust manifold, then a downstream converter. I don't know if that upper unit is a primary cat, or not.

 

[wsa111]

That is very normal on this engine.

I have had very good luck with a victor-rentz headgasket.

Carquest carries them. Bill