Pinto Car Club of America

I bought a 2.3 turbo a few months back to put in my pinto. Its from an 87 TC. The guy I got it from had taken it apart, did a crappy job of cleaning it up, replaced ALL the gaskets and seals, and the freeze plugs, but didnt get it all the way back together before deciding the car was in too bad of shape to mess with anymore.

Anyways, he pulled the head and replaced the head gasket and then stuck the head back on  and threw on a coat of paint. I was very dissatisfied with the paint job so I took paint stripper and totally cleaned the engine up. He had most of the engine together, except for the valve cover so i took the intake and exhaust manifolds off as well as the water pump, timing components, etc. Its down to just the head, block and oil pan.

The engine has not been run since the work was done. I want to pull the head and take it to the machine shop and have  them clean it up, check it for cracks and replace the valve seals before I install this engine into my car. Is the new headgasket ruined or can it be reused?

Also, the guy used some really good copper sealant of some kind on the intake gasket. I didnt think you were supposed to use any sealer (i never have) but the sealer stuff sure stuck that gasket on good. It ruined the new intake gasket when I pulled it off. I found this sealer stuff he used at oreillys, and I am very tempted to use it seeing as it worked so well. Does anyone see a problem with that? I do believe the gasket set says not to use sealer or that sealer isnt needed but all I can say is WOW that stuff sure sealed that gasket up, there was NO way that thing was going to leak!

Finally, are the head bolts reusable or are they torque to yield?

Head gaskets junk i wouldnt even try to use it just go get a 8993 head gasket once you get the head back and put a new one back on it and as for the head bolts if they are the original metric headbolts they are reuseable if they dont seem to be in bad condition.

That copper sealant is a waste of money most new seals are designed to not have sealant on them.

Also make sure to use proper retorque procedures on the head to ensure a good seal from the headgasket.

I pulled the head today. The gasket is definitely trash. The dude that I bought this engine from used SEALER on the head gasket even!! What in the world was he thinking? It was a fel-pro gasket set that he used.

What are the chances  that  this gasket would have failed because of the sealer? As i said it was some kind of copper brush on sealant that REALLY works great, the intake to head and head to block was REALLY stuck on there. Took a long pry bar the break the head loose from the block, and it hadn't been run since this stuff was changed.

The head bolts I assume are the factory installed but I dont know.

I am thinking of taking this engine totally apart and taking it to the machine shop. When they clean up an engine they blast it with the bead blaster and this engine has some crap on it in places that i cant get to with a wire brush or scraper.

I'll have them do the same on the head. I know when you hear "bead blaster" you probably think "holy crap!" but really it gets it very clean and they clean it up very well afterwards. I'd rather have it hot tanked so it cleans out the water jackets too but they say they dont do that anymore. They "bake" them or something like that. And then blast them.

The cylinder walls are in very good shape. I was told this engine had only 65,000 miles on it and I believe it. There is virtually NO wear in the cylinders. Can still see the crosshatch in the cylinder walls.

na man i know how bead blasters work they are the only safe way to blast  aluminum cause sand blasting will pit stuff.

Are you having the block and head machined at all so they are perfectly flat?

And as for that copper goop old gaskets used to require it to get a proper seal but as time has went along gaskets got better and that stuff is no longer worth using and i have actually seen a couple cars pop a head gasket because of it.

As for crosshatching on these 2.3's i have seen 300k on a 2.3 and it still have cross hatcing they are some extremly tuff engines especially our little 2.3ts.

TO make sure they are factory head bolts the should be 12 point bolts and say metric around the tops of them if they dont jusy buy new ones cause those are the only ones that are reusable.