Dave does a DIY cylinder head pressure test and skim. Back together, with video

[dave21478]

The telephone ate my photographs of the final installment of the Ranger collection so you will just have to use your imagination for that bit...

Truth be told, I got it transported by a specialist firm who do regular runs down to Spain from UK with a transporter. I got it dropped off at a nearby city where I picked it up on my trailer. Expensive? yeah, but it was probably the best choice overall.

I had a few nice pics of the Ranger on the trailer being towed by the Mazda but changing telephone since then and google accounts and stuff means they have somehow been erased. Fuck technology, but thats not the first time I have said that is it?

 

Anyway, here it is tucked up in the garage and the Mazda has been relegated to outside parking.

 

orf with its head, etc etc.... easy enough job with plenty of room to work on the engine. A couple of the exhaust manifold studs are tricky to access, but nothing too challenging. Two of the glow plugs were non-functional when tested, so that explains the slow starting and puffs of smoke after starting.

 

Its a weirdo multi layer gasket on it, and there was this section where its fairly certain to have been leaking between cylinder three and the oval water gallery.

 

Its not unknown for these to crack the head, and with nothing visible to my eyes and with no knowledge of WHERE they like to crack it really needed pressure tested in case there is an internal leak between an inlet or exhaust port and a water passage. I know a wee engine place that does this sort of work so I trudged down to town to get them to test it and check for flatness and skim if needed. Inside was an empty, quiet machine shop with two bored looking guys fiddling with telephones....hmm, might get this done while I wait eh? 

Hello...blah blah pressure test and skim please

Trade only, m8.

uh, I have had stuff done here before...

new management innit. Trade only. got proof of trade?

er, no, but I have cash and dont need a receipt.

nah, trade only.

busy, are you?

no.

welp, good luck with that. Seeya. Cunts. (didnt say the last bit out loud obviously, didnt fancy a kicking)

 

The googles told me about another place so I went round....always better to do this sort of thing face to face in france, its way too easy to get the fob-off on the telephone.

Hello, blah blah pressure test etc etc....

yeah, s'pose. Leave it here and it will be done by next Friday.

How much will it cost?

'bout 300 euros. Plus tax.

 

loading....

loading.......

loading............

ERROR.

 

THREE HUNDRED FUCKING EUROS? i can literally buy a brand new head for less than that.

 

pff, if you want something done in this third-world country, do it your fucking self.

 

So, pressure test eh? How hard can it be?

 

Well, get an offcut of oak worktop, use the old gasket as a template to drill the head stud pattern through it, make a gasket from a bit of flat rubber which is actually an offcut of pond liner, cut up a bunch of M8 allthread and get a load of nuts and washers to use as clamping bolts, assemble this lot...

 

Plug the big water inlet pipe and ram a tyre valve into one of the smaller pipes.

squirt soapy water all over the place and use your compressor to pump it up to about 80 psi. No sign of leaks.

I tried higher pressure but it blew out the rubber gasket, but I would say there is no cracks here. Yeah, I know compression pressure is way higher than that, but the way I see it, with no obvious leak at lower pressure and being fairly certain about where the old gasket was leaking I reckon it will be fine.

 

So, surface check and skim eh? how hard can that be?

 

Much fucking about with a steel ruler, feeler gauges, torch etc gave inconclusive results. I have since found out my steel rule is bent, so thats no fucking use is it?

I needed something flat. A flash of inspiration led to a quick blast to work where I rummaged this massive sheet of glass out of a rubbish pile. Its about 30mm thick and was meant to be part of a transparent walkway that never got built. As far as I am capable of measuring, its as flat as my personality. Pretty flat.

I used spray glue to stick sheets of medium wet n dry paper to it.

(if I were doing this again, i would butt the sheets tightly together. I had thought the gaps would allow gunk to clear from the sheets but the edges tended to lift and rip.)

 

 

I lubed them with soapy water then placed the head down and slid it back and forth and round in a figure-eight pattern, not pressing down, just letting its own weight do the work.

fuckin nice result there....

 

I sprayed a light mist of spray paint over the head and let it dry, then repeated the sanding process briefly and all the paint was removed evenly, so no major differences in surface height are apparent....kinda like a guide coat when flatting bodywork.

 

Flat enough, I would say.

 

I have ordered a gasket set, timing belt kit etc etc, so hopefully will get this back together next weekend.

 

 

 

[beko1987]

Holy fuck your a hero!

[jonathan_dyane]

Great work

[Heidel_Kakao]

Nice, who needs a machine shop!

[cort16]

Absolutely brilliant , great work.

[Guest Hooli]

Bloody excellent work.

[chodweaver]

You've just bent the needle on my impressed-o-meter! That's a full 10 more 'imps' than I've been getting while binge-watching Project Binky...

 

Top job.

 

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[DodgeRover]

Much impressed, this sort of thing is what will make Britain great again.

[Stanky]

Excellent work Monsieur Nombres! I salute your lateral thinking and attention to detail. May your gaskets remain supple and leak-free for many years to come.

[AMC Rebel]

Genius stuff there

[lisbon_road]

Good. Thanks for sharing. Should work well.

[Dave_Q]

[CreepingJesus]

You've earned that!

 

I've seen that done with a piece of thick plate steel, but the oak and glass are gems of lateral thinking.

[omegod]

My cap is doffed with such vigour I have partial friction burn on my scalp 

[Jim Bell]

Thats amazing. I am amazed. Lazy unhelpful people in FRANCE?!

Gobsmacked.

[fordperv]

Top work, Ive seen flatting done with a glass top before but I am always impressed

[The Moog]

That is ace. Such simple ideas that I never would have

[Zelandeth]

That's bloody genius!  Filing that away for when the head's pulled off the Saab if I get stuck finding a machine shop that will play ball.

[Parky]

Just so simple, yet so obvious. Utter genius idea Dave, both of those ideas have been stored as one day I will definitely impress someone with one of those

[twosmoke300]

Nice ! You can be on my scrapheap challenge team if you like !

[New POD]

Last time I needed a pressure test and skim I went to a place on a back street in Bootle, ignored the obvious Health and Safety issues, and left them with it for £24 hours and Paid £45.  I think that was 2009 and a 1.6 8V astra. They also sold me all the parts I needed to put it back together.

[phil_lihp]

This is seriously impressive stuff.  Proper genius.

[tooSavvy]

Hillman IMP + wet ordry + glass wardrobe mirror....

 

Stuff of legend, m8

 

Top Banana [more straight than an English one, like the head face eh]

 

 

TS

[Pillock]

Engineering. Love it.

[rainagain]

Great job, when I changed the hg years ago on my OH's Stilo the guys in the metalogy lab at work gave me a special very very thin liquid that glowed under uv. You spread it on a metal surface wiped it off then used a uv lamp. Even the smallest of crack was obvious.

 

Similar to this stuff

http://www.directindustry.com/prod/magnaflux/product-21689-236092.html

[alf892]

Brilliant...proper fixing.

 

And on the same site that has a two page thread on setting yer fucking clock too

[Bren]

Should a skim be required I recommend the following -

[tooSavvy]

.. And on the same site that has a two page thread on setting yer fucking clock too

OK... You have my attention :/

 

[/threadstuffing]

 

TS

[Mally]

Easier to sort Dave's head than set my clock, but I have a shortage of Oak and 30mm glass so I'll leave it to him.

Can't fault the cost, or the workmanship.

Hope a gasket cures it.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Absolutely fantastic work. Can i ask, how much did the transport cost BTW?