I have a customer with a 51 Ford and he would like me to put headgaskets in it. Is it really as easy as it looks? I found some info with touque specs and pattern. I've never really worked on one of these engines and if It's a really big job then I will turn it down. Thanks for the info! Tony.
I would be more concerned with why he feels he needs to have the head gaskets replaced. He may not be too happy after you replace the head gaskets, just to discover that his overheating, water loss, etc. problem still exists. Protect yourself.
Drain the coolant, remove the heater hoses if there is a heater , remove the temperature senders, remove the coil from the head if that's where it's clamped and pull out the distributor. Unbolt the heads, follow the sequence, clean the block, clean the heads, install gasket (i prefer composite-dry install) and torque by sequence. Also if the heads are bolted, you may want to hit the customer up for a fresh set of bolts. Studs, depends on the rust. If bolts are there be sure to seal them when reinstalling. The only thing you need to watch for is that the head gaskets equalize. After the first torque, get the motor hot, let it cool like overnight and re-torque the heads. You should do this heat cycle, cool down and re-torque at least three times even four. If your customer drives away after it's together and only torqued once, he'll be calling about the engine leaking coolant. Definitely not a hard job, just tedious. When you refill the coolant, leave out the temp senders on both sides and as you refill the radiator watch for the coolant to rise in the head at the senders, this helps eliminate steam pockets. I'm sure you"ll be fine. Have fun, Dan
He would like me to do head gaskets, intake gasket, thermostats and a radiator cap so he knows its all good. Also because when he brought it to me for a rewiring it got hot and started puking all over the place in a bad way. He hasn't put but maybe 100 miles on this car since he bought it over a year ago. Now removing the temp senders when filling makes me wonder since the owner put 1 new water pump on by himself over the winter, I wonder if it just wasn't full. Maybe I should refill it and run it to see what happens?? Why fix it if it's not broke right? Any thoughts here?
Yup, good chance it is a cracked block...... Not that that is nessicerly Terminal but would be a good enough reason to need a full rebuild
He said this was the first time it had done that and it's the first time he had driven it since the water pump. And my place is only 8 miles away from his.
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