Immortalities First Rescue...

[Immortality]

Good start, found this first off. Don't think it would have run well on petrol. LPG backfire is my guess.


Got a back saver device to make this process easier,


About 2.5 hours later we ended up here,


Interestingly it's fairly clean inside, no major gunk buildup anywhere. Either this was well serviced for a good portion of it's life or it's been thoroughly steam cleaned of late. Push rods are clean, just high mileage wear on the end I've seen before, no oil staining, just a little rust from moisture at the rocker ends.


Made a start on getting the exhaust manifolds off but it started to get dark and the mozzies were eating me alive so decided to call it a day.

Only one small woopsie, forgot to disconnect the ECT sensor and smashed it. Woops.

 

[vc commodore]

Didn't you buy a go pro or alikes? If so, some videos would be nice to judge how nice it actually records

How did the LIM gasket look when you removed it? Signs of it allowing water to by pass it into the motor?

 

[Immortality]

I did, my son has it ATM, he took it with him last time he went to ride the Luge in Rotorua.

Intake gaskets were stuffed, but not as badly as my old VS which had half the mileage. Definitely been leaking there for a while. Look like OEM gaskets too, GM part number so either they are the original ones or they have been replaced by a Holden dealership at some stage. Some of the intake manifold bolts were a bit loose too.

 

[Immortality]

I did take a pic...

 

[rch-13z]

You might be right. Don't know who would be a fleet car with no bells and whistles but it did 143,000km in it's first 3 years.

mine is ex company car,had 110,000 when I bought (was 5 yo when I got it) - only luxury mine had over yours is ABS....

but in the 17 years since I’ve gone to great effort to de-POV pack it

good luck with it!

 

[Immortality]

mine is ex company car,had 110,000 when I bought (was 5 yo when I got it) - only luxury mine had over yours is ABS....

but in the 17 years since I’ve gone to great effort to de-POV pack it

good luck with it!

Nothing flash going to happen with this car except maybe additions under the bonnet.

I'll probably even ditch the AC, it's weight I don't need and I don't think it works either and I'm certainly not spending any coin on fixing it, only got coin for this for go fast bits and making it safe.

 

[Immortality]

Finally the stars aligned, days off decent weather.

Put my neck out yesterday, suffered all day and finally bit the bullet and took some pain killers last night and again this morning so I could get **** done. Me and pain killers no longer agree and I'm sure I'm gonna pay the price for it in the next few days.

So finally got the heads off, those exhaust manifold gasket bolts area PITA with those securing straps on the 2 outer bolts on head manifold. Basically had to cut each one/destroy em to get the bolts out. Look like all original studs, no broken ones either. A good start. Had another look at the intake manifold bolt holes, orange gasket goo on some, did someone try and fasten em down again at some stage?


Bores look ok, a bit of carbon buildup around the top of the bore but no lip, bores look good, can still see a bit of cross hatch here and there
Last cylinder on the drivers side was full of water, a bit of surface rust but nothing drastic and should clean up ok. looks like a bit of water damage in the bore but nothing substantial, can't feel anything with your finger nail.


Passenger side looks fine.

Heads look ok too. Nothing obvious other than a good coating of rust in the bad bore and some carbon buildup.

Time to inspect the head gaskets....

And I think we have a winner!



So I think the plan at this stage is to head into work this weekend, strip and clean the heads in the wash tank and inspect and then re-assemble. Might give the valves a quick lap and some new valve stem seals. Then start re-assembly. Still need to get some new head bolts, thinking I might go with cap screws rather than another OEM set of TTY head bolts and keep cleaning and re-assembling as I go.

The bad cylinder really does need a clean up of some sort. If the engine lives till the end of the year I think I'll pull it out, a quick hone, file the rings and she's ready for some boost.

Also, the plugs in it were BPR6EFS 15. Now I'm no expert but don't LPG cars normally run a smaller plug gap? All the plugs looked fine other than the contaminated one from the bad cylinder.

 

[losh1971]

I don't know that it matters with LPG. I used to run it and never bothered with narrower gaps and that engine was going strong after 320k. Only thing that killed it was a lack of water, but that's another story.......
Thing Ecos don't like when on gas is running low in the gas tank. They tend to backfire if gas is low. Where some other makes will just stall.

 

[EYY]

The smaller gapped plugs are only used to minimise the chance of backfire - it doesn’t make them run any differently. Not required where you have a good ignition system!

LPG vehicles do usually run one heat range cooler, but a 6 in a commodore on lpg is fine. If it were a 5 I’d be concerned if running lpg.

 

[Immortality]

Well, after a good soak overnight and a few hours elbow grease...

Valves still need a good polish. A bit of valve seat recession on the exhaust valves but otherwise not to bad I think.

My valve grinding paste was rock hard so I have a new tube on order, should be here in a day or 2. Ideally the exhaust valves need new seats cut and have the valves touched up but not going that far on this build.