[TR] Update on TR3A from 2 weeks ago

Alex ambritts at bellsouth.net
Sat Dec 10 19:19:34 MST 2011


Today a friend and I pulled the head on my 59 TR3.

 This is the car with the condensation on the carbs, oil dripping from the
engine vent tube and the cloud of white smoke out the back upon
acceleration..

Here's what we found by pulling the head off.
  1.. The head bolts appeared to be very loose compared to what force it took
to torque the head bolt to 105 lbs. To torque we did this in three passes
starting at 40 lbs then 70 then 105 lbs.
  2.. The head itself lifted right up after applying a large screw driver
under the thermostat housing. After wedging a flat screw driver between the
head and the block at the rear of the head, (distributor side) the whole head
was free. Lifted it right off. NO string, or pounding or difficulty at all.
  3.. The head gasket appeared not to be damaged anywhere.
  4.. The sleeves showed a gap to the block from anywhere between .000" and
.006", with the average around .005"
  5.. The cylinder walls were super clean with no marking anywhere. Still had
nice cross hatching from the hone.
  6.. The # 3 cylinder with the 55-60 lbs compression showed that the intake
valve was wet....with gas/oil. Took this one out and inspected the seat.
Perfectly clean. Cleaned up the bottom and top of the valve and reinstalled.
  7.. All valves looked normal.
  8.. The book calls for coating the gasket with wellseal. Used blue hylomar
by permatex.
So we cleaned the head and block deck. Installed a new head gasket after
applying hylomar to both sides of the gasket. Torgued the head. Tomorrow we
will install the valve train and check compression to see if there is any
improvement in #3 cylinder.

Our initial belief is the head was not torqued to spec. We'll see tomorrow.

Note-hylomar at Advanced Auto sells for $11.99 per 1-1/2oz tube. They are
discontinuing it and is now on sale for $1.98/tube. That is if they have it.
Had to go to two store.

Stay tuned.....
Alex Manzo
59 TR3A


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