Headgasket Chronicles: We struck oil!

I know, it's been a while.

I'll blame the holidays instead of my fear of actually getting inside this engine.

Yeah, that sounds better.  Where were we?

Oh yeah. 

I was battling the Y-bridge.

So, I had some hard to reach bolts. 

There are four bolts on the front and four more hidden in the back.

10mm ratchet and extension with a wobble socket extension and a lot of cursing.

And I mean a LOT of cursing. There is a rigid fuel line that runs right under the turbo, which is directly in the way.

Stick with it, it will come off.

Eventually.

Guess what I found?  Guess.

Looks like a mouse nest.

Evil mouse built it's nest partially from dead spiders.

Shortly after, I found the little dead mouse body in the garage.  It was either the car, or the antifreeze that spilled. Either way.

But, man, there is so much disgusting to clean up. 

I'll get there, probably.

Next up, the injectors.

The injector is the gun, the hold-down is the scope.

 The injectors came out much easier than I expected. Just unbolt the hold down and then use a screwdriver to pry it out.  These things need to be cleaned or something.

Seriously, these things are terrible.

I don't know how much was there and how much got one during removal.

Then it was time to pull the glow plugs.They came out with no fuss. 

The weather took a turn for the worse about this time.  The days are cold and the garage is unheated at the moment. Working on metal parts sucks when you can see your breath.


For some reason, several pictures are missing from the camera.  I don't know where they went.  You will just have to imagine the valve-cover gasket removal process.  It went pretty easily. There were two bolts that were a real pain in the ass on the driver's side, rear.  They required actual allen wrenches, using the short end. Nothing else would fit in there.  And more cursing.  Lots more cursing.

Engine guts. Not for the squeamish.

Almost there. The driver's side valve cover was a pain too because the steering column gets in the way. Oh yeah, and two fuel lines.  One of the push rods came loose from a rocker arm when I banged it. I hope there was no permanent damage.

Damn, it almost sounded like I knew what the hell I was talking about there for a second.

The pain in the ass fasteners in questions. Lots of room in there.

More guts. Avert your eyes. Not much room in the back there.

Then I worked on the exhaust manifold.  The bolts were hard to get to and on there pretty good.  I used the breaker bar and a 17mm socket. I used a regular and deep-well impact socket as the case demanded. 

Bolts were tight, but came right out.

Ran out of parts bin space.

The driver's side was a little different.

Slightly different view.

 Eventually, it relented, and I got the bolts out.  Mostly. This was a huge, time-consuming pain. I had to disconnect the steering column just to reach one of the bolts.  Oh yeah, and one of the studs stayed in. I'm not sure yet what I am going to to when it comes time to take the actual head off. We will see.

Yeah, there was just no room.

I managed to get one of the rocker bar things off before Sarah came and got me. Coffee was ready and I was cold and tired.  Enough for one day. 

Trying to remember which bolt goes where. That might be important. Not sure.

 So I left it unfinished. I figured I could take my time. I work the next three days and the shop that will test the head wasn't open over the holidays anyway. 

Suckers are almost off.