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Obviously I couldn’t get the engine up to “normal operating temp” because it runs so rough. I did the compression test today. Happy that I now know I bent some valves instead of loosing my mind wondering why the timing belt was screwing with me. I knew I had it lined up but I guess the damage was already done..
Got some pretty scary results. Next step will be to pull the whole top ends off to the machine shop.. #5 #1 Results #4 #3 #6 #2
From the looks of things you should have a fine running engine once you get the heads redone/replaced, as the compression readings in the good cylinders are very good. Take pictures of everything before you start turning bolts, that way you will have a very good reference to consult, if you aren't sure how things go back together. Taking the heads off is the easy part, reinstalling them in the correct manner just takes some time/knowledge, when tightening down the head bolts. It can be rather easy to snap a head bolt off, if you are using a big 1/2" drive torque wrench. Get access to a good torque wrench so torquing the head bolts portion of the job is done right. Do not tighten the head bolts until you are sure of this procedure and understand it completely. It sure isn't rocket science and take you time, doing the job correctly the first time around. The turtle hare thing. I believe you can get an head gasket set from Mahle that has all of the gaskets, valve stem seals and head bolts all in 1 box ready to go. Bring the new valves, valve stem seals and heads to the reputable auto machine shop and let them take it from there.
If you do the math when the crankshaft is spinning at 7,000 RPM that means the camshafts are spinning at 3,500 RPM. Divide 3,500 RPM camshaft speed by 60 seconds in a minute would mean the intake and exhaust valves are opening and closing at 58 times a second. When mechanical objects are traveling at that rate close tolerances are usually needed and thousands of an inch count for a lot. It doesn't take much to bend a intake/exhaust valve to the point where the heads need to get redone.
Are you going to pull the heads yourself? If so, would you post pics of the combustion chamber? Both heads and cylinders. Carefully inspect the pistons to see of there are any dents or gouges.
Stay away from garbage cheap gasket sets that have head bolts, valves, all gaskets, along with valve seals for a ridiculous price that can be found online. 1 example of this type of garbage is Performance Parts gasket sets, which used car dealers love to use. You do get what you pay for and use quality valves and gaskets in your project. When it is too good to be true....... Since the valves got bent from the engine being hand cranked over, the valves shouldn't have done any damage to the piston nor the combustion chamber, since the engine didn't grenade from valve float, with the engine running. Mr. Saudade astutely points out, that it is best to check everything twice, especially if you are preforming maintenance on very high performance machines. I like to use American made products and have never had a problem with QualCast valves, made in Music City TN. They are slightly more expensive then most options out there, but their pieces are made from quality alloys and not made as cheap as possible from over yonder.
Yea I plan on removing the heads myself. It’s going to be a job to say the least…and with the weather getting colder it’s going to be even more fun. I’ll probably start by removing the headers. I have DC sport headers I put in a few years back with a Highflow cat and ATLP cat-back exhaust. Fingers crossed the bolts won’t be to bad but by the look of them it’ll be a great time Going to start working on it tomorrow or all this weekend basically. If the piston(s) have some touch marks on them but no damage they should be good to go I’m assuming? Obviously I cannot conduct a leak test until the valves are in order which sucks..
Stay away from garbage cheap gasket sets that have head bolts, valves, all gaskets, along with valve seals for a ridiculous price that can be found online. 1 example of this type of garbage is Performance Parts gasket sets, which used car dealers love to use. You do get what you pay for and use quality valves and gaskets in your project. When it is too good to be true....... Since the valves got bent from the engine being hand cranked over, the valves shouldn't have done any damage to the piston nor the combustion chamber, since the engine didn't grenade from valve float, with the engine running. Mr. Saudade astutely points out, that it is best to check everything twice, especially if you are preforming maintenance on very high performance machines. I like to use American made products and have never had a problem with QualCast valves, made in Music City TN. They are slightly more expensive then most options out there, but their pieces are made from quality alloys and not made as cheap as possible from over yonder.
I always splurge and try and get the best quality parts for sure. I don’t know much about gaskets and valves though. Any links to some good products ? I’ll need 2 head gaskets valve cover gasket set. Should I bother with the intake gaskets or just reuse them? I’ve been ordering some parts for rock auto lately. I feel like they have good stuff if your willing to pay..
This guy here makes working on vehicles, especially 20 year old cars much easier. A real time saver and a worth while investment if you are going to be working on your car. I bought mine separate and the batteries, charger in another deal. The batteries are the big money aspect and sometimes pays to look around to see what is out there. Snap On just dumped a bunch of their 3/8" drive deep 6 point metric impact socket sets from their stocks into the marketplace and I snatched up a new 14 piece set for under 180.00.
I always splurge and try and get the best quality parts for sure. I don’t know much about gaskets and valves though. Any links to some good products ? I’ll need 2 head gaskets valve cover gasket set. Should I bother with the intake gaskets or just reuse them? I’ve been ordering some parts for rock auto lately. I feel like they have good stuff if your willing to pay..
You never want to reuse gaskets, unless you are in real dire straits. All gaskets including 2 head gaskets/valve cover gaskets for example, all O rings and valve stems will be included in a quality head gasket set. Rock auto parts is a great place to get your parts from and I use them a lot. If you put those headers in the car, you sure have the ability to do the head R&R work.
Wrong impact model link. This is the one you want with 600 ft lbs of torque to break most everything loose. Doesn't work on all crank harmonic bolts, but sure does work on everything else. Do not use on full power when tightening down fasteners, all it could ruin your day quickly.
Wrong impact model link. This is the one you want with 600 ft lbs of torque to break most everything loose. Doesn't work on all crank harmonic bolts, but sure does work on everything else. Do not use on full power when tightening down fasteners, all it could ruin your day quickly.
It is a really awesome tool, as it replaces air impact guns and generates more torque then most1/2" drive air impact guns. I use the larger 1/2" impact on inrail engine overhauls in class 8 trucks. Small size, bright LED White lights on the front which does come in handy from time to time and breaks loose fasteners quickly. The frustration factor is lessened tremendously and helps to keep your blood pressure in check. Air impact tools are a thing of the past. I sold all of my Snap On impact guns and was glad to get the money. You can get deals on the pieces separately. A 3.0 battery will last all day and them some. I had a gift certificate at Northern Tools and I bought just the gun there. I then looked around and found a good deal on a 3.0 battery charger setup online and snagged it. A great investment for the tool box.
I checked out the last link you sent me. 350 for each head. Do you know of anyone who’s ever ordered from this website before? I’m curious of what the quality of the valves and seals would be on these head. Says five year warranty seems pretty good to me.
I checked out the last link you sent me. 350 for each head. Do you know of anyone who’s ever ordered from this website before? I’m curious of what the quality of the valves and seals would be on these head. Says five year warranty seems pretty good to me.
The Wholesale Powertrain link I got was from an Eric the car guy video, awhile back, when he was doing a promo trans replacement on one of his cars using this company, so I bookmarked it for potential use.
The Odesa or cylinder-heads.com one I found with a J32A2 cylinder head google search one day. They have an ebay store as well; however, they charge more than their actual website page. I mainly kept it because they are local to me in the state of Florida.
The last one, cylinderhead.com was also a 'bookmarked' link found during a J32A2 cylinder head google search for the reasons that you state, though I never ordered from them or any of the others.
I just kept them to have a starting place in case I ever needed a source on day.
I checked out the last link you sent me. 350 for each head. Do you know of anyone who’s ever ordered from this website before? I’m curious of what the quality of the valves and seals would be on these head. Says five year warranty seems pretty good to me.
When you are calling around to sellers who are offering up replacement heads there are a few questions to ask them. You need to know what the core charge is for each head. When you order up rebuilt heads the seller of the piece usually wants your old heads back and charges you a deposit on the piece, until it gets returned. The returned head has to be in "rebuild" condition and if not the seller will keep you core money. A lot of less then honest machine shops, especially if not local to you will try this tactic to squeeze more money from you. Check out shipping charges as you will have to pay shipping for the new heads coming to you and for sending the old heads back to the seller. Shipping charges aren't cheap these days. There is nothing wrong with rebuilt heads if they are done correctly. New valve guides installed where needed, usually gets left out in cheap head rebuilds as installing new valve guides does take some time, machine work. Call around to your local auto machine shops and get their pricing for doing the needed rebuild work. With online heads you have no idea about the quality of the parts in the rebuilt head or if the rebuild work is done correctly. That 5 year warranty sends great, until you have to pull the FUBAR head off and have to preform the head repair work all over again. If you go over to the big auction site you can find replacement valve sets from around 60.00 to 160.00 plus. Acura uses very good parts in their factory builds which is 1 reason why the cars are so good. A new head for the TL is about 1,895.44 from APW and the factory intake valves look to be about 24.00 a piece. If you are going to keep the car sometimes it pays to invest the money into known quality parts and have no problems in the future.
Taking out broken studs and bolts is an art form of sorts and sometimes best to leave it to folks who deal with these types of problems all of the time. You have to break eggs to make an omelet.
Center punch and then left-hand drills. Start with 1/8 and go up. Al bolts that I have to deal with go out in no time last 10 years or so. Tbh I do not have much to deal with it as I'm spraying everything with Cosmoline, Fluid film, Cold galvanizing. For manifold I use Cold galvanizing.
I checked out the last link you sent me. 350 for each head. Do you know of anyone who’s ever ordered from this website before? I’m curious of what the quality of the valves and seals would be on these head. Says five year warranty seems pretty good to me.
Our cars go to the junkyard usually because of bad transmissions. So heads at junkyards should be good. Generally it is not big job to pull heads off if you already removed timing belt.
Our cars go to the junkyard usually because of bad transmissions. So heads at junkyards should be good. Generally it is not big job to pull heads off if you already removed timing belt.
I got down to this yesterday. Almost there. The front head looks way better than the rear.
Hey timbo, I see your located in CA, any chance your near Redding CA?.. if you are, you might be in for a wonderful surprise. Come see me.. . I have parts.. if your near by, I prefer you try me before heading to the junk yard.
Center punch and then left-hand drills. Start with 1/8 and go up. Al bolts that I have to deal with go out in no time last 10 years or so. Tbh I do not have much to deal with it as I'm spraying everything with Cosmoline, Fluid film, Cold galvanizing. For manifold I use Cold galvanizing.
My easy outs are sitting gathering dust, since I usually will MIG weld a smaller diameter bolt to the broken bolt/stud to remove it when possible. For those real deep broken bolts, a Utub video producer does have a very clever way of getting those rascals out. YMMV.
^^^ At forum for my F250 99 LD a commentator said if you go to Ford dealership for exhaust manifold gasket replacement and a bolt broke at manifold they would charge 1500$ for extraction at top of price for replacement. Would not take me more than 1/2 hour to drill it out with left hand drills. Even if do damage to threads should be easy to rethread. I do not doubt that dealer do not spend more than 1/2 hour at it too.
Nice work Timbo, your TL will be up and running very well soon.
Thanks. Fingers crossed. I got all the bolts off the exhaust headers already. Nothing broke thankfully. Just gotta drain the head, oil and remove the side coolant housing unit. Then tackle the head bolts and they should be out of there.
^
Just curious, have you made the command decision on which route you are going on replacement heads?
Local rebuild
or
Procure from an online rebuilder.
^
Just curious, have you made the command decision on which route you are going on replacement heads?
Local rebuild
or
Procure from an online rebuilder.
I don’t have a final decision yet. The plan is to pull the heads flip them over and see how they look. I’m a little weary of ordering some online. Might just see how many valves I need, get them ordered from Acura and bring to the machine shop. Might cost a little more but I least I know I got genuine parts. We’ll see though.
Before you buy anything, get parts from me, I have a whole, j32a2 motor, j32a1 motor, also j35a8 motors outside. Parts of the motor might be good. Depending on how much this fix is going to cost you, it will most likely be cheaper coming to me. Maybe just get Heads my j32a2 and use that… This will be the last time I will bring it up.. sorry to bug you about it.. I might charge you a pack of smokes… lol.. but whatever you need. It’s all yours or to anybody reading this post.. I work a lot, so might not get to a response from me right away.
Before you buy anything, get parts from me, I have a whole, j32a2 motor, j32a1 motor, also j35a8 motors outside. Parts of the motor might be good. Depending on how much this fix is going to cost you, it will most likely be cheaper coming to me. Maybe just get Heads my j32a2 and use that… This will be the last time I will bring it up.. sorry to bug you about it.. I might charge you a pack of smokes… lol.. but whatever you need. It’s all yours or to anybody reading this post.. I work a lot, so might not get to a response from me right away.
Thanks for the offer but I’m 2800 miles north up here in Canada.Little to far😂
Oh dang, I thought CA(Canada) meant California, boy was I wrong. Well, I’ll see how much it is to ship it to you. Don’t worry, I’m not expecting any money from you. … (what are my motives here, you ask, well, it a pain in the butt and these cars are getting old, even though I love them to death, I no longer have my CL-S, parts are just sitting out in the weather with very minimal coverage and parts might still be good. Iono, you kinda get the picture, if your interested, I am willing to help you out. Thats all.. lol… what a drama of a post.. to who ever is reading this that needs Parts, hit me up, I have an acura 2002 CL-P (silver), J32a2 motor/transmission. 2005 Acura RL(white) and a motor j35a8 motor. 4 motors total and 2 shells with full interior. . I have to clean the yard soon, all this is going to go to waste..
Last edited by Dee Saelee; 11-23-2022 at 03:18 AM.
Cylinder 1 is where I got a 0 on the compression test.
Then on the other head I got a 52 in the middle one (#5) but I can’t see the bend in it.. must be a slight bend.
I’ll drop them off at the machine shop this week.
Dang! That s***s but it is what was expected after the compression readings. Since you have it apart now it's a good time to check the rear motor mount. Make sure it holds a vacuum. Should be details in the manual. If it doesn't hold a vacuum right now it is easy to reach.
If you don't mind, what is the machine shop charging?
Dang! That s***s but it is what was expected after the compression readings. Since you have it apart now it's a good time to check the rear motor mount. Make sure it holds a vacuum. Should be details in the manual. If it doesn't hold a vacuum right now it is easy to reach.
If you don't mind, what is the machine shop charging?
Yea I’ve been thinking about that mount. I’m going to check it out for sure and replace it if needed. I gotta pay for a cleaning and Inspection first they said. 100 bucks for that. Then hourly I’ll have to ask the rate.
11-17-2022, 01:56 PM
Going to start working on it tomorrow or all this weekend basically. If the piston(s) have some touch marks on them but no damage they should be good to go I’m assuming? Obviously I cannot conduct a leak test until the valves are in order which sucks..
