Sorry to ask but I don't want to do this job again. Looking at the picture, how clean and bright does the block have to be, and if better than this, what product to use? I'm reading bad things about scotch bright and the aluminum oxide it may contain. Maybe that's just for aluminum vice cast iron. Further, is it wise to move the piston off TDC prior to installing the gasket and head? For a previous post, yes MMO does soften up the carbon, thanks.

 

I don't know the answer but I never have asked, why did you take the heads off in the first place?

 

Annoying loss of coolant, no obvious leaks. I think I was/am consuming it, but not enough to get the billowy white smoke or clearly water blasted clean plugs. So there I am, doing a head gasket job.

 

You can move the crankshaft all you want so long as you put the locking pin back in with the cylinder closest to the firewall on the passengers side in TDC (this is a little off topic but this is apparently Cylinder #1 yet it's numbered as #3 on the coils). IIRC there are marks on the crankshaft pulley at TDC and BDC and the lock pin goes almost all the way in at BDC too. At least enough to cause some confusion to me.

If you've been having any oil consumption you might take this opportunity to soak the pistons themselves with the MMO that you used on the tops of the pistons. I now wish I had done this when I had my heads off as the source of my oil consumption appears to be a stuck piston ring (or worse yet a broken ring) in Cylinder #4 (according to the coil #s)

I am going to do this with the heads on by pouring through the spark plug holes but you could pour some MMO over top of the pistons that are sitting low overnight taking care to submerge them completely. If it goes past the rings it will find its way out the oil drain plug. if not, just siphon or turkey baster it out and repeat on the other pistons.

Theoretically this will help to remove any gunk inside the piston ring grooves (both compression rings and oil ring) and ensure a tight seal with the rings.

The stuff's cheap and crankcase friendly so you don't really have anything to lose right?

I will be giving my Cylinder #4 a full dose over the weekend likely followed by an oil change just to be sure i don't get too much in the mix as I put 8 oz in the crankcase through the oil filler hole earlier this week.

see my oil saga on the 12v forum...

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2794189