Re: Restoring Rusty
 

took a day off work and hit the junk yard today, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a virgin 1999 Chevrolet Suburban that just go there three days ago on March 14th, 2016, the hood was not even opened yet, no one had pulled anything off of it yet

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

mileage was only 134,909 and the plugs looked good, I think it ended up there cause of power steering problems, when I took the belt off the power steering pump pulley came off with the belt, LOL, that may have been the straw that broke the camels back

so after checking the part number on the passenger side head - it was go time!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Gentlemen these heads looked great, someone was changing their oil every 3,000 miles, the valve train was super clean

had the first one off in just over 2 hours (in all fairness I was interrupted once by a dude wanting to borrow a pair of dikes, lol) it was for a gauge cluster for his '73 C10 so naturally I obliged

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so I decided to pull the second head as well, I thought if they both are good then I will be very happy knowing what ride they came off of, and that their wear and tear matches type of thing

45 minutes later, both fish were in the boat and ready for cleanin'

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

here comes the best part, I only paid $75 bucks for both heads, rockers and all

needless to say I left with a big smile on my face and fingers and toes crossed that these will turn out ok

Re: Restoring Rusty - THis is Not a Drill
 

hit the Cheap Chinese Tool store on the way home to pick up some more wire brushes for my drill

but this is not a Drill people we is going to clean these heads for real, LOL

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

when I came home and through these heads on the workbench they looked amazing, by far the cleanest set I have come across, and trust me I have seen a few lately, ha ha

they were clean and dry, no grime on them, you could even see the factory paint

best part is these are the newest heads of the bunch with a born on date of C 16 9 which is C=March Day=16 Year=1999

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

here's how the magic happens,

Third Verse
... same as the first
but a whole lot cleaner
and hopefully not the worst!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

The bottom of the valves look much better than the other group of heads you had.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

folks needless to say I have gotten better at disassembling these heads, what has taken me an hour per head, now takes 10 minutes, I kid you not

partly because I have learned / tried another old school way of removing the valve springs (now I knew about this but it don't work on old gunky heads)

here is all you need to remove valve springs

1. 11/16ths (or suitable socket)

2. 3 lbs sledge (or similar)

now you don't even have to whack the top of the spring with this, just bounce the hammer on it if you will, soft - hard - soft - hard, and the retainer fall right out

in my case the springs didn't even go flying across the garage they did nothing really, the retainers just fell of, and I lifter the springs with my hand and put them in a zip loc bag

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

and to the Head Cleaning Station (HCS)

(beers without injury - 1)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

man these heads cleaned up nice (and gentlemen, you know the effort we put in doing something, and then the effort we put in if we is forced to do it over, you know what I'm saying, well even with me giving it my full 72% these guys turned out great - ha ha)

(beers without injury - 2)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

by the way, the newer-er driver side Vortec Cylinder head (and I shall refer to them from here on out by their born on date C 16 9 passed the Eyecrometer / Flashlight inspection test.

VORTEC DRIVER SIDE CYLINDER HEAD C 16 9 NO CRACKS

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

The Love Affair with these new heads continues, just see how well they clean up, quickly too.

(beers without injury - 3)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

yes sir, I am very happy with these heads, though I must say I've earned it, ha ha

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

couple more before and after shots for you, as if you haven't seen me clean heads before, lol

check out that valve train, I literally have done nothing to it on purpose to show it off to you, I am so pleased with them, I didn't even bother removing the rockers off of this set, no need

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

the newer-er passenger side Vortec Cylinder head, born on date C 16 9 passed the Eyecrometer / Flashlight inspection test also

VORTEC PASSANGER SIDE CYLINDER HEAD C 16 9 NO CRACKS

(beers without injury - 4... I think)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

time to clean both heads, from start to finish... a little under an hour, hey I think I finally got a hang of this

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

but just to be sure (and since we already spent money on the SPOTCHECK) we shall Aexon Flux these guys...

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

scratch that I mean Magnaflux those guys

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Re: Restoring Rusty
 

so DIY Magnafluxing confirms no cracks in the Driver Side Vortec J 16 9 cylinder head

honestly I am still trying to get used to using this product, I've gotten better, in terms of creating less of a red mess, but I can still do a better job of wiping off the red dye before shooting the white developer

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

That looks like a K47 filter box for the AC1300C round filters. If it is... it's the best stock GMT400 Turbo Diesel filter GM made. There are people looking for those. They were also used on several Vortec motors. The box and fender mount is good barter material. Most yard trolls don't know that the Gasoline K47 airboxes can be used on the diesels. To them it's just an air filter housing. Don't educate them.

They flow very to extremely well without letting dirt through like the K&N oiled cotton filters.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

DIY Magnafluxing also confirms no cracks in the Passanger Side Vortec J 16 9 cylinder head

there, did a better job of using this product, finally, hope its the last head I have to use it on, ha ha

did I mention, I am in love with these heads!

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

someone asked me how do you clean the Magnaflux stuff off, well after it turns white, it becomes a sort of powder and I just use a brush to brush it off, comes off like chalk dust, then you could just go back to the SPOTCHECK cleaner and whipe them off, I assume this stuff is harmless and won't harm the metal, not sure what it do if/when it was to mix with engine oil

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

alright on to Phase 3 of Head Inspection

What on Earth is this guy up to now?

so we glue the 1000 fine grit paper to a nice flat solid (no flex) board of some sorts

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Hey I resemble that remark! I took it off and tossed it out of the way in the back of that Suburban, ha ha (at least I didn't just drop it on the gravel, I'm civilized after all)

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

we will be testing the heads to see if they are warped or if the surface is true in three different ways

1. use a metal straight edge and once again our trusty handy dandy flashlight, turn off some lights in your state of the art facility and see if the light of the flashlight will shine through underneath the strait edge while holding it flat on the cylinder head (this is not a perfect science) also not ideal in all areas of the surface only the ones solid underneath

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

2. use a metal straight edge and a feeler gauge and see what's the largest gauge you can slide under there, in the pic I was trying a .010 (10 thousandths of an inch) and no dice, actually I couldn't even slide in the thinnest one in the bunch - and that is good, move the straight edge around the head and try it in many different places

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

3. I make sure the head is level and using fine sand paper afixed to a flat board gently, under its own weight glide the sand paper board over the cylinderhead surface, remove board and see where contact has been made, the shinny spots are the high points,

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

you should get an even shine, my driver side head looks good as the same machining marks are highlighted through out all four chambers

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

you don't want your surface of the heads to smooth but you also don't want them to rough either.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

Actually you want them smooth. That is a terrible surface finish for a cylinder head. Factory was the worst for surface finish. The MLS (Multi Layer Steel) gaskets that are on everything now require a very smooth finish. There are actually meters that measure the Ra finish on a surface. A standard fel-pro gasket can handle a little rougher finish but you should have it smoother then that.

One other thing you need to think of. While you can't fit a feeler gauge under any part of the head you still have the highs and lows of that finish that a feeler gauge is not getting to. The minimum warp we tolerate is .003, but we have seen where we can measure .003 it would take almost double that just to get it to clean up.

Ok back to the story, this is entertaining. Congrats on a good set.

Oh one other thing. The process you are using is called DYE-CHECKING.
Magnufluxing would actually have a magnet used to detect a crack. Dye-check is used more for aluminum, But it has fallen by the waste side as it has not been a reliable source for shops to depend on. A wet mag is used to check cranks, rods, and there parts were the powder mag would not pic up or be reliable enough to get into the areas of stress. A dry mag is what we see on blocks and cylinder heads that are iron. The most for sure way to make sure there are no cracks to a water jacket is to pressure check.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I keep looking at one of the heads and see that a spot in the water jacket that looks like it is eroded out or ground out. Its on the spark plug side of the head, a middle cylinder. compare all the water jackets and you will see it. Its a round area. My concern is that area is getting very close to the fire ring of the gasket. Trust me on this when I say that is not good. shoot a picture if you can. maybe its just an illusion to me but all the pics look the same. I just can't see the impression of the fire ring.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

If it is what it looks like I'd go back and get it along with the mounting bracket. It should've had a round filter inside jammed over the end of a plastic elbow.
Guys ask $60 for just the housing.
You can sell it on evilbay or to someone here or on the Dieselplace forums. They flow better than any other factory airbox/filter for the 6.5L Turbo Diesel.
If you want a real good Cold Air Intake filter that won't flow just as much dirt as air get it for your truck. NAPA (WIX) and Fram equivalents to the AC1300C are around $24. Yes Fram makes very good air filters. I'm not so keen on their oil filters but their air filters are top shelf.

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I've been on the hunt for that style air filter maybe we could work out a deal greg

Re: Restoring Rusty
 

I didn't see that one coming. I figured you'd regroup and buy a new set. Congrats on getting some good ones. Can you return the cracked heads? Something you said earlier made me think you were stuck with them but not sure.