Cylinder head questions

[02blue]

Some of you might have seen mention of my project in some other threads and I thought it better to start a new one with the hope that some of you out there can offer advice or opinions as I progress through this process.

Background: 02 with 160k on motor, 80k from my use. Been an excellent vehicle and really hope to keep it a long time. I'd say it's my favorite of all the vehicles I've owned over the past 30+ years. I overheated three years ago due to a fan relay failure in traffic. Noticed temp gauge moving immediately but too late. Coolant low and boiling. Headgasket toast. Coolant in oil. Poured about 2/3 bottle of Bar's headgasket fix in upper rad hose and held until about a month ago. Slow loss of fluid. Figured now is the time. I've had some timing chain chatter and tapping up top in the cold this winter. Suspected some bottom noise but could never really nail that down. Most likely from the top end.

Pulled heads last week. First OHC I've messed with. Very uneven torque (tightness) with the large 1-8 headbolts. Both gaskets did look pretty bad but heads and bolts looked way better than I had anticipated and looks like the right side was the failure. Bolts will be replaced anyway. Also noticed some decent scratches in the right head's mating surface that may have made things worse. Must have been there from the factory since I never had them off and believe all is factory. Thought the Bar's would have made a mess but really not too bad. Currently waiting on a quote from a couple machine shops for resurfacing and/or rebuilding the heads. Have mostly OE stuff going back on.

I've come up with a few questions (for now) while cleaning things up a bit over the past couple evenings;

1. I've been following the FSM on the whole process. Getting things back together with the proper timing sounds reasonable but looks tricky now that I'm staring at it. So any non FSM tricks? If the crank is TDC and the V6's on the Cam sprockets are at 12 0'clock is this TDC on #1 exhaust? Assuming no but can you be off by 180?

2. Now that the heads are off, is there any way to diagnose the bottom end for "issues" without pulling the block? I mentioned some potential bottom end noise and saw TwoBobsKJ's thread about the dreaded knock. Really don't want to waste the opportunity to fix things now that I'm in this state of diassembly.

3. I've got some pictures of the block attached. Pre-cleaning so sorry about the mouse crap. I was planning on just cleaning things up with some carb cleaner. Sort of a Ford guy so usually use PM-3 for this type of cleaning. Any other suggestion? Based on the pictures, any opinions on bottom end? The heads looked okay but the pistons look worse than anticipated with maybe some evidence of coolant in there. Walls look very good and still have the factory mill pattern.

4. Finally (for now) I'm replacing the spongy secondary tensioners but could never figure out how to pin them. Not a big deal since they'll be replaced but would like to know. I tried compressing (as per FSM) but never found a point that I could slide the pin in.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[streetglideok]

Can't really comment on the pistons, I have seen a lot worse. From my experience, the cylinders with coolant leaking into them tend to have clean pistons.

Hard to tell much with the bottom end without the oil pan coming off and plastigaging the rod and main bearings as well as inspecting them.

As far as the timing marks, etc. TDC is top dead center on compression stroke when discussing timing. The cams will be what dictates if the piston is on the top of exhaust stroke or top of compression stroke. If bank 1 is properly identified, then both valves should be shut, with the exhaust lobe next in line to touch a valve on #1.

Not to confuse you, there are other engines that require the crank to be set back 45* from TDC when aligning marks(4.6L ford Windsor and Romeo engines for instance). 3.7L isn't like that however.

 

[02blue]

Thanks for the help!

I guess it's just more carbon on the pistons then I anticipated. Everything moves smooth and the walls look great. I'll try to remove as much as possible tomorrow. Spent a bunch of time today cleaning components that came off.

I think I'll have to take my chances on the bottom end. I really don't want to pull the block to drop the pan. Really have no evidence anything is bad down there.

As for the timing that's what I was hoping for. From my pics you can see I'm on a compression stroke on #1 so everything else depends on the cam and I can get that set when I get them back from the shop. I checked the left head and it looks like it's set as you've described. Course all the valves are shut as it's in a relaxed state.

Finally did figure out the tensioners. Just a matter of finding the right amount of compression and the pin set.

I did notice something about a plate behind the left tensioner in the FSM. Hope they mean the primary cause the secondary had no plate and I plugged up the openings to the pan before I started taking things apart so nothing could fall in. A plate back there would block the oil source for the tensioner too.

I'm looking forward to getting the heads back and putting it back together.

 

[02blue]

I made a couple of observations this morning that may be helpful to others out there. I was doing some cleaning and bagging/labeling some hardware this morning and noticed the left tensioner does have a plate stuck to the back. Haven't pried it off yet but it is there. Looks to be some thin restrictor plate since they are oil driven.

Also the protocol for the TTY procedure in my 02 FSM has an interesting typo. Looks like they plagarized from the 4.7 FSM. The images are okay but the text talks about 14 bolts. 1-10 being the 90 then 90. 11-14 being the small guys. Of course for the 3.7 the TTYs are 1-8.
Thought it was funny but if someone blindly follows it they'll be way off on what we 3.7 guys have as the small 9 and 10 bolts.
hmmm.gif

 

[02blue]

Is it okay to use Permatex Ultra grey on the TC cover? I could get the Mopar but I have the Permatex.