possible Head Gasket Issue?

[ORCoaster]

You can dry the IP off best you can with a towel and spray some brake cleaner on it.  It seems to leave a very dry surface.  Then start the car and only run it a little bit.  With a strong light on the IP look for a shiny wet surface.  O-rings that leak most are big on in back between the head and body of the pump.  Cold start lever behind pump.  Use a mirror for that one maybe.  Then the cover up front on the advance.  Topside is the cover to body gasket and the O ring around the throttle lever.   

[R.O.R-2.0]

gotcha on the gasket...
 The injection pump started dripping a ways back....
hard to see were is drips from... wish I could
fix that leak too when I do the head gasket.
  Any tips on determining leak locations....
What is the name of the part of the pump
where the lines to the injectors branch out from...
I was thinking maybe there is an o-ring there....

AND when you disconnect the lines are you
disconnecting them from the pump when you lift
the head? seems to me that is the case...

thanks!

your gonna have to dry the pump off, and get it nice and clean, then look from where the diesel is leaking from the pump..

or you could try and use some magic spell to try and find the leak, but i think that cleaning the pump, and using your god given eyes to locate the leak is your best bet..

the part of the pump that the inj lines attach to, is called the distribution head (pump head, distributor, many different names)

when removing the head, disconnect the lines from the pump AND the injectors.. they come off as an assembly, and are easily removed and re-attached.

there IS an o-ring that seals the pump head to the pump body, and it often times leaks..

the seal CAN be replaced with the seal on the car, but you have to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL, and follow the directions word for word..

if you dont follow the directions for doing the seal in the car, to a TEE, the insides of the pump fall out of the spots they are supposed to be, and then you have to pull the pump off the car, and put the rollers back in the roller cage, line up the plunger, and make sure the cam plate is in the right spot as well..

myself personally, i take the pump off the car to replace any seal besides the timing spring cover, or the top cover gasket.. having the pump off the car, standing upright (4 high pressure fuel ports pointing up) in a vice or holding fixture, because half the time something goes wrong and the pump falls apart and needs to be removed to be correctly re-assembled anyways..

the first time i tried replacing the seal with the pump on the car, i ended up tearing the seal, and eventually, i snapped the pump rotor as well..

so, after replacing the pump head with another one (the head and rotor are a MATCHED SET, no exceptions) and getting yet another pump head seal, i finally got it all fixed up, and running again..

for your first time replacing the pump head seal, i would DEFINITELY remove the pump from the bracket, unless you are SUPER CONFIDENT in your mechanical abilities..

im a GOOD mechanic, and i still pull the pump most of the time to replace seals..

[theman53]

I think for me personally I wouldn't do a head gasekt the way 8v and others have. There could be a number of things going on in that head that you won't ever see. Cracked head into the coolant passage is one. You could put all the HG in the world on, but if it is cracked into the coolant passage you will not get it sealed. Flipping the head over and checking it to be straight would be nice too. Plus I run studs, so I wouldn't want to take them all out just to slip a gasket under.

[nwcali6]

I think for me personally I wouldn't do a head gasekt the way 8v and others have. There could be a number of things going on in that head that you won't ever see. Cracked head into the coolant passage is one. You could put all the HG in the world on, but if it is cracked into the coolant passage you will not get it sealed. Flipping the head over and checking it to be straight would be nice too. Plus I run studs, so I wouldn't want to take them all out just to slip a gasket under.

  I'd be afraid when I pulled the old one out I pulled in a piece of dirt.. or pulled in something when I slid in the new one.. How would you even get the gasket to slide in without pulling the head off pretty far?

  If you don't have the tools to set the timing I'd say this job isn't for you anyways.  Not to mention when you have it off you can have a look at the lip on the bore (which would give you an indication to bore wear).  Call me crazy, but its pretty easy to pull the head off and look around, than it is to pull it off twice.. If nothing is wrong, you have a little more time, and half the money.  If something is wrong you have less time with less money.

[Dakotakid]

The last three posts tell it all and accurately.
The rest are a loss of electrons.
Additionally, that block deck should be cleaned and checked for flatness.

[8v-of-fury]

The last three posts tell it all and accurately.
The rest are a loss of electrons.
Additionally, that block deck should be cleaned and checked for flatness.

This man has all the answers. It is ideal to do it by the book, but not always necessary.

[theman53]

Most times it is nessesary though. Most everytime a shortcut is taken on these engines it usually results in a bad outcome. I just personally wouldn't do it is all. All the HG I have put on that were failed were not because of coolant, but the pressure section of the oil passage in front of the head. When I have leaks or if I had pressure I would rather know what is going on. That said if some feel lucky they 'could' take a shortcut.

My post was more to show that all ideas are welcomed and to help it from becoming an 8 person forum that the rest have to bow down to. Seems like a ton of people here and very few of us comment. We should welcome ideas, even yours 8v, even when they are wrong it could lead to a good discussion. Minus some of the NintendoKD's discussions everyone has some good stuff once in a while.

[ORCoaster]

An 8 person forum?  Would that actually be a dual forum then? 2 by 4?

[R.O.R-2.0]

I think for me personally I wouldn't do a head gasekt the way 8v and others have. There could be a number of things going on in that head that you won't ever see. Cracked head into the coolant passage is one. You could put all the HG in the world on, but if it is cracked into the coolant passage you will not get it sealed. Flipping the head over and checking it to be straight would be nice too. Plus I run studs, so I wouldn't want to take them all out just to slip a gasket under.

ive seen more head gaskets replaced because they didnt seal, when just slipping a new gasket under, and not actually removing the head..

unless you are 100% POSITIVE that it is ONLY the gasket that let go, and there is no chance the head is cracked, then i would MAYBE attempt to slip a new gasket in there, but probably not..

it only takes like another HALF HOUR to pull the head clear off, and be able to turn it over and check that its flat, and not cracked..

like Lucas already mentioned, if your head is cracked, you could throw every single head gasket in the world in that engine, and it will NEVER seal if there are cracks somewhere..

[TylerDurden]

Even if it takes hours, it is good to know what is lurking in there.

[8v-of-fury]

This is all very true.

I like to cut corners, because my time is worth more than money. haha

I was merely giving the shade tree mechanic opinion, take it for what its worth.