1/4/13
Blown Head Gasket, and Suspension Bushings

A GTC that has been with the same family for over 25 years is back at our shop. Francois rebuilt the engine on this car many years ago, and recently the engine seemed to have suffered a blown head gasket from some over heating, but we’ll have to look closely at the clues.

There is probably only about 30K miles since the rebuild, but something happened recently that caused the headgasket to blow.

The mayonnaise inside the engine was not pretty!

When I took the valves out, I could definitely see some signs of overheating and coolant on the 1-3 valves, but especially on the #2 exhaust valve.

The valve stem seals are the older type, but they’re still available, so we’re going to put in a new set since the engine is apart.

We’ll have to check the heads for flatness, but so far I didn’t see any cracks or catastrophic damage. The seats and guides all look brand new, but I’ll do a valve job to make sure all the seating surfaces are clean and leak free.

We’ll have to clean out the oil pan and the rest of the engine to get rid the coolant that mixed in with the oil, but so far so good.

As I put the Yale’s 330 suspension together, I found the silent block bushings worn and loose, so I ordered new ones.

Francois warned me that getting the old bushings out was going to be near impossible with his hand operated press. Even if we had the right sized collar to press the whole bushing out it was going to take a lot of pressure. He suggested cutting the outer shell of the bushing out to make it easier to press out, so I brought my sawzall to work to make quick work of the cutting, but the smell of burning rubber was something else!

The new bushings have a larger center collar, but fit perfectly in the locating arm.

Reminder: If you have a Ferrari related project, car, or idea you’d like to explore, I’d love to talk to you. I can also help if you’re thinking of buying or selling. This website represents what I love to do, and now it’s how I make a living, so if you’d like to do something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!

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