When I first purchased the van from a cabinet maker who was selling it and closing his business to start his "ministry" I noticed that it was a little low on coolant. A month or so after buying it, the same condition reared its head again. Now, at first mention of starting a ministry, I should have run away, but the van was an extended version and it fit my needs at the time.
The first symptom of this head problem is a mysterious loss of coolant. I don't have a paved parking space, so I just figured it was leaking somewhere or there was an intake leak and re-filled it. Well, after about 6 months, I started investigating further and looking for other folks with this problem. It seems, the coolant loss is just the tip of this iceberg.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th symptoms are odd oil pressure fluctuation, white puffs of smoke on cold start, and lifter noise. These may switch places and, if you're really lucky, may all happen at the same time. The coolant loss is happening because there are cracks in the head near the machined land where the head bolts cinch down on the head. The coolant seeps into the oil from up near the rockers, then circulates through the engine. The water in the coolant boils off, then the leftover stuff is held in the oil. The oil can only hold so much of it though and that is when you get the oil pressure fluctuations and lifter noise. The oil with waaayyy too much glycol in it becomes a gelatinous sludge. This sludge clogs the pick up screen in the pan and the oil filter, so you'll get odd oil pressure gauge readings that come and go. Given the reliability issues with GM clusters, you might think, as I did, that the gauge is going bad. Don't be fooled by this though, this is the final bell that tells you that you're about to be in for some real trouble.
About this time, you'll notice some lifter noises that don't sound like ticks any longer....it can be a full blown clanking noise. That's what happens when the sludge hits the oil gallery that feeds the lifters and the rest of the upper part of the valve train. I got out my stethoscope and found that the right bank of my engine was making the most noise, so I popped the valve cover off to confirm what I feared. Yup, sludge in the valve cover, most of the push rods and rockers were shot, several lifters had begun to come apart, and there was a puddle of dex-cool near one of the bolts. Shit.
Next thing to do was to pull the other side to confirm that it was both sides puking... and it was. I did some more web searching and was able to find a company called Cylinder Heads International. The reman heads are $175 each and you need to have the 3 digit code that's stamped onto a flat ear on the heads just outside the valve cover surface on one end. Mine were 862. The heads arrived just in time for me to realize that I'd forgotten to remind myself to take out the dowels like I said that I would - see Summit parts list.
For the other parts, I found a set of used rockers, lifters, and push rods on eBay and Summit Racing was good for the rest of the stuff. Normally I try to buy locally, but Summit had all of the parts and wasn't charging two prices for the head gaskets like the local Blue &Yellow, Irish, and the Zone were. Below is the list of stuff that I'm in for on this deal. I added plugs and wires since the van hasn't had them done in a while.
Now, to stuff it all together and see what I've missed.
$390 Cylinder Heads http://www.headsonly.com/
$310 Summit Racing (free shipping) http://www.summitracing.com/
$120 eBay (Rockers, Pushrods, Lifters)
