Me again, and the brick is sicker than I originally thought.

I got myself a new plug on Wednesday, having been stuck in Singleton since Sunday night. I'd done my homework by contacting our family mechanic in Sydney for some advice on how to put the thing in, so I armed myself with a 4lb hammer and some High temp sealant and got to work.

First thing I did was to pull the exhaust out of the way, I removed the headers and dropped the hangers under the car, then I pried out the stupid welsh plug that the local NRMA had convinced me i needed. Being me, I pulled the old plug out and dropped it straight down the now exposed exhaust pipe.

I undid the clamp holding the pipe onto the expansion box (no catalytic converer, australia didn't go unleaded till '86) and hit the thing with my new hammer until it gave in. with that done, I dragged the pipe out and tipped the welsh plug out of it. This gave me lots of space to work on my expansion plug hole.

A bit of sealant around it, and it took a couple of good hits to seal nicely. I reasembled my exhaust system. Then I topped up the cooling system. No more leaking plug. It was time for the proper test.

I put everything back the way it was supposed to be, mixed up some coolant and started filling it. I gave my starter solinoid a good whack with a breaker bar and turned the motor over. Coolant blew straight out the filler cap. I took the filler cap off and saw the vapour steaming off it. I sniffed it, and there was that familar smell of gasoline.

I pulled out a spark plug to confirm my suspicions, and it was covered it green goo. At this point I think I actually cried. A years work on rebuilding the car and I blew the head off on it's first trip. It's completely my fault, I just drove it too hard while I was running in the new head gasket. I was going to pull it down again and retorque the head bolts when I got to college, but it didn't quite get that far.


I looked at some options, such as having it repaired in Singleton ($350 just for the labour, and I'd still need pressure testing and resurfacing, a tow to college or back home would be somewhere in the region of $600.

But all was not lost. My grandpa, who has managed to get everything from custom battery trays to free towing just by knowing the right people came through for me. He rang up his colleagues in Singleton Rotary club and two men came to see me. Ted was a retired fitter and turner, later civil engineer, Tom had a front yard where I'd could work on my van. They brought a Toyota landcruiser and towed me out.

So I got to work pulling down the head with borrowed tools (I don't carry a head bolt spanner in the car). I was also introduced to Dave, a retired mechanic who'd owned 5 Volvos and loaned me a Volvo factory green book and promised to help me retime the motor if need be.

It took 5 hours, stopping for lunch, to get the head off. I could clearly see where I'd blown the gasket between the water jacket and the combustion chamber. I packed the head into a crate and took it on the bus with me back to college last night. I'll have it pressure tested then, if it's salvagable, resurfaced. Once I've had the head fixed, I'll get on the bus, reassemble the motor and drive back to Armidale.

There are some very good people in this world, and the good people of Singleton probably just saved my brick. Meanwhile I've got a cylinder head on my desk at college, which makes me right at home.
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Drive it like you hate it