roninjiro

cylinder 1-5-6 look funny when i pulled the head. might explain low power, and slight backfire. anyone have any idea as to what is wrong?http://members.cardomain.com/roninjiro look under looks odd.

icice9

low power and back fire can be a leaking exhaust manifold.. that can also cause a lot of carbon deposit in your cylindes.. the pic with cylinder #1 with all that oil can be from a bad valve seal... but otehr than that it doesnt look too bad. it looks rebuildable..

Bleach

That dark soot looks wrong on cylinders 2 through 6. Might be running too rich. Cylinder #1 with the oil isn't good either.

roninjiro

bad valve seal or ring seal, and note that the car was running on only headers, so does that count as exhaust leak or no. as far as the valve seal, how do you fix that? i had my head rebuilt by my friend.

Bleach

Oh ya, I've heard it is bad for your valves to run no back pressure like on straight headers. I think they get toasted from the back side though. There is no suction from the exhaust flow of the other cylinders so some of the hot gasses stay right by the back of the exhaust valve when it closes. Maybe it causes a rich condition too...

Is it loud enough for you running straight headers?

roninjiro

HELL yea it is loud, it like no other sound i've heard b/f i go temporary deaf

icice9

valve seals are easy to replace... after you take off the valve springs.. you can jsut pop them right off... and snap the new ones in place...

roninjiro

sounds easy, i guess i will just have to go for it. thanx for info

roninjiro

well, just took the head to my mechanic friend and he told me to comeback tomorrow to see whats up. he also may think that my piston rings might be bad, and told me to put a feeler guage between the ring and cylinder wall, and i cant do it so i guess it is good to go. I hope my head isnt in that bad of condition like icice9 said.

Bleach

I drove my car to and from work for 2 days with straight headers once. The muffler shop said they were really slow so I could install my headers and bring the car in at any time to get the rest of the exhaust put on. But when I got there they were booked solid for 2 days! hehe...
Ya, I never knew my straight six could be THAT loud. It was nice to get the exhaust put on.

Why did you put the radiator next to the engine? Is that to set the weight of the car further back for autocrossing? So is your battery in the hatch area?

roninjiro

As far as the radiator goes. honestly i couldn't fit the damn thing in front of the motor, it was too wide. and the battery is behind the passenger seat for weight reasons. now that i think about it, that is a good point for the radiator, thanx bleach.

Bleach

I see. Its not the factory radiator. Nice idea.... I guess. If it works. I see you have an electric fan, but I'm curious to know if it cools the engine enough with far less airflow.

roninjiro

yes, the airflow is always a good ?. well from the design i had in mind, i was going to construct a custom fab. air box where the original radiator was. it would be at a angle so all the air is forced into that side of the fender while driving. in other words that area on the opposite side of the engine (fender side of the radiator) would all be closed ..... hince the air box. and the fan is a temp, i will add maybe dual fans or one big one. just as long as it cools it is fine. as it is setup now (before teardown) it cooled it just fine even under high rpm's for long periods of time.