ka24e head

[nathanmoris]

hey, i dont have the money to get a ka24e head rebuild or a new one.. so i was going to buy a used one from someone. i was wondering what i could check for the i can see i guess to make sure its ok if theres anything thanks for any help jonathan

[wa-chiss]

look at the head under the valve cover. If you see a uniform brown color, the car probably wasn't taken good care of. The brown is called oil coking <spelling?. Pronounced just like the drink. Push down on all the rocker arms on the lifer part to see if they move at all. if they do their probably shot or just dry. check the bolt holes for the cam caps. All mine have heilicoils in them cause the previous owner didn't own a torque wrench and stripped them all. Look at the combustion chamber for any caked on oil deposits, this could be a sign of bad valve stem seals. Clean intake ports are a good sign but the exhaust is going to be black. Thats just normal carbon build-up. If you have a verry VERY flat straight edge you can check to see if the head is warped at all. The rule is 0.001" per cylinder, 0.004" per foot. So if you measure 0.001" between the head and the straight edge around cylinder 1 but 0.003" around cyl 2, the head is warped and needs to be machined flat. Thats about all I can think of for now but I think that will get you started.

[rotorimp]

Just because there is a uniform brown color does not mean that the motor wasn't taken car of it means that the owner used Dino oil. People call the Burt oil that accumulates around turbos coking because it is similar to Coke. Coke is a byproduct of Coal. He should take the head to a machinist to be evaluated--not rebuilt---The Machine shop can do this for a very nominal fee.

[wa-chiss]

AHHHHH I see. Yeah, I had a uniform brown color and some oil build up. I seriously thought that was what coking was. The build up would just crumble. Thanks.