You can stuff some rags into the bores to catch the big stuff. A wet/dry vac works pretty good to suck the smaller stuff out.

Rub some oil on the cylinder walls and drape some towels on top of the open engine areas until you get your parts back.

 

use one of those gasket scrapers that use razor blades. coat cylinder with wd40 while heads are off

 

Head went to the shop today, I was wonder how to clean the carbon off the pistons? I was thinking to rotate the engine so the piston is TDC and clean one at a time and use the shop vac as I clean to pull any articles?

Is this a sane approach? After I will spray on some WD to keep rust away.

 

your carbon issue on top of your pistons isn't enough of an issue to be concerned about. besides when the motor is running correctly again it will burn whats there off.

 

After seeing your latest pictures looks like to me #7 head gasket area was getting ready to give up the ghost. When you have heads done make sure you have the shop remove that square headed coolant plug as well as your temp gauge sender and get them coated with anti-sieze stuff in case they need to ever come out again.

 

I pulled the temp sender before I took it to the shop but the coolant plug is a good idea as well.

Just so I can learn, what do you see in the photo that alerts you to cylinder #7. I'm very glad I went this extra mile and did the heads.

 

well in this picture where I have scrtached in white it appears to have water stains in the cylinders. and where I highlighted black seems to be the sources, if you look at the other cylinder ring seal by comparison you see no signs of black sooty seapage. the #7 cylinder seal ring also appears to be seperating.




Okay in this picture which I assume is the #1 cylinder where the valve reliefs are on th top back although maybe camera related dont appear to be as sharp as the other by comparrison, did this engine have detonation problems, I would like to see a close up of you o2 sensor and inside where the o2 sensor is in the pipe.

 

There is no coolant plug per se in the 113's - they have one boss which on the right is used for the Coolant Display Sender; on the Left for the Aux Fan Switch. Granted, if you don't have the Aux Fan, there will be a pipe plug. Pulling the sender/switch/plug drains most of what's in the Heads (depending on side jacking front/rear helps too). Block is drained by pulling the oil cooler hose and knock sensor.

I'm pretty clumsy with a gasket scraper and I like 600 grit with Brake Fluid Cleaner as a wetting agent. Bringing each piston to TDC and stuffing a rag in the hole helps. A shop vac, as previously suggested, helps too (along with 30 wt and a manual turn or two of the crank when you're done) . If the gasket was leaking, make sure it didn't wear a groove between the coolant passageway and the cylinder. Put a straight edge from any leak you identify to the edge of the cylinder.

Marking the position of the distributor rotor on the manifold helps you stab it back to #1 assuming it was at #1 when you removed it. Having gotten it wrong once, I simply knicked mine with a Dremel. If the drive isn't lined up, turn it with a long bladed screwdriver.

The white and/or white/gray in or around the coolant passageways is what you see on most of these years that have head gasket problems. If bad enough, it'll be in the radiator and heater core with the heater core plugging up before anything else clues you in. Consider getting the radiator rodded out before you put it back together.

 

here is the same area on my 7th cylinder of my 90's head gasket. notice you have holes plugged off like I do? maybe someone put haed gasket sealer in yours to. but notice how the show same sines of seapage pretty much. I think your going to find that head is warped back there on your just like mine was.

 

[QUOTE=SunCr;1570092665]There is no coolant plug per se in the 113's - they have one boss which on the right is used for the Coolant Display Sender; on the Left for the Aux Fan Switch. Granted, if you don't have the Aux Fan, there will be a pipe plug. Pulling the sender/switch/plug drains most of what's in the Heads (depending on side jacking front/rear helps too). Block is drained by pulling the oil cooler hose and knock sensor.

Okay that was my mistake, I had forgot the plug that is on my car unlike what is there on his car is used for a sensor on his car, because mine is a dual fan 1990.

However I would like to say given the chance you have now move the fan sensor thing to back by the #8 plug and get you temp gauge sensor up between 1 & 3 spark plugs. My machine guy explained it to me like this, L-98's do what they do because coolant way back by 7 & 8 cylinders moves very slowly and runs considerably hotter then any other cylinders. thats why they warp back there, seems just better to have the fans sensor in the hottest location so it get the most accurate temp and begins cooling before there is a problem. I got a thermal switch back there on my 90 to run the fans now instead of the ecm controlling them. It does a far better job the what the ecm did.

 

I cant believe that this motor had sealant on the gasket as I've it is a two owner and I picked it up with less than 12K in 1990 and I've had it the rest of the way.

As for the plugged holes,why did they do that? Do I need to get a specific head gasket to match this situation? I would figure that a head gasket for a standard production 1989 L98 would be standard????????

I don't know of any detonation problems, I can photo the O2 sensor and see what is up with that.

If the heads are warped they will be getting that fixed at the machine shop now, I'm hoping correcting that will allow for a good seal and make the vehicle good for at least another 15-25K miles.

 

The reason I brought up getting the fan sensor back by the #8 plug is also this how GM set up all F-bodies and most others. So it cant hurt anything and my firebird is setup like this temp gauge sensor between #1 & #3 and fan sensor back by #8 .... I found setup like this on my 1990 vette my fans seem to cycle before the temp gauge would show them needing to. My switch is for 228on 208off I will sometime hook a mechanical gauge up and see the difference in front of heads verses when the fans come on. I am fairly certain the fans will come on long before the temp gauge hits 230 though

 

Unless I'm losing it I think mine has the sensor in that configuration. There is one sensor between #1 & #3 (driver side) and another sensor between #6 & #8 (passenger side)

 

I just had another look at the pics. Cylinders still have a nice crosshatch in them. That is pretty cool for a motor that has some miles on it. There is a lot of life left in that shortblock.

 

it's because you have a 89 thats why it has two sensors. mines a 90 thats why it only has one. your car should have a sensor like in this picture and this is the one that drives the fan. you could easily use it to ground both fan relay so both fans would run at the same time.

 

The Vette L98 uses coolant restrictors and a bypass from the heater core (where additional cooling is provided) to keep coolant at the rear of the heads longer and prevent hot spots. GM's Bulletin from November '89 addresses the issue and identifies the problem as galvanic corrosion - not heat.

From the Factory, the car had no cooling problems - even if it only had the one fan. In addition, the Aux Fan, addressed in a Bulletin and initially added as a Dealer option in '85 was to solve field complaints from autocrossers and high altitude owners - it was never intended to do anything at idle (and except for dragging down the alternator, it doesn't). Additional cooling came from the Heavy Duty (larger) radiator package and more Dealers choose/sold that option over the Aux Fan. Any emissions controlled, fuel injected motor has a fairly narrow range of operating temperatures, needing about 220 to 230 degrees for the CAT to do it's job at idle. A/c is exempt and will run 10 to 15 degrees cooler, but most of what's posted around here is folklore (albeit pumped up by a barrage of ads exclaiming "cool down that hot running Vette!"). Get it back to the way it left the Dealer and your problems are solved (meaning that if the Aux Fan ever comes on, you either just ascended Pike's Peak or there's something else that needs attention).

 

so your telling me running both my fans cools the car no better then running just one fan? how is that possible?

 

I've been tearing it down so fast to get the head to the shop today I really haven't looked much. I'll pay attention to that while I clean the gasket off, sounds like a good prognosis though!

 

What size piece of metal is needed to rod out an L98 radiator? And what tools do you need to take the tanks off?

And how much pressure do you use to flush the heater core? Garden hose on full blast with no sprayer attached?

And what would be a good way to flush the block out after you remove the drain plug and heater hoses? I'm guessing just sticking a garden hose in the thermostat opening? And running it through the heater hoses?

 

SunCR

I can relate what you mean by maybe both his fans aren't needed. But on a 90 if I relied on running just one fan it's much smaller then his fan which is why I elected to run both my fans. Yes I understand natural road speed air will for the most part cool the car effectively however I see you are in california as well and know of the 110 degree days idling in gridlock conditions. This is what I set my fans up for so I have maximum low speed cooling. I am also going to install the bigmouth airdam on this car as well to assist high speed cooling.

I think and correct me if I am wrong the pre 90's cars auxilery fan is a pusher fan assembly. My twin fans are both pullers, the only time I see a large battery drain is when the first start to run the voltage guage drops real fast but then comes right back up.