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[WGoins88]

Well. I finally got the Catera running, after nearly 2 years of work and $650-675 USD.

Good news -
Runs great, no knocks, loud ticks, etc.
Good oil pressure
No overheating
No check engine light











The BAD news -

It has a blown head gasket. Yup.... that's right. A BLOWN head gasket (or a cracked head?). [smiley=embarassed.gif]
It's very obvious. It runs great, no coolant in the oil, but I have bubbling in the coolant tank and the clear smell of raw fuel. I've never been so angry in my life. I just feel like I wasted all this time and money for nothing!

I know I'm not replacing the head gaskets... I have no intentions of pulling it apart again unless it's to sell the engine if I part it out. It mainly has to do with the fact that I'd have to pull everything off that I put on it, plus I would need new cam sprocket bolts and such, which I'm not thrilled about. 

[Kevin Wood]

Cam sprocket bolts can be reused in our experience. I doubt many who have put 3.0 cams in a 2.5 have ever replaced them and I can't recall a failure. I would suggest, if it's just been rebuilt with new gaskets, etc. you could reuse pretty much everything bar the head gaskets themselves.

A real pain that it's not behaving after all that work, though.

[WGoins88]

Yeah, everything gasketwise is new. So since the the cam bolts are reuseable, it looks like I just might put new gaskets on it. But that's what peeved me off more than anything is I seriously thought about replacing the head gaskets when I had it torn apart. I should have done them.

[WGoins88]

A quick question....

Would anyone recommend using the later (99+) MLS head gaskets over the older ones? I know they are more reliable, but was wondering if they would work fine.

I see the head bolts are the same throughout the years, so I would assume the later gaskets are fine to use as long as they are torqued to the 99+ specs?

[Kevin Wood]

UK engines went from 3.0 to 3.2 at the same time as the MLS gasket was introduced, I believe, and the bore size was different, so retro-fitting isn't an option.

We certainly see very few failures of the 3.2 / 2.6 gaskets, but they aren't exactly common on the earlier engines either. 99% of failures on those appear to be down to poor coolant servicing where the gasket material deteriorates from the waterway outwards until they leak, with the fire rings remaining intact.

Kevin

[WGoins88]

Ahh, well in the US they went to MLS gaskets on the 3.0 in 99 (As you may know, we never had the 3.2 until the CTS), so I would assume they would work then, correct?

[Shackeng]

Yeah, everything gasketwise is new. So since the the cam bolts are reuseable, it looks like I just might put new gaskets on it. But that's what peeved me off more than anything is I seriously thought about replacing the head gaskets when I had it torn apart. I should have done them.

Pardon me for being somewhat surprised if you had the heads off and didn't replace them. :-?

[Andy H]

Cam sprocket bolts can be reused in our experience. I doubt many who have put 3.0 cams in a 2.5 have ever replaced them and I can't recall a failure. I would suggest, if it's just been rebuilt with new gaskets, etc. you could reuse pretty much everything bar the head gaskets themselves.

A real pain that it's not behaving after all that work, though.

Don't forget to use new stretch bolts for the cylinder heads. In my opinion/experience they are the only stretch bolts in an Omega/Catera that are taken way beyond their elastic limit and really are single use only.

[WGoins88]

Yeah, I know the head bolts are TTY and do intend on replacing them.

And yes, if I had the heads off, the gaskets certainly would have been replaced. It's just when I had it torn down to the heads, I seriously considered pulling the heads off to do the gaskets.

[Shackeng]

Ah right, sorry, I misunderstood.