well as most of you know my browas going to change my intake gaskets and valve cover gaskets,well wow what a mess,you can see for your self by the pictures...so now he plans on taking the heads off and a bunch of other stuff not sure what he has planned but i told him go to it if he wonted to i wasnt going to stop him and just kept a list of what i need to buy and due,well heres some pictures so far...buy the way thats a peace of carbon we found when we removed the intake ; (.............and you can clearly see in the picture where it was leaking from valve cover and intake...

 

oh ya he said he could hand turnthe intake bolts when he was taking it off thats how loose they where[:@]HOW F***** UP IS THAT ....and a ? could lucas cause all that crap inside the valve cover or is that all blow by...plus my bro said that the engine wasnt able to release and mostior because it had a plug and no pvc or breather on it so he went out and got me a breather filter...well any advice would be great thanks guys and girls ...it seems i always get great advice on this site

 

having no pcv def. will make the valve covers blow out and leak oil. make sure the pcv valve and the breather are on the opposite sides of the valve covers. so it cross flows. i dont think lucas oil would cause that. that is moister. when water and oil mix they make a nasty milky color... but yeah, clean that manifold up get a nice air cleaner if you dont have one already. and shell be looken good. maybee change the water pump or paint this one. and yeah. you got a pretty good looken engine under the hood.

also. i dont know what kind of gasgket you got, but cork sucks. if you got the rubber ones they are much better.


good luck!!!!

 

no cork i got rubber ...and thanks for the encouraging words

 

dont use the front and back intake gaskets they give you in the kit.lay a 1/4 inch bead of rtv on the block to replace them sorry gaskets.how many miles is on this engine.is it a daily driver .if they set up for a while they tend to build up moisture,more so if it is humid outside.my car sets in the shop(i drive it maybe 2-3 times a month ,depending on the weather)and the motor will have moisture all over it if it is humid.good luck,looks good

 

If the intake bolts were loose it can leak coolant into the block causing the moisture issue and maybe even some in the cylinder(ie pinging) I maybe reading to much into the pic but it looks like one intake port is rusty around the gasket. Post some picks when you pull the heads off if you go that far you might be looking at a rebuild.

 

What about the GM gasket set? Are they a crappy seal too? I am doing an intake gasket due to oil leaks and bought the GM gasket set.

 

i learned years ago not to use them front and rear rubber intake gaskets.i just throw them in the trash and break out the rtv.havent had a problem since.now i dont know if any particular brand is any better than another ,you can try it.they are bad about blowing out and leaking.dont learn the hard way

 

Sound like your brother is not a newbe, I can not really tell what the small part is in the one picture that looks like something broken. Your engine has not been well maintained. But it is by far not the worst I have seen. That is not much crudbuild up in the lifter area. Loose alumi intakes are very common. You should retorgue you intake once a year. Same is true for the carb base and the carb itself. Note: I did say retorque not over tighen. The valve cover look normal for a car with a malfucntioning PVC system.I think Itold you blow by becomes a problem oncethe PVCsystem can not keep up.There is a kit for the valve covers that converts them from bolts to studs and extra long support around the studs. Its makes it easy to take them on and off and less likely to leak. One common mistake on GM valve cover is over torgue.

I saw nothing in the picturesthat says the heads have to come off but with this age I would most likely do it and repalce the valve seals at this time. The question is where do you stop?IMO there is more chance of your timing chain could giving you trouble in the near then the head gaskets.Seems like a waste to pull apart 60% of the motor and not rebuild it. Especially if a rebuild is in the near future.
The issue of oil leaks in the places you have them is very common. It is one of the reason GM began painting its engines black. So you can not see all the leaks.

 

YABOTH OF MY BROTHERS REDID A 76 CAMARO WHEN I WAS YOUNGER BUT HE NO LONGER HAS IT...HE TOLD ME LAST NIGHT THE SAME THING YOU JUST WROTE ABOUT THE HEADS..HE ALSO TOLD ME THAT THE ROCKER ARMS WHERE NOT TORKED RIGHT AT ALL,AND ALSO ABOUT THE BLACK PAINT BUT I WAS NOT TO THRILLED WITH PAINTING MY ENGINE BLACK....I HOPFULLY WILL BE PUTTING A NEW 350 IN THERE NEXT YEAR .SO HES JUST DOING SOME MAITANCE ON THE ENGINE TO GET ME BY ...AND THAT PEACE IS A PEACE OF CARBON....THE CAR HAS NO PVC SYSTEM AND ALL VAC LINES HAVE BEEN CUT AND CANISTER FILTER FOR THEM HAS BEEN REMOVED,BUT I WAS TOLD NOT TO WORRY ABOUT THAT!I WILL HAVE MORE UPDATED PICTURES LATER I NEVER MADE IT THERE LAST NIGHT...