need help please

ok this weekend i blew the head gasket in my 1987 2.2 i plan on getting a new head for it because my exhaust bolts are ruined (from previous owner) and i have to replace the gasket anyway. what is the probability of the bottom end going out after a blown head gasket? should i just replace the gasket and head or do a full rebuild?

Id pull the pan, check the clearances, check the bores and bolt it back together if all checked out. The heads are the weak point in my opinion. But its all personal preferance.

Why not have a machine shop install inserts for the exhaust studs when they re-machine the cylinder head? Straightforward.

How many miles are on the engine?

How is your style of driving?

Do you poke along mainly, or do you have a more aggressive style of driving and like to wind the motor out on every shift? Or somewhere in between?

If your driving style leans to the aggressive side, and there are over 150,000 miles on the clock, it might be better to redo the bottom end as well.

Actually, I think what you need to do first is identify what caused the head gasket to go, so that it doesn't happen again !!!

At 183K miles (head gasket still good) I redid my top end including new pistons, rings, and connecting rod bearings. My crankshaft journals and the old C. Rod bearings looked pristine, so I left the main bearings alone.

when i got the truck there were 192xxx on it and it hadnt been taked care of very well before i got it so i changed the oil, plugs, wires, thermostat, coolant. and then i drove it for only 500 miles and then on the way home i was running 75, the temp gauge spiked up very quickly and overheated so i stopped and popped the hood took the rad cap off no water to be found. But the PO ragged this thing i wont go into a lot of detail but the brakes were fucked and the oil looked like it hadnt been changed in years. My plans as of now are to flush the rad, get another head that my buddy has for cheap (just so i have extra parts) and get a new gasket set.


my style of driving style is very tame i havent romped on this thing at all. but i wouldnt mind having a reliable engine that if i needed to get on it to get out into traffic i could and not worry about it blowing up.

i kind of want to do a full rebuild right off the bat to know that the motor is done right so im not dissecting previous problems. what rebuild kit would you guys go with?

Hello everyone, i'm from mazdatrucking, somebody didn't pay the bills, anyways you'll more than likely need a machinest, buy the kit from him. When i rebuilt my 2.2 i needed to have it bored over for new pistons, i took the block, pistons/rods and crankshaft to my local machinest, he ordered a kit and put the new pistons on the rods and tanked the block, bored the cylinders for the new pistons, decked the block, shaved and straightend the head and after i paid him he gave me the rest of the kit with another exchanged crankshaft, took it all home and assembled it and been driveing it ever since. I forget, somewhere around $1600.00 This was all back in 2007.

well i know a guy personally so im not worried about the machining part of the build. but ive decided to go ahead with the full build. but i was wondering are there and pistons like from the mx6 626 929 Fe3 anything that will raise the compression? any way to make a little bit of power out of this thing?

Hey Black,
If you decide to do the full rebuild, stay away from the really inexpensive "kits" on Ebay........China made parts mostly I would think.
I have always put together my own "kit" by shopping online and buying name brand parts, especially on the pistons if you bore the engine and go that route. I buy quite a few things from RockAuto and most of the time they are the cheapest I can find, not to mention their "closeout sales" every so often.......Start pricing the items you need and then check them out, you'll see what I mean!

On your gaskets, sometimes the "top end gasket set" or the "full gasket set" has a bunch of gaskets in them that you won't use, like EFI O-rings and the gaskets for fuel inj. models.....things like that, so sometimes if you get the individual gaskets on sale or at a good price, you'll get only the gaskets you need and save some dollars too!

Just do a bunch of research online through Advance, O-Riley's, AutoZone, NAPA, and so on......you'll get a good idea of what you should be paying for any certain part........you can also get the part #'s from the online parts stores and Google that part # to find out who has it cheapest.......I've bought name brand auto parts from Amazon.com before!