While I'm In There I Might As Well.....
 

Anyone who's turned a wrench for a while knows that those simple words can lead to a whole lot of expense. While it's certainly better off in the long run, it can be tough to draw the line somewhere.

I've been chasing a "disappearing coolant" problem along with a "whistle" under slight throttle. The coolant issue I've pretty much narrowed down to being the head considering there is a distinct smell of coolant around the engine, and there's some seepage on the intake right around the back half of the motor and on the same spot on the passenger side above the oil filter, as well as I find myself constantly adding coolant to the reservoir. The oil looks good every time I check. I've narrowed the whistle down to possibly being the last few intake/exhaust manifold bolts thanks to a few searches here on the board. With 165k on the motor it wouldn't surprise me that I damage the manifold bolts while trying to tighten them down, and when I swap out the head I'd imagine a few of the manifold bolts won't survive anyway...so I figure I'll kill two birds with one stone.

My question is this... What else does it make sense to do while I'm in there? The water pump and t-stat are fresh as of about a week ago. Everything else is essentially original. I'm thinking I'm going to do a timing set while I have things opened up. I'm thinking maybe a new set of lifters?

While you are in there, for me would be all new hoses and vacuum lines. Next on the list would be port the intake, injector swap, have new, or old head gone throughout, as in 3 or 5 angle valve job, port, polish, cc chambers. Timing set does not have to be messed with for a head gasket.

Welcome to CF!

Unless you feel the need to disassemble the front of the engine I would skip the timing chain. Not common to have problems with the chain, even been known to go several hundred thousand miles.

The lifters, however, I would swap once you have the head off. You can pick up a tool to pull them out the top and drop in new ones. A set can be had for under $60 and would be cheap insurance for future lifter problems.

Check the intake manifold for build up and clean as needed. You could have the head rebuilt but with such low mileage it may not be needed. Check the exhaust manifold for cracks. Check the motor mounts.

Good luck.

Thanks for the welcome! I've been lurking for a while, there's alot of good info here.

The head's going to be new (or remanned), I'm making the assumption that the current head is cracked. And even if it isn't, a rebuilt head isn't going to cost me much more than machine shop expenses on the old one. And yeah, I know the timing set doesn't need to come out, but it's been on my list for a while and I figure while I have everything opened up it's not going to take much longer to tear into it a little further to change it.

As far as the intake goes, I'll go through it and make sure all the fittings are good, clean the throttle body, check for leaks, and things like that.