I thought of a couple of questions that I hope someone can answer. Now that I have the head off there was some light carbon on the pistons and around the valves. I cleaned it all off and noticed the pistons have one letter stamped on each of them, A's, B's and D's I think they were. Does this mean anything? I'm curious if the engine was rebuilt or original. The car has 42,000 original miles.
What sealant should I use on the head studs (3 came out with the nut) and on other bolts that go into the water jackets?
When I remove the intake and exhaust manifolds in order to put on the split exhaust manifold does porting either one make any difference on these engines? Should I do anything to them like just smoothing them or gasket matching?
Thanks for any help, it's been about 8 years since I have worked on anything old. I absolutely love it and didn't realize how much I missed it. My wife has had to come get me out of the garage the last two nights or I would probably still be there in the morning. She thinks I'm crazy because I spent hours bead blasting and painting nuts and bolts. I literally blasted thru the rubber gloves, now I get to go back to harbor freight!
