1981 Chevy Silverado

1981 CHEVROLET SILVERADO
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BEDONNA
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Engine Performance problem
1981 Chevy Silverado V8 Two Wheel Drive Automatic

I actually have a 1981 Winnebago with a Chevy 454 engine...have a few questions. 1. Can you check the compression when you know it has a bad valve? 2. Can I have just one of the heads fixed? 3. If a vehicle over heats...can it over heat so bad that it makes the bolts on the intake and exhaust manifold very loose?
May 18, 2010 at 6:27 PM
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MHPAUTOS
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Hi there,

yes you can do a comp test to check this out, you can do a wet test, that is add a small amount of oil just a tea spoon will do, and crank over , then do the comp test this will seal up the rings and if the comp is still very low it will normally be a valve, you really should be doing both heads, as you will only be pulling the other sooner rather than later, do them both now this is the convention, yes, over heating will cause head bolts to become loose, this is due to them being stretched with the movement of the warping head, you only need a few thousandths of an inch movement to to this, and you should be replacing all head bolts when you do the heads.

mark (mhpautos)
May 18, 2010 at 6:35 PM