Replacing the Head

My 93 counrty has started burning some oil. About a quart every 2 weeks. I have no leak and I see it smoke, but only at idle. I have a buddy who has replaced the head on his with close to the same smoking problem. Once he was done it stopped, no burning. Just wondering if its something I need to change now or if I can wait a while. Planning on doing it in a couple of months and dont mind putting oil in every now and then. And when I do put it in should I go with a stock head or get a aftermarket unit? Dont really need anymore upgrades, but I figure if I am already in there?

Pogiboy said:

My 93 counrty has started burning some oil. About a quart every 2 weeks. I have no leak and I see it smoke, but only at idle. I have a buddy who has replaced the head on his with close to the same smoking problem. Once he was done it stopped, no burning. Just wondering if its something I need to change now or if I can wait a while. Planning on doing it in a couple of months and dont mind putting oil in every now and then. And when I do put it in should I go with a stock head or get a aftermarket unit? Dont really need anymore upgrades, but I figure if I am already in there?

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It's a tough call because you really don't know yet what you'll find out about the block? No point in doing the head if the cylinders are tapered and/or worn/broken piston rings. At that point just do the whole engine. You could do a wet/dry compression check and that might help qualify cylinder bore, rings, pistons but it may not.

That said, it's just as likely that the block is fine and a head rebuild will go a long way. In the old days many gas truck fleets scheduled cylinder head service around 100k-150k miles and that usually kept 'em in good service well beyond 200k miles.

I'd check with a local machine shop beforehand and try to schedule a day to drop-off and an agreement to get it back in a day or two. A little grinding on the ports might be fun but don't expect too much return for the trouble. Also, the machine shop will probably mill a little off to true the casting and there's a thinner head gasket available for even higher compression ratio. Raising C/R will provide the most dramatic performance increase. 4.0 is already a little low in that regard but don't get too carried away.

Timing chains are long-wearing item so you probably don't even need to mess with that.