Well i have not had the best of luck with my sidekick lately. I took one engine apart to find that there was really nothing wrong with it other than a ton of carbon build up in the piston heads. Because i didn't want to deal with that i went and bought a freshly rebuilt engine and had it in about a week after taking the old one out. After driving it for a week same thing happens. All the bad signs you can get from a bad head gasket. i tore the new engine apart an hour ago to find that who ever put it together didn't torque the head down properly so that's why it went bad in a week. I have just had it with the dam thing but i Will be sure glad to get it back.

ouch atleast you have plenty of spare parts ;

theres a lesson here.   NEVER trust anyone's work but your own, and ALWAYS check the work if someone other than you did it.

Well i have not had the best of luck with my sidekick lately. I took one engine apart to find that there was really nothing wrong with it other than a ton of carbon build up in the piston heads. Because i didn't want to deal with that i went and bought a freshly rebuilt engine and had it in about a week after taking the old one out. After driving it for a week same thing happens. All the bad signs you can get from a bad head gasket. i tore the new engine apart an hour ago to find that who ever put it together didn't torque the head down properly so that's why it went bad in a week. I have just had it with the dam thing but i Will be sure glad to get it back.

I like to retorque a 1.3, 1.6 head after 15 minutes of run time and then again at the 500 mile mark along with fluid change and valve adjust. Make sure you use OEM (japanese) head gaskets, too much crap in the market. Also check the surface of the head for level before install!!!

I like to retorque a 1.3, 1.6 head after 15 minutes of run time and then again at the 500 mile mark

Nice!    Better safe than sorry huh?

I am glad to find this convo.  I just pulled my 86 Zuk in the shop and was about to start pulling the motor apart because I believe I have narrowed my issue down to a head gasket.  The longer I let it sit, the harder it is to start, losing water slowly, had a number of overheat issues at some points, blows out steam on some starts, all plugs working well, good compression aaaaaand it smells like it is burning varnish instead of gas.  I have cleaned the tank out, checked spark, checked fuel to carb, all of that.  Some days it runs fairly smooth, but other days it does not.  Also, on a hard low end push, it acts like it has trash in the carb, but I cannot help but think it is a cracked or broken head gasket.  I am no expert, but this is what I know so far. 

With all of that, I figured if I was in there, I might as well do a couple of things to give some low end torque or more power.  So my 2 questions are:

1. Does this sound like it could be a head gasket?
2. What would be a good starting point to a little more sack for the zuk?  This is my run around deer lease rig, but we tend to drive it on backroads some if this helps.   Thank you all in advance for your input. 

post up he compression numbers for each cylinder.     

this sounds more like you may have a fuel issue than a headgasket to me.  I'm thinking possibly fuel pump, or it may just be something a more experienced sammy owner will know of.

I have tested the fuel pump as well, flows like mad.  I would have to run the tests again to post, but sure will. 

just because the pump FLOWS fuel doesnt mean its good.  you need the correct pressure for either carbs or EFI, depending on your setup.