And the saga continues......
After meeting up with a couple of our Darkside members and their fine conversions at Cars & Coffee I was inspired to, once again, give my project another chance to come alive.
I was meticulous, if not surgical in the way I replaced and installed the intake manifold gasket so there would be no question of it possibly being a factor if there was a problem later on. Did the same when I installed the valve cover gaskets. Tested the thermostat before installing it. Switched to a 7lb radiator cap (from 13b), I wanted to make sure it could easily vent. Installed the repaired and freshly painted radiator.
I also took the time to check off some other things on the list. I installed a manual choke. Tested the heater for leaks and got it all hooked up. Utilized a 1/4" and a 5/8" carb spacer to replace the stock aluminum tower with a really nice fitting lower profile base for the carb. Ground and shaved off the base of a nice looking aftermarket air cleaner to allow it to sit level (due to the stock 2.8 intake manifold's carb seat being sloped forward when the engine is level).
Also, last time it ran I pulled the plugs and noticed all of them on the passenger side were much darker than the three on the drivers side. Checked the carb mixture screws and noticed that the the drivers side was about 1 3/4 turns out but the passenger side was 4 3/4 turns out!? No wonder the plugs on that side were dark. Set both sides to 1 1/2 turns out.
Cleaned up some electrical connections and tightened some bolts here and there. Added some fresh engine paint here and there. Filled it with fresh coolant and checked for leaks (none). Added fresh fuel cliked on the ignition and checked for fuel leaks (electric fuel pump). All looks great.
http://s1362.photobucket.com/user/EighteensTen7/slideshow/Coolant
Tried starting it a few times. Noticed that there was a little coolant dripping from the passengers side header where it attaches to the exhaust pipe, but I had seen that last time it ran so maybe it's just left over(?) Sprayed in some starter fluid and it started to briefly run! Nice. But, tried that several more times and nothing. Gave it some time in case I somehow flooded it but after many attempts it would not kick over again.
That's when I noticed the coolant leaking, now from 'both' header ends, at least a half cups worth!!
(remember, it hadn't even got to the point of running yet, just turning over and a very brief run). Pulled plugs from both sides of the engine and they were wet with coolant!
I now suspect either the head gaskets are shot or the engine block/heads are cracked!
Maybe the mechanic at the radiator shop was right. When I told him according to my laser thermometer it hadn't got over 202 degrees and he saw how bowed out from pressure the tanks on the radiator had become he said the cooling system had been pressurized probably from exhaust gases. (i.e. a cracked head or leaking gasket(s). Maybe with that scenario that's how coolant was making it's was into the intake manifold?
Anyhow, I'm slightly more than completely disappointed. When you buy a dirty, decades old engine off the back of a junky flatbed in the middle of tin buck two, you take the chance on it being a dud. I cleaned it all up, installed the HO Oil Pump, Alloy timing gear, HO Water Pump, new gaskets and painted it all up. But that all might have been lipstick on a pig. When my wife asked if it was bad I told her, if some guy was trying to sell me this car, went to start it and coolant came out of the header ends I would say, forget it.
After a few days of thinking over options I've decided to assume it's blown head gaskets and I'll try to fix it. I suspected a leaking passenger side head gasket early on when it was running when I had noticed a little coolant dripping from the passenger side exhaust flange. The last time it was running when I went to shut it down it dieseled like crazy, bucking wildly before I could get it to stop. So much so that I was worried it could have been violent enough to bend a connecting rod or brake something (at least I know the engine mounts are solid
). Perhaps if the head gaskets are original and weak it might well have been enough to blow out the other side too (used to only drip coolant from one side).
I'll tear it all down again and take some pics. At that point I'll be 'hoping' to see 'just' bad head gaskets.