Well it’s been fun, the last 6,000 miles that is. I’ve been living with delusions of reprieve but alas, I’m forced to admit that “we have a problem Houston”!!
Over the last month or so the old gal has developed a discharge. I’m still trying to isolate the source of the coolant leak. I was hoping that I could blame it on high humidity or the rings being worn but after pulling the VC and seeing the Jell-O buildup on the inside I’m shutting her down till I find the source of the problem. I have been trying to convince myself that the coolant level was just stabilizing at its hot operating level, but the coolant level has been dropping down very slowly below that level and I’ve added a pint or so before I drive it each time.
With the VC off I can see that the top end is beginning to show some minor surface rust in a few places. I drive it a few times a week long enough to come up to operating temperature and she is always kept in a dry garage and never driven in the rain.
Oil emulsion pictures:
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2411239930098611668DJTUkz When I did the valve job in 2006 the original head showed a small crack after it came out of the caustic dip tank in no.3 combustion chamber. However it passed the 40lb. pressure test at the machine shop and a 120lb overnight pressure test with my setup here in my shop. Based on these results we went ahead and did the complete rebuild, hard seats, new valves, springs, guides and flatten the surfaces all to the tune of around $450. Could the crack be opening up just when the head is hot, sure, but it wasn’t a problem the first few thousand miles so my guess is the crack was just a surface crack and has begun spread into the water jacket. I’m still not seeing anything in the pan yet.
Well I didn’t want to tear into the engine for a couple more months but I think this may be the time.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
