hi,
i have been off list for awhile cause i have an issue with firefox and a new wireless router which sends multiple requests which resmeble some sort of bot and google groups wasnt letting me on. hopefully my story will prevent someone else from making similar errors....
well, the leaks i had on a fresh motor in my 95 were due to:
- head: i re-used a head with ~20k miles on it after the rebuild and thought that maybe the head was warped, so i had the spare head worked on and while talking to the machinist was told that multi-layer gaskets requires hi-tack. i did not know, and the instructions which came with the h.g. did not metion that fact. so i had a fresh head, gasket and sealer. much better but, first problem solved.
- valve cover gasket: i either killed a new gasket, got a bad one or reused an old one. i swapped it out and still was leaky so, i got a new gasket, big antifreeze leak appears.
- the small hose from the thermo which goes to the lower left side of the motor, was touching the s/c belt...it did not like that. had to order one and problem solved.
a trip to the car wash after each attempt to correct the leaks, was getting expensive but proveded useful.
- still had a pretty good oil weep some place up high but could not find it until the last trip to the car wash...bloody 710 cap, (oil filler cap). made a rubber seal out of some 60mill sheet i had and this slowed the weep so the gasket was shot. i thought of just turning it around but it looks like the gasket is beveled so i used the cap from the spare block/head i have.
(sidebar: block, (needs machining) and head, (with ~20 k), for sale in CT together or seperate)
- that seemed to do the trick and swmbo got to drive her car again. she complained of a sweet smell after returning from work...just as she pulled into the gargage but at no other time, she said. i checked te level in both the radiator and tank, both good so i figured it was just some left over puddle which boiled off and left it at that until...i drove the car. 25 miles no smell or steam, hours later, i went to pick her up and was sitting in the rain when i saw an unusual steam pattern rise up from the hood, popped the hood and smelled sweetness. it seems to come from the lower front left side but in the rain hard to say, will have to look closer if it ever stopps raining/ snowing here in CT. . also, it may just be residual, but there is still a bit of oil in the plug wire galley...at least i am down to weeps.
hth, peter