Headgasket sealant: I try stuff so you don't have to!

the 727 Torqueflight is still one of the strongest automatic transmissions ever made up till about '95.

This is the key statement.

Chrysler went to ATF +3, and then to ATF +4.

Problem was, their customers stayed with Dexron/Mercon. Doesn't work in a Chrysler tranny...

Almost every import my family has owned has been as or more trouble prone then any "American" car they have owned.

It wasn't Barrs. K&W sounds familiar. The instructions were identical to yours. The car went from running on three cylinders to purring like a kitten on four. Then the tranny started failing.....

I drive my vehicles pedal to the medal quite often. I've never had that cause a problem with any car until this Toyota. The tranny just couldn't deal with full throttle for long.

That may have been the last good transmission Chrysler made. We have some diesel 4x4 Dodges at work and the automatic trans went out in quite a few of them at around 30K, which was still in warranty. The "fix", besides repairing the transmission, was to flash the engine computer to reduce the engine power output to protect their crappy transmission from blowing up again.

Yeah, K&W Nanotechnology Head Gasket Repair. They were side by side on the shelf.

I decided $9.99 was enough for snake oil rather than $19.99...

Solved both the headgasket AND heater core leaks on my cousin's Soob - worked 'till he scrapped it a year later. The car was NOT worth replacing a gasket on, but it got him through the winter, where the

4wd was a necessity for him, then through the summer

I'm not sure if it's working or not. The leak was intermittant to begin with, and today was giving me trouble again, in that acceleration up hills is sluggish.

Wish it were warmer, I'd just yank the d@mn head gaskets and do it!!!

So, after you did all of this, you did not put some of Subaru's radiator conditioner or an equivalent in the radiator? How come? It's like you didn't finish your job. You took one shot at patching the dam. Now you have another all time chance at it, but you failed to do it and this chance is a more continuous chance than the one time chance you tried. I never tried the Sub's stuff, but I have used the Barsleak stuff with the gray pellets twice successfully on head gasket leaks. These products have some kind of plastic stuff that floats around in the radiator coolant and flows into leaky holes as you use the car. I repaired the used Sub I'm driving now several years ago just after I bought it, with it. Lucky for you, it's still not too late to try it.

A 92 Daytona I knew went through 3 or 4 trannies. The extended warranty paid pack more than any stockinvestment could with that car!!!!

I used this:

and I put some Prestone Anti-rust in after.

This spring I'll tear the heads off and do it right...if the car doesn't rust away in the mean time...

Right, that's what I thought you used. The only other person I know of that used that, it didn't work, but it might for you. What I'm saying is if it doesn't work, use this.

It works similar to the Subaru radiator stuff they recommend to use to prevent your problem.

Hmmm...I thought the Suby stuff was a lubricant/conditioner, to KEEP things from going bad!

I drive the car 70 miles every night, and over the last three nights have noticed something interesting: I start the car and drive it, and the drivability is horrible after about 20 miles. Sluggish acceleration up hills, lees than usual fuel economy.

I start the car and warm it up to where the thermostat opens. I shut the car off for about 10-12 minutes until the engine cools almost to cold, start the car and it runs great most of the night. If I stop and shut it off again for a few minutes it 'rejuvenates' itself and runs great the rest of the night.

I'm thinking the expansion and contraction of the block/heads has something to do with this...

The gasket stuff seems to be working. It only has to go about 7 more weeks, then it gets parked for the summer. Plenty of time to replace the gaskets!

Is there any chance that there's a gas tank venting problem?

Hmmm...I fill it every night. Some nights, if I over fill it I can smell gas...coming from the front of the car. I looked at the charcoal cannister and noticed there is a vent on the bottom. I assumed what was happening was by overfilling the tank I was flooding the cannister and it was venting through the tube...

Why?

If you saturate the active charcoal in that canister or muck up the air filter on it's bottom like we do with our Jeeps, it puts a vacuum on the gas tank causing the engine to starve for gas. Letting it sit lets the vacuum go away and it runs again. One quick test is to open the gas cap next time it happens. If it runs better right away, you have the likely trouble.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 'New' frame in the works for '08. Some Canadian Bush Trip and Build Photos:

If the plumbing for the charcoal canister doesn't work right, it may cause a vacuum to build up in the gas tank and eventually choke off the engine (releasing the gas cap fixes it for a while). That happened with my Toyota after I replaced a cracked hose going to the canister because the new hose kinked.