It's up to the mechanic to ask for OEM quality or heavy-duty parts. One problem with repairing old cars is that when your mechanic calls his parts house with the make/model/VIN, they will come back with the lowest possible price. You might also want to test the coolant for combustion gasses although your temperatures seem normal to me. If not, trace it back to the water pump crossover and remove the hose at the nipple. Have someone start the engine - there should be a steady stream of coolant from the purge line. Remove the pressure cap, disconnect the purge line and point it into the neck of the surge tank. Have you checked the purge line to make sure it is flowing? The purge line is the 1/2" hose that connects near the top of the surge tank from the throttle body area. The other leak point could be the heater core pipes that run along the back of the engine. Check the water pump crossover housing gaskets - the crossover housing is on the driver's side of the engine compartment and connects to both heads. Borrow a radiator pressure tester from Autozone (in their loan a tool program) and you can pressurize the system to 15psi when cold, then go over the entire cooling system looking for leaks. If you smell coolant, then you have an external leak. What have I missed? Maybe bars leak? (OMG - don't believe I said that) Next step - I'm going to pressure wash the engine compartment and park it over some wee-wee pads. Without access to a rack I'm not eager to try an engine pull on stands. No vapor from the exhaust, but I have detected a faint coolant smell a couple of times from near the drivers "A" pillar but I lost it when I opened the hood. I've checked all the usual spots for a NorthStar to leak, T-stat housing, water pump, heater hoses, T-body, radiator tanks and nothing is out of the "norm". I have approximately 100 "normal" operating miles on it now. I parked it and the next morning checked the coolant level and I had to add nearly 3/4 gal, no coolant puddles under vehicle so I'm thinking it had a little air. Highest speed was 65mph but only for 5 miles or less. Only one short moderate climb and the temp rose to 210 about halfway up and stayed there until the road leveled out on the other-side, then the temp dropped to 199 and only rose to 205 when idling at a stop sign then dropped again to 199. Everything was operating normally so I filled 3 gallon jugs with water for the 25 mile trip home, topped off the coolant recovery jar/surge tank, put the "radiator" cap on and headed for home. Then the story begins.Ĭhecked the engine oil for "milkshake" Idled the car for 20-25 mins, watching the coolant temp, checked for mis-fire DTC's, and watched for bubbles in the recovery jar, cooling fans were operating as designed. I'm thinking no one checks coolant levels especially with a black recovery jar so it was probably low on coolant for a while. They told him that they knew the NorthStar "reputation" for head gasket failure and they didn't want to do the job because it was a loss due to flat rate at 20hrs and they couldn't do it and make money. He stated the "shop didn't do anything but look for obvious leaks". I recently acquired a 1999 DeVille 4.6, the previous owner stated the engine over-heated but it was immediately shut-down and towed to a repair facility, not a dealership. I'm going to guess this has been asked before but I couldn't find it in the forums, but it's day one at CaddyInfo
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |