Hey all, I got into the engine with Dominick, and ran a compression test, and leak down test. I had 150 to 160 psi accross all the cylinders, and the plugs show only carbon deposits. One plug was wet, but that was it. I have oil in it but not much. This car is a PITA to work on. Specialy 7 & 8.

Basically we're looking for an idea of what it is. We've determined that its not a blown gasket, and the cylinder wals are fine. The heads are good also. I do have a oil leak though. Its coming from the base of the intake front and back. Its eating through oil.

BUT, I checked again with him and I can't find any trace of coolant in the oil, its clean fresh oil from a week ago. This is puzzeling. We've narrowed it down to the intake manifolds. So somewhere in there its introducing coolant and some oil into the chamber. your thoughts on this would be a great help.

We did manage to solve the short though.

We've got a few idea's but I realy can't go any farther from here. The next step is to take the intake manifold apart and work from there. Seems that the wiring will need to be worked on though, its in pretty bad shape.

 

Check the coolant passages over cylinders 1 & 8 on the intake manifold, they are known to leak.

 

Thanks, I am dreading next saturday, or if i have friday off then I'm dreading friday. I'm either going to be one lucky SOB, or I'm going to be one unlucky SOB. Cause at this point it could be the intake manifold, or I could have a hairline crack. Which would suck majorly.

All of the plugs had ALOT of carbon deposits on then, one of them was wet, the 2nd closest to the cockpit on the drivers side. I think thats Cylinder #5. I left my book over there, so I'm not sure.

I need new plugs, new wires, and I have a whole lot of electrical work to do. The guys who worked on this car before me just spliced everything up to make it work, and I also found out that i was supposed to originally have the GTA cross-lace rims on it! They took my rims! Those dirty rats. So now I'm stuck with the base model rims. Grrrr.

Those damn plugs are a pain in the butt to get too. Had to take the entire A/C system off to get to them because the jack we had, couldn't support the weight of the car! It couldn't lift it. It was a floor jack too.

 

how do your valve seals look fruity? they might be causing your oily plug, as long as you have your heads off you should replace them. i think you jack might be low on fluid. our cars weigh 1.5 tons and you're only lifting half of it so even a small jack should be able to lift it.

 

His jack looked like it should be able to lift it without a problem at all, but when I tried it it wouldnt' life the car more than 3" after that it didn't go anywhere. Its pretty old, so its probably broken some how.

As it is, I never got the heads off, I still plan on getting them off yet, because I want to replace all of the gaskets i can get to. I didn't have the right size torx driver to get the plenum, runners, and intake off though, so we had to stop there.

It seems strange to me though, if the cylenders are all showing the same compression then its probably not a blown gasket. Yet I called the mechanic who works on my escort and he said to take them off anyways and check. So while its apart I'm going to do that.

Just wish I had the torx drivers to take the intake manifold off. Quick question though, instead of buying the individual drivers can anyone point me to a set of torx bits that will let me work on the car? I found a set that includes bits from T10 to T60 sizes. Is this the right set? I couldn't find out what sizes I needed from the Chiltons manual.

Also I had major trouble getting the AIR(?) pipes off the valve covers. One of the valves is right next to the exhaust manifold(cylinder #5) and I can't get any movement on it with a wrench. its also a bit rounded. Any easier way to get to this nut?

 

Thats the set. The runners use a T40 bit and the intake manifold uses a T45 bit.
Which air pipes are you trying to remove? The only AIR related things that should have to come off are the PEDEs valve & bracket and the check valve that comes up over the back of the RH valve cover.
Since you are going to have to remove the exhaust manifolds to get the heads off, just take the rubber hoses off the checkvalves on the manifolds and remove the exhaust manifolds.

 

Then I probably got the name wrong. Its the silver colored pipes that go into the exhaust manifold.
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Since you are going to have to remove the exhaust manifolds to get the heads off, just take the rubber hoses off the checkvalves on the manifolds and remove the exhaust manifolds.
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you mean I won't have to take them off??!?! *jumps for joy!*

Good cause their nearly impossible to get off right now.

 

If you are taking tha manifold off you will most likely find the problem. Your gasket might have slipped during installation, or was installed incorrectly. It can suck oil out of the valley, and it may have decomposed enough to start wicking coolant or slipped enough for the coolant to be introduced. Post it up when you get it. I wouldn't plan on doing the head gaskets just yet.

 

Red devil, do you mean the intake manifold? Cause I beleive they did a **** poor job of installing it. The gaskets are hanging out by about a 1/8th inch on the runners. There are also a few other things about this car that I didn't find out about till I started tearing it apart.

Did find out i have lots of new parts though. lol. In the process of taking it apart I found out I have new:
A/C compressor
belts
Water pump
Radiator
etc...lots of new stuff, but using old hoses that really need to be replaced. I found about 5 hoses that need to be replaced in the system. 3 of them were vacum hoses to the engine. One was to the Radiator>waterpump. And the last one was part of the a/c system. which would probably explain why I didn't have any pressure in the a/c system at all.

 

Well, got the head off and I found the problem. Two problems actually. I can tell you this! Its not a head gasket! I'll have pics up but this is the sum of it. I have two cracks in the block. One crack is between Cylenders 3 and 5, and the 2nd crack is between cylinders 2 and 4! I couldn't see it with the heads on because the heads were holding that part of the block together. When I took the head off the crack showed up nice n' wide. Both cracks are about 3 inches long, and about 1/8" wide.

So its bye bye GTA for a while. I'll need to procure a new block. Personally with all the problems that block has I don't feel like picking up a new shortblock and then using the internals from the old one. I'll just go for a new long block I guess. Reman long blocks here I come.....in about 6 months, cause i don't got no cash flow.