legacycentral bbs

I just aqcuired this car from my sister because my dad cant get it to quit blowing head gaskets. The first time he had the heads shaved .009". The car ran fine for awhile then it over heated again because a nipple broke off the radiator and it dumped all the coolant...she(my sister) pulled over as soon as the temp gauge pegged, they filled it up, drove it home, put a new radiator and again it drove fine for a couple weeks. then all of a sudden it started overheating again. My dad said F' it and he was sick of working on it and my sister cant afford to pay someone to do it so it got handed down to me(cha-ching). but anyways whats the chances of the block being cracked on these engines (EJ22T) I've read that they're siamesed and supposed to be strong as f***. should i try another set of head gaskets or start looking for another engine? BTW the engine is completely stock (other than slightly shaved heads) all boost settings are stock (for now haha) and I have confirmed its a head gasket issue by leaving the cap off watching it push the coolant out followed by a burp of air.....Any ideas suggestions or otherwise, I'd hate to junk it as the body is perfect other than peeling clear coat here and there and I once owned a '99 2.5 RS(got it new when i turned 16 and gave that thing mortal hell shifting at redline every shift and never had a problem) that I regret selling to this day.

MTFB wrote: The car ran fine for awhile then it over heated again because a nipple broke off the radiator and it dumped all the coolant...she(my sister) pulled over as soon as the temp gauge pegged,.

Sounds like she waited a bit too long.
The engines are pretty stout, and I think based on what happened, the block should still be ok.
I think the heads can handle probably another shave, or there are plenty of heads available elsewhere to use ( I have one spare set, and will be getting another soon.

OR you can use the opportunity to get 20G/K heads and upgrade the engine.

I would try to make it run again.

Just my 2 cents.

( I would double check both fans to make sure they are still good, as if one fan is bad, it probably overheated faster after the coolant tank dumped.)

yea both fans kick on, they were cycling while i was in driveway diagnosing the head gasket problem(which it never over heated while in the driveway). The temps are supposed to be in the 60's this week and im outta work for the time being so I'm gonna pull the motor out and check it out. Also when my dad redone it last time he re-used the original head bolts, im probably gonna use new ones this time around unless u guys tell me otherwise. How much do you think can safely be shaved from the heads before they're trashed? I know you can take about 20 thou off of an N/A engines heads before worrying about valve clearance and such, but with this being boosted i was worried about raising the compression too much. This is my first boosted car(and i plan on toying it with it quite a bit), but I've been a gear head for as long as i can remember so ive got a really good grasp on mechanicals and such, I've even built a few Mustangs in my day, never really messed with foreign cars much other than drive them tho..

Have you done anything other than what you described as far as confirming a bad head gasket? What you described sounds exactly like an air bubble being pushed out of the cooling system that hadn't already been bled out. Is there white smoke? Are you losing coolant? Has there been a compression or leak-down test performed? DON'T PULL THE ENGINE YET IF YOU HAVEN'T CHECKED THIS STUFF!

That said, assuming you do have a HG issue...Was the block surface ever checked for straightness the first time the gaskets were replaced?

Yea the exhaust has steam/moisture coming out to the point that theres a puddle in both tips, and it does lose coolant. I haven't done anything else to it, i dont have the tools to do a leakdown or compression test. I'm not sure if my dad checked the deck surface when he had it apart, I know he tore it down in the car. He's a 35 yr veteran heavy equipment deisel mechanic so I'm pretty confident in his work. When I was in the driveway I refilled the system by removing the hose from the reservoir and filling it with a funnel till the radiator was full the reinstalled the hose and topped off the reservoir and started the car with the cap off and let it run per the haynes manual. With the cap on it would always push coolant out the overflow every 2-3 minutes.

SLODRIVE wrote:What you described sounds exactly like an air bubble being pushed out of the cooling system that hadn't already been bled out.

If that was the case how long does it usually take for all the air to work it's way out? I'd hate to pull the engine for nothing if it does just have a air pocket....is the way I described my filling method sound correct? is there a better way to do it? I'm going to work on this thing tomarrow, Should I go ahead and start pulling the engine. The car only overheats under a load so I dont have anyway of getting it to overheat, unless I just stall the converter up and hold it there. The cars not legal so i cant drive it. The cars been sittin for couple months so that could be causing the condensation in the exhaust...Hmmm thats alot to think about.

I think I just figured it out.....My car does not have a coolant puke tank on it(dont know how I missed it before). So there for it is slowly losing coolant that should be going into the puke tank onto the ground and when it gets low enough it begins to over heat....do the turbo and N/A ones interchange???? I found one on ebay for 19 bucks shipped but its for a N/A car, will it work. Some one please reply ASAP, I dont have a car at the moment and the sooner I can get this one going the better.

Yes N/A and turbo one should be the same, then again the fan sizes are different hmm. Picture of a engine bay with a overflow tank.



White tank on the driver side of the rad.

I have a tank here if you need it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/90-94-Su ... 27a785368a

Does that one look like yours ??? hard to tell from the top.

Looks the same.

ericem wrote:Looks the same.

Thanks alot man, I really appreciate....When I get the chance I'll take some pics of my car and possibly start a build thread. I plan on doing a TD05 and a FMIC after I get everything else panned out on it.

Sweet

I don't know if that is the exact right tank. All three of the first gen Legacy Ive owned had a metal bracket to attach the tank to the radiator and the auction looks to be all plastic. I like the lid of the tank shown in that ebay auction though, later lids were solid (no drain tube).

If the coolant was low enough that the temperature changed you might have messed something else up. Don't be surprised if oil consumption goes up, the heads start making noise or even slight rod knock type sounds appear. The coolant temp sensor is on the very top of the engine so its the first thing to not have coolant so the temperature reported by the nerfed dash gauge is that of the metal itself!

Yea I'm not sure if that one is made for my specifc car car or not but I'll make it work. Just have to rig up a bracket if nothing else...I Just talked to my dad, he said my sister caught it pretty soon this time I just assumed she had pushed it as far as she did last time...the reason the car doesn't have an overflow tank is because my dad "orderd" the coolant tank on the engine(with the pressure cap on it) cause a nipple broke off and caused the car to dump all it's coolant when the car blew a head gasket the first time. well the dealership sent the overflow tank it didnt have one on the car and it wasnt the one he needed so he sent it back. The ppl he bought the car off of bought the car wrecked in the front and they hadnt finished it when we got it. It wasn't there so I guess outta site outta mind.

Well.....I got that overflow tank in today, went to my parents house and put it on(perfect fit BTW) and first trip the engine pushed all the coolant out into the tank and overheated. I caught it early and pulled it over and let it cool down then drove the rest of the way to the house. I guess tomarrow I'm going to pull the engine out and start the process of new head gaskets and associated gaskets as well as a new water pump....On a side note F'n A right, these little cars will surprise ya, today was my first time driving it and it was quite the runner. The suspension is tighter than nuns cunt too, I'm rather surprised what I got for the initial cost. I'll get some pics tomarrow and post them up, only thing not original on the body is that it has a N/A hood, can u get the SS hoods after market? I'd like to put it back original, It has the original bumper still, scraped up a lil but still in very good shape, I just need to get it running and get an SS hood and fresh paint and it'll be another one saved from the crusher.

Well i got the engine pulled today...I got it out in about 4 hrs taking my time, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Check out the pics http://s983.photobucket.com/albums/ae312/MTFB/Rubi/ I think it's winestone, I'm not sure, let me know if I'm right. I'm psyched to be puttin this bitch together, it's got some potential, hopefully it turns out how I want it to. I'm gonna detail the engine bay and paint everything practical while its apart