[V8] what to do

[Tony and Lillie]

> While I was under the car, I think I found the source of my slow
> coolant leak - the one I was sure was the upper radiator connection
> because there is always dried coolant around it. I seems to be the
> head gasket. $&*#. There is a lot of baked on coolant - all right at
> or below the head on the block. I guess I have to remove the headers
> to see for sure but it does not look good at this point. I have no
> idea how the coolant got to the radiator connection, but it is dry.
> It must blow up there somehow. Very weird.

Ingo was able to fix an oil leak on his by retorquing the head bolts, but 
then, it seems that you have several problems. BTW, it weems everything 
blows all over in a V8. When my power steering pump leaked, it go all the 
way over to the coolant expansion tank. Go figure :)

> For the last week the car has been sitting in the garage waiting for
> me to do the front end. When I went to start it to put it up on the
> ramps, it initially fired but then went into free spin mode - where
> it sounded like I had the plugs removed. No hint of a possibility
> that it was going to start. I pulled a plug and it was soaked. I
> dried it out and put it back in - hoping that one dry plug would be
> enough to get the motor running again and it did - but huge clouds of
> blue smoke came out for a few minutes. It appears that sitting for
> this long let a lot of oil leak into the cylinders from the valve
> guides? What else could it be? The car was running fine when I parked
> it, and no way for oil to get into the cylinders any other way than
> from the valves - right?

Hmm, why does this sound farmiliar?

> These problems would be pretty straight forward on any other car -
> just fix it. But this is not any other car.
> What I am afraid of is when I take the heads off, I am going to find
> worn out cylinders - which I can not fix.
> Even if they look good, I want to replace the rings - which is only
> possible if I use a ring that may not be specified for this
> application and if I re-use the rod bearings. This does not appeal to
> me. If I just leave the bottom end alone, I am likely to end up with
> another oil burner. Also not appealing
> I could buy a used motor, but then I might easily end up in the same
> boat but have wasted lots of good money on a bad motor.
> I am fine with the 3.6L by the way, but I have the 5-speed so I would
> need to swap the cams to make it work right. At that point, it would
> be silly not to do a valve job and then I am right back at the ring
> and bearing problem.
> I am having a hard time not just driving it down to the car lot and
> trading it for something newer.

Well, how much do you like the car? Financially, I don't see how you could 
not justify rebuilding the heads, versus getting another car that either 
costs far more or needs work. But, if you aren't crazy about the car you may 
enjoy something more. From a simple $$ standpoint, it would seem worth it, 
though. Especially since you have new front end components now. If there are 
a million other little things wrong with the car, however (like mine) it may 
not make financial sense to you. Like I said, it's all up to how much you 
like the car.

As for what to do, that's also up to you. I'd probably recommend starting 
with a leakdown test to see where you are loosing compression (if anywhere). 
That can help you with the determination. If it's pretty good, just do the 
head rebuild and you should be pleased with the results.

As for the subframe bushings, I'd check the torque of the bolts and see if 
you have any play after that. Usually loose bolts cause people to think 
their subframe bushings are worn out.

Tony Hoffman