90q new shocks and heater + ping problem -- solved by ignoring

[Andrei Kogan <abk@phy.duke.edu>]

Hello,

I am back on the list after a couple of months and would like to share a
few curious recent experiences. Some of you may remember that we had a
randomly occuring engine ping and something that looked like a leaky heater
core. Well,
they are both gone now. The deal with the heater core was as follows: we
had a nasty stink in the car which was alot like coolant smell, and the
windows would fog up like crazy and that fogging would leave a nasty greasy
film on the windows. I thought it was a leak in the core area, however I
felt it must have been really small because I couldn't detect a slightest
sign of coolant loss. Well, I ended up ordering a new core from TPC and set
out on an R&R job. It didn't go to well, I had a slow start, and before I
realized I had only an hour of daylight left so I said to hell with it.
Just for the hell of it, I decided to run the engine with the heater fan in
IV and the heat set to max, to see how bad it gets. It stunk real bad for
about 15-20 min ( you couldn't actually stay inside the car with the
windows rolled up without getting a headache), but then it sorta started
petering out, and after about 40 minutes or so the windows started clearing
up . Since then, I have been driving the car with the heater blower on and
the heat at about 3/4 of the full setting. After about a week, the whole
problem pretty much went away.

My theory is that we got some leaves down into the pipes, and during the
summer, when we had the ac drain hose plugged, they got soaked in water and
turned into a nasty rotten mess, so the first time we tried to use the
heat, that substance was polluting the passing air. Running large amounts
of hot air through the system must have dried it up. Do you buy it? I guess
now the right thing to do is to take it apart and clean the system, but I
probably won't bother until the core does develop a leak. 


If anyone wants a brand new heater core in a box let me know.


The second thing was the occasional detonation we were getting on a hot
engine. Following my mechanic's suggestion, I ran a can of Chevron/techron
injector cleaner, and it's gone! It was very reproducible before, and now I
haven't heard it for two weeks.

Anyway, good luck everyone and hope this info could be of use to someone.

BTW We just put Bilstein HD shocks in the car, and kept the stock springs.
The feel is just about ideal, the car is definitely not rough yet is very
controllable on turns.  I remember a big discussion as to which shocks to
use as a replacement for worn out stock shocks, and I think this is a good
match. I was concerned that they would be too stiff, but they are just
right. In fact, If I knew how much they would  raise the car compared to
the saggy stock shocks I had in it when I bought it I would have considered
getting lowering springs! they were $418 from RD Enterprises, that was the
best deal I could find.