See? Hosed by that little rusted hole.
I'm working hard to focus on the positive. The fact that it happened while the car was apart, and not half way up to NH or VT or somewhere equally as disastrous or inconvenient, really is a good thing. And I only spilled 3 liters of distilled water through the hole.
A weird bit of leakage had developed after the first day of working on it. Where was it coming from I kept thinking - maybe some had gotten in the bell housing and was leaking out that way? I was perplexed, kept looking for somewhere the coolant could have come from. Not finding it.
Turns out the wiring harness bracket was in the vicinity of this, tucked out of the way of the head install and removal... I guess it loosened the rust a bit. That or the thing rusted just sitting there.
Either way that's a $70 dealer only hose. No chinesium parts for that bit. Downside, I mean Upside, is that this is one problem that won't repeat itself. Something else might rust through, but not this piece. Well maybe over the next 13 years and 200,000 miles.
That's the thing with working on the old cars. Snapped bolts, new problems.
But the head is on, torqued down, turbo bolted up, new harmonic pulley with the upgraded damping system (no more cold start squeak of rubber slipping). Yeah the old one had a rubber bushing like thing between the part that bolts to the crankshaft and drives the alternator, it was slipping when cold. Once the rubber heated up it expanded. I guess when they fail they tend to take a bunch of stuff with them.
On the plus side, I really know this engine well now.
But I am wiped out. I should really get some air ratchets, a nice 1/2" one and a 1/4" one... it would so speed things up and reduce the fatigue factor. And now I get to the ride in the Man Van to the race with Skinny... maybe some of his speed will transmit due to proximity... because i tell ya... this week is not exactly how I planned to prepare going into the first cross races.
Could be worse... could always be worse, and yes, i'm very glad that this thing didn't blow after i'd finished and packed up the tools.
heddwch
G
2 comments:
so, your loss of coolant was probably this pinhole all along, made bigger by the head repair...
nope...
if there was a pinhole leak the system would de-pressurize and it would have left a puddle. The location of the hole would have meant the system would be more than 50% drained.
the system stayed under pressure for over a week before I took the head off...
and never needed more than a cup or two if it was driven an hour or so.
And the level was rock solid when parked.
I had the bracket that holds part of the engine wiring harness tucked out of the way of the head down in the vicinity of the hole. And it got moved around a bit when it was down there.
this was just something that happened then. I'm just wicked glad it didn't happen after I put it together and was half way to WV...
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