Replacing seals in my M20
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A few more pics from yesterday. Got the intake and valve body on, as well as the exhaust manifolds connected. Today, got the valve body torqued in, the throttle cables attached, the thermostat housing attached, and the hoses for it that were in the car re-attached to it. Plugged in the fuel injectors, fuel lines and thermostat cables, and pretty much got the left side of the engine done save for the bellows, MAF and air box. Also got the new water pump and gasket attached finger tight. Hope to torque the water pump bolts and get most if not all of the timing belt in tomorrow. Might even get him on the road!!
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Made really good progress on Friday. Got the timing belt on and nearly complete. Only thing left is to put the fan on and put the coolant in, then hope that it starts and runs right.
I assume that putting the antifreeze in goes like usual; pour in through overflow tank with engine running, heater defroster on and bleed screw cracked? Haven't refilled a coolant-less engine in quite a while.
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Made really good progress on Friday. Got the timing belt on and nearly complete. Only thing left is to put the fan on and put the coolant in, then hope that it starts and runs right.
I assume that putting the antifreeze in goes like usual; pour in through overflow tank with engine running, heater defroster on and bleed screw cracked? Haven't refilled a coolant-less engine in quite a while.
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Thanks!! Never thought of that. The thoughts of starting the engine on basically no coolant and running it that way for several minutes while it slowly sucked antifreeze through a straw really had me worried it wouldn't fill fast enough.
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Well, my victory was short lived. Got the car started and the coolant level up to where it seemed it should be. The heater was working. Coolant level seemed to be ok for an initial drive so I took it out for a short drive to let the coolant circulate with intent of checking it again when I stopped. Made it about two miles from the house when the engine lost power and shut down. Smelled like something had burnt. Had smoke coming out of the side of the car and a puddle of oil forming under the engine. The temp gauge never showed that the engine was hot, so not sure what happened, but suspect that the head gasket blew again. I'm not sure why as I had done everything the book and DIY's said to do. I know I got everything together right and timing was set properly. Had it towed to the shop this time as I have no clue where to begin looking at this point. I'm so pissed right now that I'm about ready to throw in the towel on this thing.
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OK. I have to apologize for my rant above. Most of the problem was that my other car broke a driveshaft U joint the previous day while on my way to work requiring that it be towed, and then the E30 broke down on me the next day on my way to work requiring that IT be towed to0. I was just really frustrated with my cars in general and about ready to take a BFH to both of them.
Turned out that neither of them required a huge amount of work, and about half the invoice expense for both combined was the towing which I can get back on my insurance.
The E30 ended up being the bolt that runs through the cam sprocket into the head. It apparently wasn't torqued quite right and loosened up shortly after I got on the road causing the distributor rotor to stop spinning and leaving me with no spark. The oil I found under the car was just a continued leakage from my pan gasket which I need to work on next. Nothing regarding the engine. Just got the car back from the shop today, and it runs great so far. Coolant level is still spot on after some city driving and the car runs and idles better now than it has in nearly 18 months.
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Well, it's been about 8 months since I did the head gasket change, and now I'm loosing coolant big time.....and it isn't leaking onto the ground. Have a feeling that my Reinz head gasket blew and I'm going to have to do this again. Dropping the car off at the shop to have them do a good diagnosis on it just to make sure, but I have a really bad feeling.
Oddly enough (or not), the engine seems to run fine. Just did a valve adjustment on it a week ago and it's a lot quieter now than it was too.
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I ran a Victor Reinz gasket on boost. It survived, the piston rings didnt.
That sucks. I doubt mine is the piston rings though. The only things I can think of that would cause internal coolant loss like this is either blown head gasket or cracked block. The former I can deal with, albeit reluctantly as it's only a couple hundred bucks and a few days worth of work. The latter will be the death of the car. Although an M50 swap could be cool, I don't have the money for an engine swap. This is my DD, so any new engine would require a complete rebuild in order to ensure reliability, and I don't have the money for that, even if I were to try it myself which don't have the time for or knowledge to attempt.
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You'd also think that it would have leaked coolant all over the place too. This is why I'm thinking that cracked block or head, or even a loose coolant bleed bolt on the block are probably out of the question - no external leakage. I'm just surprised that the car is still running so well. It's like there's nothing wrong except that the coolant warning light keeps coming on, and I have to keep adding coolant.
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Well, it's official. Either blown head gasket or cracked head. Won't know which until I get the damned car apart....again. Leaning against the cracked head as there really isn't any reason it should have cracked in the past week under normal driving. Hopefully my work schedule will allow me to get the thing torn apart within the next week so i can get on this and get it done. Think I'm going with FelPro gasket and bolts this time, though.
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You're probably right. Was doing some reading on E30tech and hearing about all of the bad luck everybody has had with VR gaskets. Sounds like the goetze and FelPro might be worth a risk, but it also sounded like the BMW gasket, although more expensive, was far better quality.
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