Adam Connell
Monster Truckin since 87'
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2006
Well after letting the car sit for 3 years after I got disgusted with it I finally made the time to get her back into shape. The final straw was me cruising down the street, a loud pop, and it died. It turned out all I needed was a new coil pack/ignition module.
Before firing the car I drained the old oil... I pulled the plug and out dump about 8oz of bright green coolant, and then the oil followed. The car was exposed to 3 years of temp swings, but the coolant was good down to -40 on my hydrometer.
Now this next step will make most of you cringe unless you've tried it... I always get looks of shock and horror when I mention doing this, but I've done it to more engines than I can remember and it's never given me an issue (I am an oilfield mechanic). I dumped about 2 gallons of E85 right in the oil fill hole and then pulled the drain plug again. If I did this with a diesel engine I'd use diesel, I always use the fuel the engine runs on and I never let it sit in the engine longer than it takes me to pour it in and get to the drain plug. I did this because e85 is hydroscopic and I wanted as much of all the old crud and coolant out as possible. As soon as flow from the drain hole turned to drips, I dumped a quart of oil in to flush out the rest of the e85. I let that drain to a trickle and then filled it up with oil and fired it up.
She fired right up and ran better than ever. She got to about 140 before I started seeing coolant leaks. The caps I used to cap off some of the coolant lines had cracked. She was still running like a champ though!
So here's my question. I've never gotten into a 3.8, so I don't know what the inside looks like so bear with me if this seems like a stupid question. The obvious coolant leaks were draining into the valley under the intake, is there any opening that could possibly allow the coolant to get from under the intake all the way into the bottom of the pan? It's quite likely my pcv grommet it junk, because I have a new one that I ordered before I parked the car that I never installed.
What do you guys think? Should I fix all the obvious leaks and see if the coolant/oil issue happens again or should I pull the engine and replace the obvious gaskets?
Also as a side note: The e85 that's been in the tank for 3 years looked, smelled, and tasted(just kidding) brand new. I junked the first gallon I got out of the rail, and then put the rest in my truck. I pulled about 12 gallons out of the tank. Also the Walbro pump appears to have survived, but I'm going to replace it for safety's sake.
Before firing the car I drained the old oil... I pulled the plug and out dump about 8oz of bright green coolant, and then the oil followed. The car was exposed to 3 years of temp swings, but the coolant was good down to -40 on my hydrometer.
Now this next step will make most of you cringe unless you've tried it... I always get looks of shock and horror when I mention doing this, but I've done it to more engines than I can remember and it's never given me an issue (I am an oilfield mechanic). I dumped about 2 gallons of E85 right in the oil fill hole and then pulled the drain plug again. If I did this with a diesel engine I'd use diesel, I always use the fuel the engine runs on and I never let it sit in the engine longer than it takes me to pour it in and get to the drain plug. I did this because e85 is hydroscopic and I wanted as much of all the old crud and coolant out as possible. As soon as flow from the drain hole turned to drips, I dumped a quart of oil in to flush out the rest of the e85. I let that drain to a trickle and then filled it up with oil and fired it up.
She fired right up and ran better than ever. She got to about 140 before I started seeing coolant leaks. The caps I used to cap off some of the coolant lines had cracked. She was still running like a champ though!
So here's my question. I've never gotten into a 3.8, so I don't know what the inside looks like so bear with me if this seems like a stupid question. The obvious coolant leaks were draining into the valley under the intake, is there any opening that could possibly allow the coolant to get from under the intake all the way into the bottom of the pan? It's quite likely my pcv grommet it junk, because I have a new one that I ordered before I parked the car that I never installed.
What do you guys think? Should I fix all the obvious leaks and see if the coolant/oil issue happens again or should I pull the engine and replace the obvious gaskets?
Also as a side note: The e85 that's been in the tank for 3 years looked, smelled, and tasted(just kidding) brand new. I junked the first gallon I got out of the rail, and then put the rest in my truck. I pulled about 12 gallons out of the tank. Also the Walbro pump appears to have survived, but I'm going to replace it for safety's sake.
