Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Topic: Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!?? (Read 1996 times) previous topic - next topic

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

June 22, 2009, 10:34:19 AM

(title just reflecting BlackCardinal's thread :hick:)

So, just a chronology of the last couple of weeks or so. I buy Sick88TBird's explorer intake. Note that in the spot where normally the small coolant hose coming off the EGR spacer connects to the intake (NOT the hose going to the heater hose metal water tube), there is a plug there on the intake. Back right corner as you face the engine bay. Whether or not it's important. Just mentioning it.

I put his intake on. Upper and lower. I mess with some vacuum connections, tee things off my tree because the Explorer intake lacks the same tree on the rear side so several lines have no home. That's taken care of. I transfered my coolant temp sensor and I think the ACT also (not sure) to it, use the Permatex orange stuff to seal it in the threads. Went to advance auto and got an intake gasket setup "for a 96 explorer 5.0" (upper gasket as well as the lower intake-to-head gaskets...will mention later).

Put all this together, drive it around a few days, go to the track with my friend, so about an hour beating on it on the fun roads there, no issues. No issues at all for a couple weeks. Then we go to go back again because I put my throttle body on and milled out my EGR plate. 10 minutes in, he sees coolant gushing from my side cornering lamp.

So its basically filling up the reservoir then coming out of THAT after it gets fully warmed up and...then some I guess. Under some decent load like driving hard around town. Or on the highway. Ive been having it do it around town too. The temperature gauge has NEVER gone above 4 bars (right smack in the middle) during all of this, except for one time when I was at a party, it overflowed, 2 hours later I left and just about home it touched 5 bars twice but came back down.

Compression 150 psi all 8 cylinders even when hot after blowing its top. I can always get heat from the heater core, vents blow hot no funky smells nothing there.

Replaced the 'stat. Out of ideas. What other oddball things are there to be considered? Im using such detail because all I can think of is collant passages/gaskets/etc in the explorer intake that I dont know...if perhaps Sick88TBird did some mods I ddidnt inform myself of properly.....but then why two weeks of no problems? I think the head(s) are roached. Should I go ahead and lose em?

Theye E7 iron heads I got as some remember about 3 years ago I did my HO top end swap, got these heads, had about 110 or so thousand on em the guy said, off a mustang I presume. Guess anything can happen...I feel like Id see white smoke out my tailpipe but I guess you could lose compression through the gasket without it being able to suck coolant back in?

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #1 – June 22, 2009, 12:53:32 PM

ummmm, when the pressure builds in a the coolant system, it forces the coolant through the gasket when the piston is not firing,....imo.........have you watched it flow out of the motor once you noticed it leaking?????? Maybe the bearings in youre water pump are shot????? or a msall hole starting to form on one of youre hoses??

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #2 – June 22, 2009, 01:29:14 PM

As far as *I* can tell...nothing coming out of the heads or anything etc. Just this. I thought about the water pump, as far as I know its never been replaced. Never made any noises and when I did the top end, it felt solid turned smoothly blah blah. But surely by 130,000 miles its on borrowed time. Suppose I could check it out. I have new hoses from the water tubes to the heatercore, but one day I was checking something else, the car was warm, before this incident, and I heard a very light hissing from that area. Wiggling the lower heatercore hose kinda made it go away, but try as I might I couldnt see coolant spraying/dripping from anything.

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #3 – June 22, 2009, 02:55:03 PM

Hey, join the club!...maybe we should have some jackets made...:hick:

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #4 – June 22, 2009, 03:09:59 PM

Rent a pressure tester from auto hole. Also check to see if the fluid is moving. That'll tell you if your water pump is good.

EDIT: replace the radiator cap because they are cheap.

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #5 – June 22, 2009, 07:18:37 PM

Sounds like a bad Rad Cap. They have a spring in them that is supposed to vent excess pressure. Over time the spring fatigues. Perhaps its give up the ghost and is just venting all the time.

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #6 – June 22, 2009, 07:20:40 PM

Did you overfill the radiator after the intake swap? Are you sure you got all the air bubles out of the cooling system?

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #7 – June 22, 2009, 07:38:40 PM

Perhaps the lower hose is collapsing.Water pump.Fan clutch.It could be a lot of things or a combination of things,but,I doubt strongly that it's the intake.

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #8 – June 22, 2009, 11:27:27 PM

yeah,
do the easy stuff first.........

remove the belt and feel for water pump pully wobble
flush radiator
check lower weep hole on water pump for coolant drips or discharge
grab the fan blade and see if it has wobble in it

with 150 psi on all cyl, its hard to tell at this time.

I use a golf ball to stuff in the lower radiator hose and clamp it down.
next i have a rig for the upper hose so i can add air using an aftermarket valve stem attached to a piece of pvc pipe end cap i stuff and clamp into the upper hose. this pvc pipe endcap also has a psi guage i stole from an old bike foot pump. Now i can put controlled air presure into the radiator and watch for leak down.

to check the entire engine,.....
I vise grip closed the two heater core hoses (add thin pieces of wood between vise grip jaws)
next I reconnect my radiator hoses to the engine and disconnect the hoses from the radiator.
I stuff a golf ball in the lower hose and clamp
I stuff my pvc end cap rig on the upper hose and add air.
then i listen to the air leaking out from somewhere.
Usually after 15 psi of air or so you can tell if there is a leak.
Also, its a good time to test the name plate psi rating of your rad cap compared to how much air you see you have put in.

the above is something you should consider if want to quickly eleiminate probable faults.
what im saying is if you can quickly eliminate the engine and radiator, then how many things are still on the list of faults??> not many.

materials needed
1 golf ball
1 1 1/2'' pvc pipe end cap
1 valve stem kit
1 bike air pump guage
1 air source such as a bike pump or anything to add air with

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #9 – June 22, 2009, 11:45:45 PM

I had the same issue when the HG was leaking on mine... When it was hot you could see literally thousands of tiny bubbles in the radiator, looked like it was full of Alka-Seltzer... Bubbles went away when I pulled #3 plug wire, found the fire ring was burned on that cylinder...

If you can't see any bubbles likely it's something beside the head(s) or gasket...

sigh well now that Ive cried "wolf".....

Reply #10 – June 23, 2009, 01:07:36 AM

Cap. Radiator cap. Pulled it off the 'Vic and proceeded to beat the LIFE out of it around town for 20 minutes. Overflow tank stayed empty. Ran mint. Temperature perfect. Upper radiator hose way firmer than before. Duh, seeing as clearly the system held no pressure before.

Ugh. How should I feel? Embarrassed as hell for flipping out like my motor is spent. Pumped that theres $300 on gt40 heads I dont have to spend. :hick:

Gotta love how I return to my original gut sentiment that I had in the beginning. "no. no!!! theres just nooo way. its a 5.0. its INDESTRUCTIBLE" lol

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #11 – June 23, 2009, 01:59:49 AM

slow down killer,,, dont call the universe down on ya:D

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #12 – June 23, 2009, 01:12:26 PM

LOL glad to hear its ok!!!

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #13 – June 23, 2009, 02:12:03 PM

Quote

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

You went from "chucked heads" to "chucklehead" pretty quickly, didn't ya?

D'oh!

My guess would have been radiator cap or clogged radiator. Glad it was just the former.

Hey maybe chucked heads here too!!!!??

Reply #14 – June 23, 2009, 03:43:48 PM

w00t! That was a good call.

I was going to ask if it was an electric fan or a fan clutch setup.