The Escort was a great economy car, but if it ever overheated enough to pin the
gauge, you were looking at a new engine. Aluminum cylinder block warped. The
dealer advised me it would be cheaper to replace the engine than to try to
repair it.
Plus that Escort had a plastic radiator that could "leak" bits into the new
engine to block coolant flow, causing the new engine to fail as well.
YMMV, but that's how *my* Escort wagon died.
On 8/10/2018 00:02, John Coyle wrote:
That's a terrible tale of woe, Larry - you have my entire sympathy!
On a similar note, in 1975 I changed the head gasket on my 1969 Escort, using
original parts from
the local distributor. All seemed to go well, but then, 60 miles into a
two-week planned holiday
visiting several places in the UK, the temperature gauge hit the stop, steam
issued from under the
bonnet, and when I popped the lid, the engine looked very, very hot! It took us
hours to get home,
topping the radiator up every twenty miles: when we did eventually get there, I
took the head off
again and found that the new gasket had only had the water channels punched out
on one side, so all
four cylinders were getting no proper coolant flow!
Needless to say, I had a few cross words with the supplier.
Hope you get yours fixed, too,
John in Brisbane
John
-----Original Message-----
From: PDML <pdml-boun...@pdml.net> On Behalf Of Larry Colen
Sent: Thursday, 9 August 2018 7:01 PM
To: Pentax-Discuss List <pdml@pdml.net>
Subject: Automotive fun
I've peeved in passing about my recent car problems. In particular, the mystery
water loss on my
Subaru. I finally gave up and ordered the $300 worth of parts to do the
headgasket replacement that
I tried to save money on when I put the motor in the car.
Monday night I had the heads off, found evidence of blowby into the cooling
jacket which explained
both the water loss and the lack of other typical blown headgasket symptoms. I
was all set to put
the new headgasket in yesterday morning when someone commented that I really
ought to take the heads
into the machine shop to be checked out.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157672026815098
Yesterday morning, I toss the heads in my van, fill the gas tank and the van
won't start.
Eventually I buy about $).25 worth of gas, pour a tiny bit down the throttle
body, the van starts
up, runs fine and I head into Santa Cruz. I get about another two miles further
on, and the van
breaks down for real.
This morning I realize that the registration and smog are due on the van. I
paid the registration
online to avoid late fees, kind of hard to smog a vehicle that won't start.
The problem with the van is probably the fuel pump. $200 for the part, in the
gas tank. The full 35
gallon fuel tank that has to be removed to get to the fuel pump. I could pay my
mechanic to do the
job, but that's another $200 that I don't have, particularly since I can't get
to work without a
running vehicle.
The heads are back on the Subie, though not torqued down. If nothing else goes
wrong, it should be
running tomorrow afternoon sometime. I won't bore you with the story of the
dumb ass mistake I made
yesterday that cost me something like four hours. On the bright side, I'm now
pretty damned good at
assembling Subaru cylinder heads.
I understand that things come up, and we each face a series of crisis in our
lives. I'd greatly
appreciate it, however, if the Universe let me finish with on crisis before it
throws the next one
at me.
In other news, it seems that Mom has flipped her shit and now thinks that
Debbi, the friend who is
taking care of her and pretty much giving her a place to live so she doesn't
have to be in a home,
is trying to kill her.
--
Science - Questions we may never find answers for.
Religion - Answers we must never question.
--
PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List
PDML@pdml.net
http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow
the directions.
