Overheating - Good E9 Mechanic In Santa Barbara?

[drewbaker]

Guys,

My parents got 2 hours into their 10 days Californian road trip. They planned it for two years and shipped the car over from Australia. I have been trying to hunt down an overheating issue for 4 months now. Tried three different radiators, thermostats, water pumps etc. Nothing. I now suspect it's a head gasket, there's basically nothing else it could be other than voodoo (the heater is disconnected?).

The car is in Santa Barbara and they're contemplating getting a rental to finsh the journey, I'm devastated.

Can anyone recommend a quality E9 shop or mechanic within 150 miles (my Hagerty coverage) of Santa Barbara that might be able to replace the head gasket asap? I'm trying to save my parents road-trip.

Drew.

 

[Arde]

One option is to lure Don Lawrence to Santa Barbara. Else I think LA has Coupeking and a few other E9 experts.

 

[MyFemurHurts]

Here's some of Dons advice to me after we did my cooling system (well, he did. I just stood there and looked pretty which was a pretty hard job for me).

Let the car get up to temp, and shut it off. What happens to the fan? If it's hot it should be locked, and should stop and not freewheel.

Restart it, and hold the upper radiator hose. Be careful, but it should be warm, but not scalding hot.

You can also use a pyrometer to check heat on the hose and the return hose on the other side of the radiator.

You might have a bad ground on the temp gauge, a faulty temp sensor, or a combination of the two like I had. I replaced my whole cooling system, still had temp problems, replaced the temp sensor and it mostly stopped, but it would flicker up into the red. I thought it was burping coolant with a bad head gasket, but it turns out I had a bad ground on the gauge.

Solved that, and I still have an issue where the temp gauge will skyrocket until I tap the gauge with my finger. Seems 1/2 scale is where it's spent it's whole life, and sometimes it wanders in that range until it gets a love tap, and then it goes back to normal.

TLR it might not be over heating. Check the basics, and then check the gauge.

 

[sfdon]

Call me and I will walk you through the diagnostic.
I have a mechanic 60 miles away.
Send me a pm with phone number

 

[drewbaker]

Thanks for the detailed responses guys.

I've had Tom Colitt working on the cooling system for a couple months now. I'm confident he's tried everything. His words were 'I have left no stone unturned besides taking out the brand water pump or taking apart the engine.'

In a final effort to get my parents on the road, we took the brand new thermostat off completely and the car is still overheating with steam coming out of the exhaust.

We've basically gotten to it either being air trapped in the cooling system because of the bypassed cabin heater or a bigger issue such as the head gasket.

The car is in Santa Barbara and I'd like to get it to a reputable E9 specialist to get this issue fixed.

Thanks,
Drew.

 

[MyFemurHurts]

Steam out the exhaust sounds like a head gasket to me, but I only play a mechanic on TV.

 

[lloyd]

In a final effort to get my parents on the road, we took the brand new thermostat off completely and the car is still overheating with steam coming out of the exhaust.

We've basically gotten to it either being air trapped in the cooling system because of the bypassed cabin heater or a bigger issue such as the head gasket.

Under normal circumstances, it is hard to imagine bona fide steam from the exhaust as anything but an internal leak, e.g., head gasket or cracked head. Sadly, this would have been my opinion from the very first whisp. Pulling the spark plugs and looking for moisture and/or an extremely clean nose would have been further confirmation, as would a consistent loss of coolant.

Check for PM.

 

[Stevehose]

Is the coolant level dropping?

You can get the block tester from Napa:

http://www.napaonline.com/p/BK_7001006

I have the heater bypassed and never had a trapped air issue. Drill the thermostat and install the hole at the 12 o'clock position so it self bleeds but since you have already taken this out of the loop doutful its the problem.

A better way to bleed is to disconnect the small hose at the overflow tank, connect another hose to the tank, hold the one from the radiator up in the air then gently blow through the other hose until coolant comes out the radiator hose. Put your finger on it to keep it from leaking and reattach to the tank. Do this when the engine is not hot.

Thanks for the detailed responses guys.

I've had Tom Colitt working on the cooling system for a couple months now. I'm confident he's tried everything. His words were 'I have left no stone unturned besides taking out the brand water pump or taking apart the engine.'

In a final effort to get my parents on the road, we took the brand new thermostat off completely and the car is still overheating with steam coming out of the exhaust.

We've basically gotten to it either being air trapped in the cooling system because of the bypassed cabin heater or a bigger issue such as the head gasket.

The car is in Santa Barbara and I'd like to get it to a reputable E9 specialist to get this issue fixed.

Thanks,
Drew.

 

[sfdon]

Steam out the exhaust and dropping coolant level is the end of story.
You need to pull the head off and replace it.
Csi or carburated?

 

[sfdon]

For the record a bypassed heater core is meaningless.
A blocked off hose from the back of the head is meaningless.
It is a separate subsystem that is not needed or part of the coolant system.
With your Tstat out your entire system is self bleeding.

 

[Arde]

Seems like plan B is 8 days of hikes in California...
If they make it up to San Francisco they have electric scooters for rent, or they can drive my coupe to satisfy the urge.

Good luck, you are in good hands.

 

[sfdon]

Vern O. is in LA.
He works for CoupeKing and for me.
He can do the job for you.
Let me know.

 

[MyFemurHurts]

Seems like plan B is 8 days of hikes in California...
If they make it up to San Francisco they have electric scooters for rent, or they can drive my coupe to satisfy the urge.

Good luck, you are in good hands.

I was thinking the same thing. There's plenty of coupes up here, and I'd even lend mine out as long as I can have it back for the '02 Show and Swap this Saturday.

 

[matthewp]

what year is the head, and where abouts in Oz are they from ?

 

[sfdon]

Don't forget Jeff Tighe...
He is close and he would be perfect for this job.

 

[tomcolitt]

I think there was another thread where we discussed this problem already, but I will try to clear things up because you all don't quite have the complete information.

A leaking head gasket or cracked head were my first suspects too, but none of the tests conclusively confirmed that and some important telltale signs that haven't been mentioned weren't present either. None of the plugs were "cleaned" from water in the combustion chambers. Initial compression, leak down and fluorescent dye tests showed NO leak either. No clear evidence of oil in the water or water in the oil either. No bubbles in the coolant. In the back of my head, I still suspected some kind of possible intermittent internal blockage or crack, but because of a radiator that also wouldn't disperse heat properly and since the problem went away when I removed the thermostat and in consideration of Ricks's budget, I thought it was safer to start out by not pulling the engine apart. I also expect that if there was a head gasket failure or a cracked head, the problem usually would get worse sooner rather than later.

Apparently, it finally did get worse after Rick's parents ran it for extended periods with little or no coolant and obviously steam coming out of the tail pipe confirms this. I think it is time for another leak down test, to get a better clue of exactly where to look once the head is off.

P.S. Don, I don't think you can easily dismiss the disconnected heater core as a non-issue, once you hear the details. It absolutely did cause a problem because the way the bypassed hoses were routed, normal bleeding procedures still left an air pocket that lead to no coolant circulating and very quick overheating before the engine heat ever made it to the radiator, with or without a thermostat. Once this difficult to trace issue was eliminated and the system was bled the car ran ok again for some time, at least on test drives of less than an hour and close monitoring by me... The way I see it this head (which is more likely than the gasket) has a crack that only showed itself under certain circumstances and sealed up again for quite some time before it completely failed. Does anyone have any strong opinions on that theory for a very unusual failure?

 

[sfdon]

Sounds like a car with a partially blocked radiator to expansion tank hose problem.
After trying 3 radiators we can assume it's not in the radiator hose fitting.

I know you guys will get this fixed soon!

Good luck to you.