Overheated, 250 degrees a few times

[davethepear]

I'm driving along, minding my own business, and I hear a faint dinging... the gauges look fine. About 10 minutes later it does it again and this time I notice the temp is nearly pegged, it hit 250 degrees a few times but I drove slowly and downshifted down hills to get it even cooler. It's home, it starts, it runs, and... it floods #1 with coolant.

coolant has been "disappearing" for a few weeks, just topped it off, looked for leaks, none. It's been running great, for what it is... and probably could just replace the head gasket. I don't know... What do YOU think?!

[davethepear]

more info...
the oil is still clean
the transmission does not run through the radiator at all
no idiot light until it's been running a few minutes, then misfire on #1
other than that, nothing.

[occasional demons]

If you're getting coolant in the cylinder, the head will have to come off.

Whether or not just replacing the gasket will fix it, depends on if the head is still straight, and has no cracks.

Check the gasket surface with a straightedge and feeler gauges. Check that the cam turns freely in the bores. the rocker shaft assy's will need to be removed for this.

If the head is warped, do not have it resurfaced, until it has been de-warped. or just get a cheap JY head and go from there.

[davethepear]

I think that's what the last guy did... he said he had replaced the head gasket, he probably did just that and nothing more. Thanks for the good advice, hadn't even thought of a JY head, a reman'd head is $650 on average. Thanks again for being there for me!

[davethepear]

hope you're still around. I replaced the head with a JY head. I checked it for flatness and it was perfect... it looked good. I put the car back together checking everything as I went along. I started the car, it fired up, ran kinda rough for about 10 seconds and DIED! now it cranks funny and soaks the spark plugs. I took the plugs out and blew all the gas out of the cyls and let the plugs dry while I checked other things, like whether the timing marks still line up, they do. every plug is plugged in, every thing is lined up, I'm at a loss and am very close to sending the thing to the scrapper.

funny that the cam sensor and coil plug are exactly the same... other than one was fairly soaked in oil, so I knew which he was. I've gotta be overlooking something. it acts like it wants to start, but just won't.

[occasional demons]

Coil connector is the one with the dark green/orange wire in the center, just to be sure. It wouldn't have fired up at all to begin with if the connectors were swapped.

Cranking funny doesn't sound good, but hopefully it is just the lash adjusters being out of sorts from sitting. I would try pulling the ASD relay, leave the plugs out, and crank it for a bit, pausing to not burn up the starter, and putting it back together to see if it does better.

I have had new lash adjusters in a DOHC hold the valves open enough to keep it from running. Fortunately not open enough to do damage. After cranking it without the plugs, for a few minutes, it bled the lash adjusters down enough to make compression, and it has ran fine ever since.

If you had the rockers off some of the lash adjusters might have extended, which will hold the valves off the seats. Hopefully that's all it is.

[davethepear]

haha I'm off my rocker, but I didn't take apart the head other than to replace the cam seals. I'll try that tomorrow, try to get the oil pressure up, I changed the oil before I cranked it... but the head was fairly dry.

[occasional demons]

Yeah, the rockers on the JY head might need some time to get back into running shape, from sitting for ??? who knows how long.

At the worst, you might need to swap the rockers from your original head over. Just be careful that the swivels on the ends of the lash adjusters are intact on them all. I would just take the entire shaft/rocker assy, and gently swap it over, bolts and all, if it comes to that.

[davethepear]

thank you so much! I'll let ya know what happens

[davethepear]

I pulled the plugs and cranked for a while, let it rest, etc... then put the plugs back in, basically the same issue, but a little closer to running... I pulled the fuel rail and put a little bit of oil in each hole, put the fuel rail back, cranked it and it fired right up... smoked like my grandmother, but it's running. It seems to run pretty warm (about 215) before the fans come on... but that's fun for another day. I turn the a/c on for a second and it brings the temp down. probably a dying sensor. Thank you again for your help! I hope I can return the favor someday.

[davethepear]

now I am thinking I need to replace the fuel injector o-rings...