Lumpy idle...now overheating?

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

middle 2 pots are away

sounds like the water pump or uit may be a core plug.

Radwelds a no no as is the old egg trick it never works.

Sort it properly mate, so new head gasket, pump if it is that thats leaking and a cambelt that way it will be sorted properly.

Level 5 User Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 110

cheers Chris mate, I've bought all the gear so am gonna start now.

Thanks again.

Level 5 User Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 110

ok fairly productive day. gonna eat seeing as have forgotten to do that all day and then work under floodlight for a bit.

got the timing cover off (damn those bastard torx bolts, how frustrating are they to get off!) and have other stuff off like radiator (wanna glush it properly), aux belts, expansion tank (needs a good ol' clean down) air box etc. Undecided whether to take inlet manifold off first, though i think i will just leave it on.

Couple of Q's - searched the forukm and good some good tips for fitting new belt and holding liners down but need help:

1. Lining up the marks before you take the belt off. I have lined the notch on the camshaft sprocket up to the indentation (best word i can think of to describe it, doesn't look much mike a dedicated timing mark though!) on the valve cover, but on the crankshaft pulley there is no timing mark that i can see. Haynes mentions looking through the aperture in the trans. bellhousing, though i can't see where this is?

2. TO disconnect the fuel lines do you need to depressurise? IIRC don't you have to undo fuse and run it to do this? Assume its OK to do this even with all the bits off so far.

3. I can see oil traces on the existing cambelt, and evidence of water around a pulley / tensioner (maybe the waterpump?) - yellow brown staining on the cover. Must mean the pump is fooked / leaks. Anyway will replace it but the oil leak...? guess i will know more when i have the belt and crank pulley off and can see everything properly.

Cheers guys (or maybe just Chris!)

Level 7 User Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Posts: 230

Did the egg trick once on a mates old fooked astra when we driven it to pieces and got a hole in the radiator (his dad ownes a chicken farm) so to easy not to try. And it fixed it for the time being although it took 4 minutes before it stopped leaking and we already thought it wasn't working Razz

but still that ain't a head!

Good luck mate doing all this cost ya a lot of time!?

Level 5 User Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 110

i'll let you know when it's done Wink

so far no, not really. you will only get buggered if you haveto spend ages undoing bolts etc. which is why it pays to get all the info first!

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

1. you need to remove the ALT belt pulley before you see the crank pulley marks and the cam and camcover marks are reasonably accurate.

2.Run the engine with the fuel pump relay removed or just pull the lines off, not much will spray out or just remove the TB from the manifold and rest it up out the way

3. do further investigation

Level 5 User Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 110

Thought I'd post back - it's all done and fixed, my hands are shredded to f*** but am well pleased with myself being able to do that! You are right in that it is not too hard...timing belt was actually really easy to do, it was trying to connect all the vacuum hoses back and put the loom in the right place that was a bit tricky (oh and leaving the alt tensioning till last and having to do it in the dark). The engine is running very smoothly indeed now, just highlights a slightly blowing exhaust. I tried to get a pic up on the web of the headgasket - it had blown around cyl 1, 2 and 3 - not in between them, just around each pot and into a waterway. The water pump had a lot of free play before it actually turned and was leaking.

I even cleaned the expansion tank so I can now see the REAL colour of the coolant. Haven't seen that for years.

Next plan is to buy an old head and break that down to recon...

Cheers for your help Chris, appreciated.

Steve

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

good stuff Steve, glad I was of help!

Level 5 User Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 110

http://www.fattraffic.co.uk/headgasket.bmp

the headgasket!

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

lol yep can just about make it out!

Its gone round the fire rings