We have all heard of the head gasket recall on the 95-6-7 2.2's. The leak that is in the front corner and runs down the front of the block. Well this looked like the same thing till I saw it coming from the bolt head. I figured that It was leaking around the threads and a coat of silicone on the threads would do the job.
No luck, you see it wasnt coming from the bolt, but from the lightening bolt crack in the head. The crack started behind the thermostat housing down to the machined bolt surface, then around the machine surface, then to the #4 exhaust port.
The car is still at work after the diagnose friday, i gotta break the news to the owner. I dont think they have the money to fix it, so yet another J to the bone yard. Well maybe my yard if I can get it cheap.
Has anyone else seen this crack before?
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
Hi Joe
Not sure if this is relevant
I have had to change my '93 head because of cracks causing low compression (70 psi) on cylinders 2 and 3, and it was leaking past the head bolt.
My machine shop was not surprised by this, saying it was fairly common!
Mine has the 8mm valves so is not an "s" casting---info from here:-http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=29&i=60218&t=60218
I had changed the head gasket twice on this one. Otherwise it has been great and is around 254,000 kms so far.
Alont
second gen j-body's i found common for cracked heads and such, but i never seen quite what your discribing about the 3rd gen, i do beleive that the head bolts arent blind hole, so they wouldnt require anysealant, but i will check another car( head gasket was just changed and the head still looks wet around the front right bolt on this 2200)
The engine in the 95-97 was basically the same in 94 aswell if im not mistaken. A few days ago i noticed a puddle of what appeared to be coolant under the front part of my engine after I had the car running for a couple of minutes. Im hoping its not a head problem, because i plan on doing an engine build later this summer and this would require immediate attention.
Talked to the owner, looks like Im putting a used engine in. By the time I put a recon head on plus gaskets , bolts and labor, Im better off just swapping out tthe engine with a year warranty that i dont have to stand behind..
Ill post a pic or two since the engine isnt going any where.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
dont you love when that happens? lol one reason i love that i dont have to talk to the customers, not to bad of a job though. Do you normaly just drop the cradle aswell?
Nope in through the top, 4 hours out and in if I dont get any sumbich bolts.
Not running yet, I had to change the TB over because the new engine was from a corsica and the TB is different, and no one has the plentum gasket in stock. Hopefully Ill be dont first thing monday.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
6 bucks for that gasket, amazing.
Got er done today, purrs like a kitten. The problem with the throttle body wasnt because of the trans kick down cable it was from the cruise cable end. I knew it was different, just must not of been payin attention to what it went to.
I have to put rear wheel cylinders on it now, the odd thing is, when I got the new ones , they were too big.
Now I looked it up on the net and it shows that this 95 4 door has Z24 wheel cylinders out back. Its not a Z either. Its like GM used what was left over on this one.
Has any one ran across this one? Or did someone put the wrong ones on a while back?
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
i just had the same issues with an engine swap in a 99 jimmy(spun main), motor was from a 2000 safari or astro....not the same engines... long swap...gotta love it eh? just got another 96 in today... overheating no heat...replaced stat... same issue, noticed that the cooling system did wanna bleed right and the stat was still not opening and still no heat.... back flushed the heater core, pressure tested the cooling system...1 hour minimal pressure drop, still same deal.. bypassed heater core, and put air to each cyl. couldn't hear or notice bubbles or changes in the coolant resivour ( also had a pressure gauge inplace of the pressure cap to see minimal amount of air leakage into the coolant jacket...tried running it again.. same deal....2 3 4 are white but not fluffy white like normally happens with a good leak. i've ran into problems before with cooling system bleeding issues and such and for the most part replacing the head gasket has resolved it, gonna give it a try in the morning and hopefully get it right. just scary wasting 4 hours if you cant guarantee its the head gasket
Although i have seen many cases where water doesnt go into the cylinder but air goes into the coolant. but in those cases you can normaly see a constant stream of air bubbles.
Those 4.3's always had head gasket isssues.
How does it run, Does it Idle real good, or does it miss a little.
Most of the time when I had a bad head gasket on those, they always ended up warming up antd then pushing the coolant out because of the air pocked that was generated by the exhaust leaking into the coolant passage.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
the 4.3 spun a main... the sunfire is getting the head gasket... i checked it warm and cold, was thinking maybe it was being caused by head warp-age that I have seen some focus's get ( bubbles away in the resivour or pours down the side of the block once she's hot). its got a little pug but nothing i'm to concerned about..just the normal 2.2 stutter. i had a 2003 4.7 dodge with the composite 3 layer head gasket do the one way leak (bubbles in the coolant)... but because of the new gasket once you have it apart you cant find the leak.. lol so your always worrying that you didn't get the right part
i'll let you know if i was right about that head gasket tomorrow lol ( if i'm wrong its only a morning and $20 wasted)
If its on The fire, look for cracks in the head between the intake and exhaust valves, center cylinders mostly,very common. I have a small 50 cent size wire wheel on a drill with some carb spray , cleans it right up around the valves to see any cracks.
Their headgasket failures were in the front driverside.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
lol well didn't change the head gasket.... system seemed to be air free in the morning. But the stat still wasn't opening. My boss didn't want to be wrong about the head gasket so i gave up and he decided he wanted to figure it out himself... he did another cooling system soda flush, and tried again. shot the temps the bypass pipe was at about 150 ( on the outside using a laser thermometer) and the stat still wasn't opening...him being old school still insisted on the stat... so he removed the stat and put an in-line stat in the upper rad hose... problem fixed..so far lol i don't much like this backyard kind of fix but its not my business lol. ever seen something like this on a j-body before? hard to explain the whole situation of a job on a forum but i'm baffled personally...
What type of stat did you use? I've had brand new generic stats not work on me.
stant from autoparts xtra.. then thermo somin or other from parts source. he moved it to the upper hose and that fixe everything... hasnt been back yet..
