I have a 2nd Gen Convertible. Last summer the engine overheated pretty badly and now I am losing water when the engine runs. I do not see steam coming from the exhaust but there aren't any leaks either. My conclusion is that it is going through the engine at a slow rate, not enough to produce steam. My questions would be is it possible this is caused by bad gaskets? Or have I done some serious damage to the engine itself? If I go to do a rebuild am I looking at having to replace a housing? Is it possible to fix something without a rebuild?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks all!!

 

Most likely one of the coolant seals is unhappy with you.

There are directions somewhere (possibly Kevin's site?) for using blockweld to try and fix this, but the best option is to pull the motor apart & replace the coolant seals. While you're in there, unless the engine has less than 30k miles or so, it makes sense to replace the apex seals as well (and possibly the housings if they're worn out).

It would also be a great opportunity to port the engine, if you're looking for a bit more power.

Enjoy! It's really not that bad.

-=Russ=-

 

yeah, it sounds like you went thru a coolant o-rig(s). check your overflow tank, and if you see bubbles while the car is running, then you defanetly blew a coolant seal. as for the rebuild, you may have to replace just the orings, or depending on how hot the plates got, they may have actually warped, or you may have broken the casting that holds the o-ring in place. as far as repairing it, people have used that stuff you put in your radiator to fix leaks, but i've heard that that only works for so long (temp fix).

 

Some have used that radiator stop leak with mild success. If your housing broke, the seal will soon blow out completly. When this happens You'll get the white cloud upon morning start up.

If these things start to happen you'll need a rebuild. And yes you could just attack the problem but there is no sense in "not" replacing soft seals and Apex seals while the motor is open.

It's not hard to rebuild.....if your patient and you open your mind

 

Looks like you guys called it! I did the coolant seal fix as posted on Kevin's site and no more leak! Spent $33 on the stuff, quite a bargain compared to the rebuild I suspected I needed. But of course that raises a new problem.

When we discovered the leak we were doing a tune up on the engine for emissions testing. Everything was running good but we found the leak on the drive to the emissons testing station. So now that the leak is gone the engine stutters a lot and has no power on acceleration. It will come up to speed slowly but still misses a lot. At idle you can smell the exhaust and tell it's running real rich.

My theory is that when we tuned it up the fuel misture had to be made real rich to off set the affects of the water. Now that the water is gone we are left with a bad mixture.

My next question is does this sound like a plausable scenario? If so, what can I do to fix the problem? We put new O2 sensors in, but would the leaking water and antifreeze ruin the sensors? Can I adjust the fuel mixture without taking it in for another tuneup and if so how do I do it?

Thanks for any advice you can give,

Devdude.