Cracked head …

Mini update about the red car … it turns out it was both a blown head gasket AND a cracked head, happy day! I didn’t look at the head too close in the middle of putting on the new gasket in the below-freezing temps because I haven’t had a bad one before, and I was hoping I could expedite things and not be as thorough as I should, and … well it didn’t pay off this time.

After it started acting up again and I ran a leakdown test, it shot coolant out the thermostat housing showing that number three was in bad shape. Luckily I found a place that offers remanufactured heads at a reasonable price that didn’t require a core in return to get things underway quicker. Once the old head was off, I could see cracks between the valves in all four combustion chambers. (Pics to follow.)

So after the new head all is finally well, which is good because now I need to replace the leaking rusted out fuel lines on the 2 door… it’s always something.