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I just checked and all I have is Mk1 T3 bare block
would kinda hate to use a t3 block for an NA, someone might really want thta for the purpose intended.
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you don't say.?
I can almost smell
a parts car coming up.....coolant tube a leeky
no, no coolant leeky at all...And the elusive tube were ever to fail, I'd fab one myself out of copper surely not part it out over that.
the story of the car. When I bought it, the PO had stated that it had a blown head gasket but they had kept running it, and sure enough it did. They did not mention any overheating but one always has to wonder.
I buy and tear it all the way down. sent the head to be checked at local machine shop they stated it was non warped and no visible cracks. I rebuild the head myself. As for the block I had it vatted, finish cleaned myself and used dykem blue on all mating surfaces and the bores, nothing visible seen that way ( that approach has alwasy been fairly accurate for the DIY or shops), rebuild and put back in car. New radiator, new watre pump and hoses, new thermostat part of the build.
About a month later of usage started noticing fluid loss but no leaks, also aboutthat same time noticed that the coolant reservoir would bubble more than usual and that coolant woudl only go into it and not back into the system. Replaced rad cap but it had no effect. Drive it for a while eventually pulling the head and replacing the head gasket thinking it had possible blown. Saw no obvious points of any gasket failure once removed. However on the tear down noticed that a few of the head bolts were not as snug as they should have been, replaced gasket and back in business...same scenario after a few months. Suspect possible head issue as I trusted the testing of that to another, so I sourced a buildable head through my local TS buddy JVS
...get it, check it myself using dykem and a straight edge, fully rebuild and back in business....few months go by, coolant again starts going again and gets progressively worse. Same thing, pull, check everything, replace back on road....runs great, but every few days have to add some coolant, try not to let the temp guage be my guide....thinking possible hairline crack in one of the cylinders. ( I chased one of those for about 3 years many moon ago on a honda) If the piston falls just right when the engine shuts down, metal cools and coolant begins to weep into that bore. Not enough to cause a cranking issue, barely enough to see any vapor out the pipe continuos, but enough to cause some loss over a few days...more a nuisance than anything. Manageable for a gearhead that is anal about his stuff, but a mechanically dangerous thing for one that is not.....most of the buying society falls into the latter.
Now yesterday finaly have a day to do a bit of tinkering. So decide to do a compression check. 150-130-150 (#2 was lower even after fresh rings and pistons figure some wear that new parts wont fix only a rebore will fix) but in the process of doing the test I Notice an ocasional wisp of vapor out of #1. MIrror and light and notice not only slight moisture around the plug hole but moisture where the head and block meet. remembreing back, pull the valve cover and check head torque. Sure enough a few in the are of #1 are loose. retorque entire head to 54 ( the higher of the 48-54 for sprint vs metro in the fsm) run down the road and recheck. No obvious vapor or weepage. So now just shaking my head wonder wtf is this going on, is it occasional bolts going loose that shoud not happen, or is it really something worse as I am previously thinking...will continue to run and see. If I see that coolant starts to stay ok, will pull head one more time. New bolts of course, check those block threads real good which I have already done several times, but this time blue thread locker and lock washers to boot, bet they wont get loose then.
As for eventually a parts car?....NOPE....other than this issue this body/chassis is like pristine new as in zero rust. My turbo has lots of rust but still salvageable I hope. If the rust on that is too much, this 4dr plus will become a turbo. That engine I know is good. Seems I recall another fellow that turbo'd a 4dr once.
As for the rattler......after my initial rebuild I had similar, when I did that initial head swap I went ahead and put new pistons in it and it went away. I guess the wrist pin bores were wore just enough to cuase the racket....but your right, I dont think these cars can be killed....shamefull to think that many hit junkyards due to Hitachi carbs and lack of knowledge.
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