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Head gasket failure?? (long) Posted by arabiflora [Email]  (#1129) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from arabiflora) on Sun, 10 Oct 2004 01:15:51
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'88 900S NA, 326k
Symptoms/history: Driving home last weekend, ~ 2 miles from garage, noticed that temp gauge at due north, check engine light on. Pulled into gas station, popped hood and observed that coolant reservoir empty but no other evidence of overheat. I will admit that I have not been fastidious about checking coolant levels previously, but have not thought it nec-- no puddles, no wet shoes or floor mats, no prev overheat.
Allowed car to cool, tooled it home at low rpm (without filling res tank; it may not be true, but I've heard that adding cool water to a hot engine can be a Bad Thing). Thirty feet from driveway hear a big hissssss, roll into garage, pop the hood and find that the neck of the upper intake to heater valve had split.
Replaced heater valve (~$40 Eeuroparts, knee bolster still on garage floor), topped-off coolant. No leaks, temp normal. Drove 30 mile round trip to work, no problem. Problem solved, yes??
Well, no. 2nd day I do the trip into work and add another 20 miles or so roaming to look at fall colors on a lovely Wisconsin afternoon. Car runs great, temp normal all the way, but when I return to garage I found a stream of antifreeze running from beneath the car. Looks like the water pump has gone bad.
Blown heater valve; 80 miles later, blown water pump. Coincidence? As much as I'd like to believe that, it seems unlikely. Reviewing the 900 board, and being the pessimist that I am, I suspect head gasket failure that is over-pressurizing the coolant system and taking out the weakest links (did I mention that my baby has 326k miles?).
So what do you think-- should I go ahead and replace the water pump and keep my fingers crossed? Or should I assume that the head gasket is gone (or nearly so) and bite that bullet? For what it's worth, the oil on dipstick seems clean; no white smoke out of the tailpipe except on cold mornings; haven't pulled the plugs to look for steam-cleaning effect, and I haven't done a leak-down or compression test. Car runs and looks great, so junking is not an option on the table.
All thoughts welcome,
Arabiflora
posted by 66.168.1...
, Sun, 10 Oct 2004 01:15:51 <-- Viewing This Message, Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:13:42
, Sun, 10 Oct 2004 09:04:26
, Sun, 10 Oct 2004 05:48:43
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