DaveT

Does the carb have any solenoid to help with shutdown? Intermittent wire to that could cause random shut down.

Engine braking is way more effective in standard shift cars. It's the one thing I miss driving automatics. The lower the gear, and higher the RPM when you let off the gas, the more dramatic it will be.

There are at lest a few that could shut it off at idle. The idle air control solenoid is one. A coupl of power feeds. The coil is triggered via the ecu, so the signal from the distributor or the drive to the coil. It's tough up under there, but try to wiggle each wire as separately as possible. Intermittents are a pain to troubleshoot.

I pull them. So much easier to get at everything. Flip the ac compressor out of the way, no need to disconnect the lines. Pull radiator and battery. Sometimes the 2 pins that align the bellhousing to the transmission are sticky. Use a jack to raise the transmission a little. Getting them apart and together, it's all in the lining up.

I'd be suspicious of the myriad of wires that are flexed when you move it, more than it being something inside.

It is common for the headgaskets to fail if the engine is run above normal temperature (or worse) while low on coolant. If the test you mention checks for exhaust in the coolant, and is saying that there is, then they are toasted. It's also common for them to be in the early stages of failure and pass those tests. The intake gaskets leaking may have been the origin of the coolant loss, that led to the overheating, I have had that happen. While you are at it, check the radiator and heater core flow and radiator condition. New thermostat and all 7 hoses. Check the water pump also. These engines will run just fine with these mild blown headgaskets, except for the problem of the exhaust causing coolant loss and then repeating the overheat. It's not common to blow them bad enough to get the coolant in the oil symptom but I did it once, and even that one ran great.

Oh, nuts carb version. All I can do is see what's in the fsm, later today.

If / when I have to do this, Ill go to the scrapyard, buy a bunch of stainless. Stainless is a dream to TIG and forget about ever needing to do it again.

This shows the TSB mod rocker cover vent lines.

Doesn't make sense. Pcv doesn't do anything with coolant. ...

Long shot, try one of the dealers. They can check stock across the entire country.

A factory service manual is what you want to keep an eye out for. The mod I mentioned is from a technical service bullitin. On cars without it, the rocket cover vent lines go up to the intake boot separately. The drivers side one still has a t to the pcv. But this causes a problem with long medium to high g turns to the right. A bigger line and 2nd t fixes it.

By the way, the silicon grease isn't to make them go together easier, it's for when you take them apart. Also helps things seat / shift to a good seal. But if you got it working , that's good.

Yeah, they run really funny that way...

Double check everything. If the smoke was temporary, it was possibly coolant the got into the intakes while dissasembling.

Ps by driving, I mean at leaSt 1500rpm. Time at idle doesn't count.

A good fully charged battery at rest should read 12.6v. Fully discharged 12.0.. You have to supply 10 amps for 10 hours to mostly charge a battery with a standby capacity of around 100 amp hours. That's a LOT of driving to restore a complete draining.

The last post was from 2012. I think the car is sold by now.

Check for line pressure / flow at the transmission cooler lines.

What the others wrote. Replace the 3 idlers / bearings when you change the belts. They usually are good for about as long as the belt, but not 2 belts. Use only top quality idlers and belts, not cheap ones.

Fel Pro for all but the intake gaskets. Idk about pre ea82. But the oem ones I bought a few years ago are some kind of reenforced black slippery stuff. The paper ones kept failing on me. I've seen a thread or 2 where someone swapped a SPFI intake onto an EA81 so maybe those gaskets will fit.

Check for pitting in the pump socket, and the groove the oring goes in on the pipe. The surfaces have to be good for a seal. I have used the red rtv to seal pitted ones - but new o ring, put it together install th bolt into the head, install radiator hose - all before the rtv sets. Everything must be cleaned and dried completely for it to work. And don't add coolant or try to run it until a day goes by.

I am not familiar with that specific year model. Going by what I know from the SPFI EA82s the O2 sensor should have no effect until the engine e is close to normal operating temperature. Double checking everything in the carb seems like a good idea. Also, whatever system is used to control emissions related stuff. Test any switches and sensors and solenoids etc.

EA81 to EA81 would probably not be too bad. Both carbed. Most of the power increase in EA81 vs ea82 is due to SPFI, iirc. I've seen threads where the SPFI is swapped onto EA81. But swapping from carb to spfi or turbo is big electrical on top of mechanical. If you want reliable, you don't want turbo. The overhead cam engines EA82 and up are wider than the old pushrod engines, and require more mods to the frame I think to get them in.

If you are not seeing lots of drips under the car, the most likely thing to check is the vacuum modulator. I'm assuming this car has one. The diaphragm gets old, and a crack begins to allow atf to be sucked into the manifold vacuum. It can be very slow, and gradually get worse. Should not be an expensive repair.