Mark Humble

Nice car! Heck, I would sleep in the thing for a couple of nights and I don't even have a wife.

Well we don't have kangaroos in California, but we do have "Road Rats", I mean, deer. So any of you mates have any good ideas on how to build roo guards? And where would be the best place to attach them? I would really hate to hit a deer with my 89 GL. After all, I have been driving a 69 Chevy truck for the last 18 years and I don't even lift off the throttle in it. No damage ever done, well at least not to the truck.

If you have access to a hoist or cherry picker, then pull the motor. By the time you get to a point where you can pull the heads then you're not to far from being able to pull the engine. As a mechanic for 30 years or so, I have found pulling the engine to work on it is so much easier. However I'm older and more broke down than my vehicles. Leaning over a fender to work on the engine hurts too much. The other advantage is you can clean the engine and engine bay. Makes working on the car later on a lot nicer. Not that you will ever have to after you get done with the heads, right?

If you have a volt meter you can check the voltage output at the alt to see what it is putting out. Should put out about 13.5 at an idle (min.). Another tool that can be very helpful is a inductive amp gauge to see what the amp output is. The auto parts store should at least be able to order one for you. They are relatively cheep. If the tests show the volts down but the amps up then it could be a battery.

You're warm. Its a few inches to the rear of the car in the coolant line as they call it. The coolant line is that large cast aluminum part bolted to the intake manifold at the rear of the manifold. The thermosensor on your car doesn't have wires coming out of its self. Instead, it has a connector to which the engine wiring harness is pluged into.

Loc-Tite #518 is really good, however also apply Loc-Tite Clean-N-Prime to the head. This will help to accelarate the curing time and allow the #518 in the groove to also cure. Just don't apply the Clean-N-Prime to the same surface you plan to apply the sealer to as it will start curing as you apply it and will cure on your finger too. Tough to get off. As an outboard mechanic I use this stuff all the time, for the last 25 years or so. It can be used for all metal to metal surfaces.

I'm running a pair of heads that have cracks at least that far down into the ports. It dosen't look like the water jacket is anywhere near. The crack is just in the wall between the exhaust and the intake port, nothing in between. I plan on getting a head from a wrecking yard that is no good and cut it in pieces just to see where the water jackets are. I'll post the results.

Try putting a shop tach. on the engine to see if tach. in the car is reading correctly. The pressure wash may have got water in some of the electrical connectors or ignition components. If you were driving a Justy I would say it was the Electronic Constantly Variable Transaxel. Dosn't sound like the revs are near high enough to be in low range. If you aren't smelling the clutch then it probably isn't the clutch.

Next time you take the car for a drive try this. Once you are at steady speed, say 60, without lifting off the throttle, start pushing in the clutch slowly. Watch the revs and see how far down the clutch pedal goes before the revs start to rise. The revs should start to rise between 1/4 to 1/3 of the way to the floor. This is the point at which the throwout bearing starts taking the load of the clutch spring. If the revs go up as soon as you start to press the pedal, then the clutch needs to be adjusted, if it is adjustable. As a clutch wears, the point at which the pedal disengages the clutch gets higher and higher. However, you "said pressure wash", could be a whole other can of worms. One other thing to take note of is, does it realy do this in all the gears. or just the upper gears. A clutch won't slip as much in 1st as it will in 5th. This all said, I'm not to sure the clutch is slipping. The more info. the better.

Try the compression check first, this can tell you a lot. If the compression is really low in one cylinder then it may be a valve problem. If it is only a little low in one cylinder then it may be a spun rod bearing. From what your friend said, it sounded like a bearing. So I wouldn't do any more running tests to keep from doing any more damage. You might want to just park it until you get back from the Rock.

One tool you can make to help diagnose gauge problems is to buy two resistors, one 50 ohm and one 80 ohm, 1/4 watt. Connect one lead from each resistor together and attach a 12" black wire to this connection and solder them together. Then solder a red wire to the 50 ohm resistors other lead. Solder a blue wire to the 80 ohm resistor and attach alligator clips to the ends of each wire. To keep the resistors from getting damaged, put them in a short peice of PVC pipe and fill with silicon. Now you have a gauge tester that can be used on almost anything. To use, connect the black lead to ground and the red to the temp sensor wire and turn on the ignition. The gauge should about 1/3 up the scale. (Note:The Red Wire Is For Temp Only) If no reading, repeat the test at the gauge. This is done to check the wire between the gauge and the sending unit. If still no reading, use a volt meter or test light to check for power to the gauge, if there is power, but no reading, the gauge is bad. The blue wire is used to check pressure and level doing the same as above.

When diagnosing a cooling system it is most important to first know how the coolant flows through the entire cooling system. Then knowing the temp. of the coolant along the path of the coolant. This can be done using a RayTec gun. Just point and pull the trigger and you have a temp reading. But it costs as much as a new radiator, so unless you need to do a lot of diagnoses on cooling systems like I do then it isn't worth it. But for very little money you can buy some Thermomelt sticks from the auto parts store. They come in a wide variety of different temps. They are like a large crayon that melt at a certain temp. And by getting a few at different temps one can get a good idea whats hot and whats not. Before spending money on stuff you don't need, find out if it is in fact overheating and go from there. You think the cooling system on your car is complicated you sould try fuel injected outboard motor, what a mess. Good luck.

Buy a cheap test light and start checking to see if there is power to the stereo and it has a good ground. Bad grounds can cause some real strange symtoms because the current will try complete the circuit even if it means back feeding through something else. And ingition switches do go bad. To make things easer to track down get a really good wiring diagram. Sometimes by studying a wiring diagram you can pinpoint a problem without even doing any tests on the car.

I installed a junkyard motor in my '89 GL wagon and it too had cracks in the heads. They can be seen through the intake port when the manifold is removed. The cracks in this motor extend as much as 1/2" below the bottom of the valve seat. Pretty bad. However it passed Cali smog today and runs great. I plan to run these heads until I have to stop and walk back and pick them up off the highway.

I checked my spare engine to see if the heads could be retorqued with the cam towers in place. Looks like the only bolts that might be hard to get at are the bottom two next to the exhaust port. But if you get Craftman socket #43548 and grind 5mm off of the end it should fit fine. Now this is a 3/8 drive socket so if your torque wrench is 1/2" then you will need a 1/2 to 3/8 reducer but with the right extension there should be clearance between the wrench and the frame.

I used to work on Land Rovers. We sent rebuilt engines all over the world and I always wrote things in the bottom of the oil pan. Kilroy was here is a good one.

First check cam timing. A cam that is timed too late will leave the intake valve open as the piston is on the up stroke so there won't be as much air to compress in the first place. If the cam timing is correct, then do a leak down test. Be sure to follow the instructions in the leak down tester or the engine might bite you. Opening the throttle for compression test should be done, but the reason this should be done is to get to the highest reading with the least amount of cranking, and on engines with carbs, to keep from sucking in to much fuel into the engine. As for engine break in, the cam is the first thing that needs to be broken in. This is done by running the engine at 2000 to 2500 rpm for at least 15 min. right after first start up. As soon as the engine first starts, run the rpms up, don't wait, run it up. After that, check all the other stuff, ing. timing ect. Then its time to drive it, (sensibly). Given time the rest of the parts will break in. If the cams where used in another engine, well, there is no way to break them in again and they may or may not live.

Check RockAuto on the web. They have good prices but better yet they have a parts cataloge that will allow you to cross check part numbers.

Are all EA82 heads cracked? Every head I have looked at has been cracked between the seats. They don't leak into the water jacket. Ok to run? Mark