I Need some help on my ea82t 86 Gl-10

[86deathwagon]

my car has been fluctuating at idle and i checked the vacuum lines and they are all connected and sometimes it dies at idle too, my coolant level always diminishes within a couple of weeks and i have to refill it, there are no leaks or anything and i checked the oil dipstick and it was 3/4 full so a 1/4 low below the full sign. i put another half to 1 quart in and that filled it up but im wondering if i should get that stop leak stuff you put in your coolant to prevent the old headgasket leaking water/coolant/oil blah blah into the pistons so my car can run better, i live in colorado so it gets below 0 degrees every night

[Cougar]

You may have some bad intake manifold gaskets that are leaking coolant into the intake. Check them for air leaks also.

[86deathwagon]

i dont know if this helps but i have no muffler and i straight piped the exhaust from the turbo back so will having no back pressure throw sensors off or anything? like an o2?

[john in KY]

i dont know if this helps but i have no muffler and i straight piped the exhaust from the turbo back so will having no back pressure throw sensors off or anything? like an o2?

 

No.

 

Don't use the stop-leak stuff. You'll regret it if you do. If you have a leaking HG, you would know it. Good chance this minor coolant lose is caused by a pinhole leak in one of the hoses. Check the hoses that run to the heater. Will only leak under pressure.

[86deathwagon]

ok ill check the hoses. and just wondering why wouldn't you use the stop leak stuff??

[86deathwagon]

also i think the maf sensor is bad on the intake hence the fluctuating idle

[88 EA82T]

Last weekend I fixed a leak I had on the coolant line that goes from the intake manifold to preheat the throttle body. The trick was it would only leak when I revved the motor up. So at idle everything was fine but once the water pump started spinning faster and building pressure then it would shoot coolant out. Something else to check.

[MilesFox]

if you may be losing coolant indeed do the intake gaskets. this will help your boost,also.

 

take off the radiator cap and watch for bubbles in the goolant when she is running at temp. this is a sign of head hasket where exhaust is pressurizing the coolant and pushing it out into the overflow tank

 

the only other possibility to lose coolant without compression issues is the possibility of a cracked head in the exhaust port.

 

do not use bars leaks or the radiator pellets as they will wreck the heater core and possibly the radiator.

 

if you would determine you have a cracked head and the gaskets are still good, you could try a 'liquid glass' type block sealer.

 

brands to recommend are K&W block selar, in a can. There is a 20 dollar bottle of the 'nano technology' block sealer in the green bottle by K&W.

 

there are cheaper brands in clear bottles with copper flakes suspended in a gel type fluid.

 

make sure you FOLLOW SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS on the bottle or it will not work. You have to flush your coolant of all antifreeze and run crystal clear water to use the block sealers. you do this to apply the treatment, and then you drain out all the water and let it air out overnite, before adding regular coolant.

 

 

Attack your problem in this order.

1. check for bubbles in radiator. of so, suspect head gasket

 

2.Compression test, if you have a low number on one side vs the rest, suspect head gasket.

 

3. If you have none of the above, take the time to replace the intake gaskets. the whole intake comes off as an assembly, you do not have to remove fuel rails, throttle body, etc. use this opportunity to replace hard to reach hoses, especially thei one near the turbo.

 

4. If intake gaskets dont help, and you have good compression and no bubbles in the radiator, suspect a cracked head. You would have to drop the exhaust pipe to visually verify.

 

5. Use block seal if necessary. only use if you know you have a cracked head, or have verified bubbles in the radiator. Do all the prior steps first.

 

the stuff will work on a mild blown headgasket, bubbles in radiator. This will buy time to get around to a proper repair. I would not do block seal if i had coolant in the oil, or oil in the radiator. If so you want to yank the motor out and do the head gaskets right away