Overheated 85 gl10

[usrdltd]

I'm afraid I've overheated my ea82 in my 85 gl10. I don't know what to do with it. It is leaking coolant from the block. Is there a fix? I'd really like to keep it running. It sat in a storage unit for 20 years which means it's in awesome shape with low miles. Under 60000.

[el_freddo]

Pull engine down, have the heads shaved to get them flat again. 

Invest in some quality head gaskets and put it all back together. 

If you’ve properly overheated the engine you may have softened the metal, no big deal for a putt-putt NA engine. 

Or EJ it to really bring it to life  

Cheers 

Bennie

[UnorganizedMechanic]

Where from the block is it leaking coolant?  How do you know you've overheated it?  Because of the leak, or did the temp gauge go too high and for too long?  Find the source first then determine diagnosis or repair.  It could be a hose clamp or the head.  Good luck getting it back on the road.

[Step-a-toe]

sitting in a storage unit for 20 years can mean corrosion can rot your head gasket - it happened to me over 3 years, as I had not drained all coolant out. I do know of another that got a decent service prior to storing for 20 years. Went like a dream once running. Watch for rotten throttle body coolant port pipes, turbo coolant pipe from head to turbo, and its front and rear banjo's. Welch freeze plugs also go in the manifold. Spend more time than EJ admirers deem logical and you should have a lot of fun. The freeze plugs in head may have gone rather than HG anyway. The inlet manifolds have 12 and maybe 14 mm freeze plugs that rot to nothing also

[idosubaru]

On 9/20/2021 at 1:50 AM, usrdltd said:

I'm afraid I've overheated my ea82 in my 85 gl10. I don't know what to do with it. It is leaking coolant from the block. Is there a fix? I'd really like to keep it running. It sat in a storage unit for 20 years which means it's in awesome shape with low miles. Under 60000.

Those intake manifolds have a coolant passage and weak gasket area - they can dump coolant right into the block and look like catastrophic internal coolant issues.  If that's the case you just need new intake manifold gaskets. 

Or new headgaskets. 

What does "leaking from the block" mean?

Diagnose it and you have options to repair.  Right now you're just guessing. 

[Localun]

Try to get a more concise location on where its leaking from. As far as engine damage... The ea82 is a really strong engine. On My xt I have overheated it twice. The first time the water pump blew up. The second time the water pump fell off into the crank pulley and all of my coolant spilled (this was on the highway mind you). I also ran it really low on oil since it was consuming some on the highway. I was sure I was going to have some sort of issues after all of that abuse but to my suprise she still starts every time and runs like a top (the blowby also seems to have resolved itself after the 2nd water pump incident) 

[DaveT]

In my experiences with a number of EA82 wagons - If you run low on coolant, and over normal operating temp, the head gasket/s get damaged.  How fast they fail to the point of unusable varies widely.  From immediately, to a few months.  From the first time, every low coolant over normal event accelerates the failure.  Check for air in the upper hose and level in the tank before every drive until you know the system is staying 100% coolant, no air gurgling.  Do not open the cap to check the coolant in the radiator, squeeze the upper hose, and listen for air gurgling, and the jiggle pin in the thermostat.