cars-guy

I have a rebuilt 22r with 14,000 on the rebuild that I got from davez offload. The motor has always run great except for some oil leaks. The only problem is its always seemed to leak coolant. It would drain recovery tank in about a month. I always assumed that there was just some leak somewhere on the outside that i couldn't see cus it would burn off. Always changed the oil at 3500 to 4,000 and used bosch filters. I was driving home when the thing stopped running on one cylinder. I assumed I had melted a plug wire and it was grounding itself against the manifold cus I don't have a wire loom yet. (I always get lazy when it coms to doing stupid small stuff on the truck.) When I pulled in the driveway, it was spiting oil from between the valve cover and head. The radiator was also empty when i had topped it off a fe days prior. I Pulled the valve cover and everything was fine. Checked the plugs and the #1 was covered in what could have been water. I drained the oil and a liter of coolant came out before the oil. The oil wasnt milky though like you would expect. The coolant was perfectly clear and the oil looked just like used motor oil. I only drove about a mile when after it started running weird. If there is another thread with my issue feel free to flame but please post a link. The weird thing is the coolant not being mixed with the oil which is typical when a crack in the head or block or head gasket happens. Could it be something else causing these symptoms?

13Swords

Qualifier here; without looking at it physically, It sounds like a blown head gasket. And if so, you have my deepest sympathies. I can't think of much else that would cause that to happen. Mebbe the head wasn't torqued down proper during the rebuild? Mebbe bad quality head gasket used? Hopefully not a cracked head.

However, if you checked all of this that you describe right after you got home (instead of waiting til the next day) it doesn't sound so bad, and hopefully none of the internals got messed up. Pulling the head, giving everything a good cleanup, and putting in a new, quality head gasket might just take care of it. Plus you can more easily check the head for cracks or a warped surface when it's off the motor.

It's a lot of work, but not horribly complicated if you take it in steps. Make sure you get a good repair guide to help you out, and so you have the head bolt tightening pattern & torque specs on hand (torque wrench will be required for proper re-assembly). There is also a video or 2 on Youtube of guys replacing the head gasket on a 22R, which could help you see how it's done.

Good luck with it and keep us posted on progress.

Charchee

That leak sure seemed to get real big real fast. Take that head to a machine shop when you get it off and have it double checked. Only 14,000 miles on the engine with oil leaks and coolant loss. Did you get any kind of guarantee with it?

cars-guy

Thanks for replying, I haven't looked at the thread until now. I did get a warranty from davez and he actually drove down from sacramento to la to pickup the truck, and bring it back to his shop in sacramento. He checked it all out and found that my intake was warped and pitted on the matting surface. Eventually the rtv couldn't support the gasket anymore and, well 13 psi later and my coolant was pouring into the intake on the number 1 cylinder like a firehose. dave actually swapped out my intake for another one and fixed up a whole load of stuff that I hadn't gotten quite right when i put the motor in (its my first car and first time really working on a car.) all up for next to free even though it wasn't even his screwup. I drove the truck home from sacramento to la and haven't had problems since. Talk about customer support.