hi i'm new to the forum. my name is steve and i live in Ca. i have a 1980 pickup that a just bought recently.. it has a 20r bottom with a 22r top with a holley TBI setup with fuel injection controller.... i'm assuming this motor has been rebuilt in the past but with what, i have no idea... heres the problem..... i took it out to johnson valley and was crawling through some rocks and out of nowhere while climbing, it overheated on me... i checked the radiator fluid and it was empty like it evaporated or something...so i let it cool down and refilled the anti-freeze... it ran great the rest of the trip... i go home and take it off the trailer and it starts idling rough and is hard starting... also there is coolent drops where my tranny and engine mount... do i have a blown head gasket? messed up freeze plugs or is there something wrong with the injection system? thanks for any info possible...

steve

 

also i checked the engine oil and it looks perfectly normal.. i also did a compression check and #'s 1, 3, 4 were at 145 psi with good plugs. #2 was at 155psi with some white deposits on it.. thanks

 

Huh. I was thinking head gasket until I saw the compression readings. Within 10% of each other is good, which yours is.

The white deposits may be ash, which is probably result of bad gas or additives. It could be oil seepage past the seal, but i doubt it. I would begin by replacing the plugs. If its carbon deposits, it shows you have a weak ignition. Because its only on one cylinder, I would try pulling the wire off when running. If it doesn't make a difference, something is wrong. Either way i'd probably do the plugs, wires, dist. cap, and rotor. Should be under $30.

The above should solve the hard starting. But i don't know about the coolant loss. Maybe somebody else can explain the freeze plugs? One time a buddy of mine had antifreeze running down the bellhousing, it turned out to be a leaking heater hose.

 

thanks. i was about to replace my head gasket.. hahaha... and the weird thing is i put some techron in my tank before i went out on my trip... thanks i"m probably gonna do a pressure test on my coolant system and see where that goes...

 

There is a plate on the back of the head for EGR gas cooling. It can leak and run down the back of the engine. The heater hoses, as mentioned above, can also drip in the same place.

 

hmm... gonna have to look into that... if so that would be awesome... oh, found out that it's a fuel injection problem... the controller is all messed up.. so i'm found a place that will tune the computer for me... thanks for the info....