Normally, Geese like water..... after what I found last nite, I like
niether water or my Goose.... temporarily.....
I have been having problems with my cooling system, popping hoses, watching
my temp gauge go up and down whilst driving, wierd cranking when first
starting the car, tiny puddle of water on the floor, dissappearing water
out of the coolant tank.... no great amount of confidence at all yet.
After coming back from the Planes and Boat tour a couple of weekends back,
when I pulled into the driveway, I thought I heard some gurgling sounds out
of the RH tail pipe... but I had to move the car just after that and didn't
hear it again...
So, last nite, I decided to check the cooling system, using a pressure
tester... I pulled the spark plugs on the RH side of the motor, hooked up
the tester, and pumped up the system to about 16psi.
Using a length of 3/8 fuel line or so... and a small funnel, I had a
stethescope.... stuck the hose into the spark plug hole and listened... I
heard strange noises in two cylinders....
Since the Goose has a remote starter switch in the right rear wheel well, I
put the car in neutral and hit the button. Whooooooosh! Water
everywhere..... out of three holes!!! The one hole that I didn't hear
noise in..... was already full!
So, it would appear that I have a severely warped head..... or one
reeeeeeeaally cracked head, but I think the former is the problem.
I had just done the head gaskets on this beast a while back for a cylinder
to cylinder leak on the other side of the motor... but that side is fine...
or so I think. This motor was hot rodded years ago when first built. It
has o-ringed heads (not the block), so I used a .050" copper gasket vs
another comp set which has built in o-rings already.... (I couldn't
understand that one...) Anyway, the whole o-ring process was a major
PITA.... and now it seems to have gotten worse.... cuz I have to go back
in.... I also installed ARP head stud kit, which was to help with even
loading....better clamping for the o-rings and copper... so I thought....
Sooooooo now, I can cut my heads flat (will have to do both the same) and
then muck with the o-rings again (now the grooves will be uneven...),
unless I can fill the grooves with something....(anyone done this) Rumor is
that if I don't fill the grooves, a leak into the groove could cause
problems elsewhere as the leak would or could cause the cast iron to erode,
causing a bigger leak.... if it was bad enuf...
OR, I get my Aussie heads fixed up and put them on with a B&A Street Boss
intake....and hope that all my jackshaft stuff lines up the same..........
and benefit from the smaller runner size and increased port velocity at
lower RPM's.
I'm leaning towards the latter, it just means that I have to possibly deal
with fabbing stuff (spacers and the like) for the jackshaft again.....
perhaps more grinding.... I know that the heads will need to be machined to
reuse my Ford roller rockers and the guideplates etc.... unless I switch to
the newer "bolt in" Cleveland style... which actually makes sense.... save
money on cutting... spend it on more rockers.... hmmmm.
Question: Do Aussie heads have hardened exhaust seats already????
(74-76ish production dates??) How about the valve keepers, multi groove or
singles???
..... and I can now pull my ZF, do the seal, put in new clutch parts as
needed to fix the oil soaked mess that resides there now.....
Soooooooo, do I have a tech session Norte' this weekend too???? Pull it
all down, repair what I can, send parts to machine shops everywhere.... and
then try and slam it all together next weekend???? and still make it to
Monterrey! I may not make it, and then there will be an entry open for
someone to take my place at the Concorso.... so if you are interested in
this aspect, let's keep in touch!
Whew... this will be a tough one!
I'm thinkin' about wrenching past noon, to about 2:00, then head down to
the tech session.... for beer and charred animal bits....
Anyone game to help dismember a Goose??
Lemmeno what ya think! I thinks I need to dig some heads out and get them
moving to a machine shop, send a check out for an intake manifold.... and
get my butt busy!
By: Steve Leibenow
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