chickencoupe
Registered User
Hey everyone,
Well I'm new to this forum and a first time sc owner as well. I tried to post in the new owners section and had a nice detailed description of the car I bought and all the pros and cons that I can see so far of what I purchased but when i finished the very long winded post and went to post it I guess the page had expired and the thing told me to refresh and voila no more post, so I gave up. Anyway I'll give that another shot at a later time.
My main issue right now is the weather is changing quickly in new england and I need to get this car to it's resting place for the winter but I think I've stumbled upon a major issue at the worst time.
I bought the car, 91 5spd stock stock stock. 142 clicks and well cared for, so says previous owner. Said the car was never red lined I've had it for about a month and due to not having time to register and busy work schedule I've put about 75 miles on it total. Drove fine on test drive and up till now.
Problem:
Noticed that the oil was a little low which it was at the low mark at time of purchase. No biggie. Mobil 1 all its life, documented
Noticed a coolant leak last week under front passanger side after driving and then letting sit. coolant pooling up on either sub frame cross member I think. Not a mechanic
No coolant in resevoir and there is a black somewhat chunky but malleable almost greasy sludge in res.
Popped rad cap and ran finger along inside of filler neck and the same substance (oil? ) was in there.
What I've also noticed is that the car takes a few more cranks to fire, like five or six, vs. like on the first or second when i bought it.
Temp doesn't get up to operating temp like it should and stays low. ( Low coolant )
Oil pressure is low, just getting to the N on start which I would think would be higher at start and then drop as the engine warmed?
So I'm assuming the worst and hoping for the best but I guess the writing is on the wall right? HEADGASKET? CRACKED HEAD?
I really haven't drove it hard due to a really bad exhaust leak but there was one night at work where the freakin throttle stuck wide open and when i put the clutch in to stop from taking out my coworkers cars and killing myself it did probably redline Was going to address that issue and the exhaust first but now I'm thinking what's the point.
I guess my only saving grace could be that there is a leak in the oil cooler but I don't know where it is. I don't know if it's on the side where the coolant is but I plan on filling the coolant and driving a bit( just to get up to temp) and checking for leaks.
I have the ford manual, first thing I bought for the car, but don't see any mention of the oil cooler but that was just a quick table of contents and index scan so I'm sure it's in there somewhere.
So did I get a knock on the door from the head gasket monster for Halloween?
Was going to rent coolant pressure tester from parts place but they wanted a stupid deposit like two hundred bucks and my debit card is being changed to the chip type card so I'm not giving them cash. Plus I'm not sure if they even have the adapter for the small filler neck.
Also thinking about getting a block tester kit, but I'm really hoping it's not a head gasket and I can visually spot the problem and it's not visually coming from the motor.
So I'll stop pontificating and hypothesizing because I'm no mechanic but I bought this as a project car to learn on and enjoy for a long time so what ever the issue is I guess it will be fixed with the two constants to fixing any problem, time and money
Any help would be much appreciated, hope I gave enough info, hehe.
Well I'm new to this forum and a first time sc owner as well. I tried to post in the new owners section and had a nice detailed description of the car I bought and all the pros and cons that I can see so far of what I purchased but when i finished the very long winded post and went to post it I guess the page had expired and the thing told me to refresh and voila no more post, so I gave up. Anyway I'll give that another shot at a later time.
My main issue right now is the weather is changing quickly in new england and I need to get this car to it's resting place for the winter but I think I've stumbled upon a major issue at the worst time.
I bought the car, 91 5spd stock stock stock. 142 clicks and well cared for, so says previous owner. Said the car was never red lined I've had it for about a month and due to not having time to register and busy work schedule I've put about 75 miles on it total. Drove fine on test drive and up till now.
Problem:
Noticed that the oil was a little low which it was at the low mark at time of purchase. No biggie. Mobil 1 all its life, documented
Noticed a coolant leak last week under front passanger side after driving and then letting sit. coolant pooling up on either sub frame cross member I think. Not a mechanic
No coolant in resevoir and there is a black somewhat chunky but malleable almost greasy sludge in res.
Popped rad cap and ran finger along inside of filler neck and the same substance (oil? ) was in there.
What I've also noticed is that the car takes a few more cranks to fire, like five or six, vs. like on the first or second when i bought it.
Temp doesn't get up to operating temp like it should and stays low. ( Low coolant )
Oil pressure is low, just getting to the N on start which I would think would be higher at start and then drop as the engine warmed?
So I'm assuming the worst and hoping for the best but I guess the writing is on the wall right? HEADGASKET? CRACKED HEAD?
I really haven't drove it hard due to a really bad exhaust leak but there was one night at work where the freakin throttle stuck wide open and when i put the clutch in to stop from taking out my coworkers cars and killing myself it did probably redline Was going to address that issue and the exhaust first but now I'm thinking what's the point.
I guess my only saving grace could be that there is a leak in the oil cooler but I don't know where it is. I don't know if it's on the side where the coolant is but I plan on filling the coolant and driving a bit( just to get up to temp) and checking for leaks.
I have the ford manual, first thing I bought for the car, but don't see any mention of the oil cooler but that was just a quick table of contents and index scan so I'm sure it's in there somewhere.
So did I get a knock on the door from the head gasket monster for Halloween?
Was going to rent coolant pressure tester from parts place but they wanted a stupid deposit like two hundred bucks and my debit card is being changed to the chip type card so I'm not giving them cash. Plus I'm not sure if they even have the adapter for the small filler neck.
Also thinking about getting a block tester kit, but I'm really hoping it's not a head gasket and I can visually spot the problem and it's not visually coming from the motor.
So I'll stop pontificating and hypothesizing because I'm no mechanic but I bought this as a project car to learn on and enjoy for a long time so what ever the issue is I guess it will be fixed with the two constants to fixing any problem, time and money
Any help would be much appreciated, hope I gave enough info, hehe.