89psychobird
Registered User
About a week ago on my way home from work (engine still cold), my 89 SC stalled at a stop light. It started back up a few minutes later but sputtered and wanted to die for a few minutes. This worried me because my SC has ran very well for the 2 years that I have owned it. A few days later the same thing happened again and has ran a bit rough until it warms up. Thursday afternoon I was driving it pretty hard shortly before the CHECK ENGINE light came on. I stopped and turned it off. I opened the hood and found my coolant overflow tank bubbling furiously. There was coolant on my air intake that looked like it sprayed out of the top of the tank (cap was still on). Not wanting to pay to get it towed home, I started it up (very hard to start like before, but worse), and gently drove it about 2 miles home and parked it. After getting home the level in the tank had gone from above HOT to only about 2 inches from the bottom of the tank and it was still bubbling. There is what appears to be oil in here now, but it seems thicker than the oil in the crankcase (almost like grease).
I have read every post about blown HGs, so I have been expecting the worst possible scenario; that's how things usually go for me. I drained the oil today and was very surprised to find no coolant in with the oil, no sediment, nothing. It also measured out to be just over 4 quarts without draining the oil filter (just barely fit in a milk gallon). Next I drained the coolant. It looks brand new, no sign of oil. The bottom side of my rad cap has very thick oil (I think) and what seems like rubber (smells like oil).
Did I get lucky and blow a HG without getting coolant in the oil, or oil in the coolant? Should it try to get a hold of a code reader to see why the CHECK ENGINE light came on?
I have read every post about blown HGs, so I have been expecting the worst possible scenario; that's how things usually go for me. I drained the oil today and was very surprised to find no coolant in with the oil, no sediment, nothing. It also measured out to be just over 4 quarts without draining the oil filter (just barely fit in a milk gallon). Next I drained the coolant. It looks brand new, no sign of oil. The bottom side of my rad cap has very thick oil (I think) and what seems like rubber (smells like oil).
Did I get lucky and blow a HG without getting coolant in the oil, or oil in the coolant? Should it try to get a hold of a code reader to see why the CHECK ENGINE light came on?