Alrighty, timing belt is on and all seemed well with the world. I knew I had a coolant leak from the plastic valve on the back of the head, and was totally out of fluid. Car started just fine (sans fluid) and I ran it briefly to verify the belt was on right .. no more than 15 or 20 seconds ..

So, replaced that plastic valve today and filled up the radiator and coolant reservoir and started it up. When I start the car the reservoir tank overflows, spews even. I let it blow out all the fluid it wanted to, figuring I'd just overfilled it. The car died after about 30 seconds of this. Tried it a couple more times. Each time, the car started with the reservoir empty, it filled quickly after I started it then promptly spewed everywhere.

After 2 or 3 tries at this, figured I'd hooked something up wrong. All hoses seem to be in the right places, but I'm noticing water/antifreeze in the oil. Had only just changed it before all this, now is murky brown and kinda bubbly looking.

The only place I can see where the coolant could come into contact with the oil is the filter housing, where it seems a coolant line runs into, and then out of.

I only just bought the car, but I can see evidence that it was overheated pretty bad in the past. That plastic piece on the back of the head was trashed, as was the radiator that came with the car.

Short of there being something wrong in the filter housing, the only other thing I can think of is bad head gasket.

Checked compression after I put the timing belt on, found it to be fairly consistent across all 4 cylinders, except #2, which was about 25% lower than the rest .. 1,3,4 were at about 120, 2 was at about 90 ..

Not sure if that means anything ..

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

 

... a blown head gasket and/or a cracked or warped head. Compression gas escaping into cooling system pressurizing it, hence the coolant barfing.

For your sake I hope I'm wrong... but then again, you could just put a 1.8T motor in there, couldn't you? ;-)

 

2nd

 

A big 2nd on that one, less than 150psi comp is deathly on the 4cyl if I am not mistaken!

 

Cracked head or blown head gasket or both.

 

Okay, does that mean chuck the whole engine, or can I get the head machined and salvage it?

 

That filter housing is a coolant-to-oil cooler. Likely it has failed, and that's where the coolant and water are mixing. Start checking that first, and change the oil!!!.
It might be a blown o-ring in the cooler; probably the whole cooler needs to be changed. Looked at the repair manual yet?

 

Chris, I'm liking this direction a bunch better *grin*

When I got the car, the oil was black and not in any way contaminated by coolant. I can only assume that whatever happened to it has happened since I've had it. Drove it about a mile, replaced radiator, timing belt, valve cover gasket, rear plastic coolant fitting, some belts, CVs and a bunch of coolant hoses. Now suddenly I've got coolant in the oil.

So, it is possible then for a failure of this oil/coolant fitting to cause the two to mix?

I see that it looks easily un-boltable, will take that bad boy off tomorrow and see what it looks like inside.

Am willing to try almost anything; really don't care to pull the head off if I can help it.

Unfortunately, no repair manual
Haynes doesn't make one, nor does Chilton ..

Any suggestions as to another?

Thanks!

 

Sounds like a great deal! I know your pain but when its all done its FUN!

 

replacing the head gasket on your particular car isn't too bad though. Of course investigate the easiest/cheapest job first.