Bean Posted December 30, 2012 Report Share Posted December 30, 2012 My car has been having a few issues that I tried to get sorted out: Pretty crappy where it was missing and running a bit rough at idle. High speed miss / stutter at ~4500 rpm. An intermittent no start where it would crank for a long time, barely fire, and then die. Low coolant light still coming on Intermittent heater blowing cold Solutions: Checked the intercooler hoses and one of the hose clamps on the intercooler was pretty loose. Tightened it up, and while checking the rest of the hoses found the hose clamp on the fast idle valve was stripped and not very tight. Did a quick check on the rest of the hoses and the vacuum hoses just to make sure. Adjusted the TPS to spec as per the procedure in the tech section. Before reading was 1.46V, and the target was 2.0833V (Battery was 12.55V) - got it to 2.08 / 2.09 so it should be pretty much spot on. Had a no start today before going to my buddies garage - so I wiggled the relays above the brake reservoir and it fired up - figured they were having connection issues. So I pulled the relays, and snugged up all the female spade connectors in the relay plugs so they would engage the male spades better. Some Corrosion Free spray to protect the connections as well. Found that the coolant cap for an Eagle Premier fits our caps (had a used coolant tank in the garage) so I fitted it to the coolant bottle to see if it helps. Drive back home tonight and the car is super smooth and pulls really strong to redline, and power seems to be up but it was hard to tell with so much wheel spin on the slippery roads... The TPS adjustment is really highly recommended and was easy enough to do. Pretty sure that was the first time I've done it, and WOW - the car is just super smooth now with great throttle response. Remaining issues: This coolant issue is so random it's driving me nuts! Pretty sure I've fixed all the coolant leaks - although I have to verify the rad is leak free since it was wet with coolant in an odd spot on the core. Engine is coolant leak free now though with the new water pump, and the coolant reservoir cap is in much better shape - but I'm still at a loss to figure out why the cooling system isn't working properly - AND it's not even giving me consistent cracked head symptoms. I tried the CO2 kit but I didn't drain enough coolant from the system and it screwed up the tester. It was 1 AM so I scrapped the test for today and I'll try to ensure there are no leaks at all in the system, and then I'll attempt the CO2 test again to see if it shows any signs of the start of a cracked head. Aside from the cooling system issue which has been an issue since I bought it in '08 - the car is really running beautifully. Sounds turbine smooth when you rev it in neutral all the way to redline, and very smooth at idle as well. If I can figure out how to resolve the cooling system issue and NOT have it related to a cracked head I'll be super happy... If I do find CO2 in the cooling system then I'll increase priority in assemblying an N9TE out of the best of my spare engines and my known good head so that it can go in when the engine gets really bad. Rabin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N9TE Posted December 31, 2012 Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 The symptoms of my 89 BHG that stood out to me the most was what I can call now as a "highly pressurized cooling system". That is, the hoses were ROCK HARD and I'd crack the rad cap after 2 days of sitting and it would still hiss. Plugs didn't show any sign of BHG when I pulled them. I've got a digital boroscope. I'll get some cylinder pictures as I haven't pulled the head yet. Also, on mine, there was no real big event. It'd consume a pint a day. Go another day and not consume anything. Then another pint. One day it was milkshake city in the oil filling cap. Check that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bean Posted December 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 Did the CO2 test today and it passed - no CO2 in the cooling system according to the kit. Test involves removing 1/10th the coolant, filling the tester with some fluid that changes from blue to green/yellow when exposed to CO2. Ran the car with this on the rad fill hole and it came up to temp and cycled the fan - and the fluid stayed blue. No milkshake on the oil cap, and I just replaced the water pump which was the source of many slow leaks - so I'll keep an eye on consumption now for sure. Rad cap tested fine when I tested it to release pressure, but the cap that was on it didn't allow air to be sucked in. Found another good cap, and a clean coolant bottle and installed those today as well. Raised the bottle up to the highest point I could and still clear the hood, then filled it with the rad cap open until they were both at the same level and the rad was full. Capped the rad and I'm running it like this to see how it works. Drove home and the coolant level had risen in the bottle ~1" - so I'll check in the morning to see the level. As for the hard rad hoses - your cap should be limiting pressure to ~14psi, so if it was anything more than that and your cap is shot. I'd also check to make sure the cap allows air back in as it has to be able to draw the fluid back in when it cools. FWIW - the Eagle Premier cap is a direct fit, and Jeep's used it too - so a quick google shows the part number to be 52006707. It should work on our cars and looks to be 11psi which should be fine. I'll likely get an OEM one just for peace of mind knowing it has a new cap on it. I was really quite happy when it didn't fail the CO2 test, but the drive home had the damn coolant level light come on a couple times! The car has done this since day 1 of ownership - but I need to figure out what the hell is going on. I've replaced the level sensor and replaced the connectors, but it seems to be functioning correctly. I'll test some more and keep monitoring it closely - and hopefully I can figure out what causes the coolant light to go off. Total aside: Car is running super nice now. Really impressed with the difference the TPS adjustment made, as well as ensuring no vacuum / boost leaks were occurring. Car has 325+KM on it now, and there's a lot of blow by happening with lots of oil vapour in the intake, so hoping to do a catch can and keep it running for a while longer so I can get another engine freshened up for it this summer. Rabin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bean Posted December 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2012 Update: Opened the hood before I started the car and the coolant bottle was down ~1" from where I filled it too. Started it up, drove to work on the highway to get it up to temp, and while not fully warmed up it was at the 1/4 mark. Checked the fluid level and it was ~1" above the fill mark from last night. Fluctuation from stone cold to warm was approximately the distance between Min and Max lines on the bottle so I'm happy it seems to be working as designed now. Coolant light did not go on this morning - but the real test will be on a decently long trip with the engine at fully at operating temp for much longer. Fingers are crossed! Aside - Found out my lower rad hose heater isn't fuctioning - but car still started fine. Yet another thing to fix! (-22C this morning, but it was -28C most of the night) Rabin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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