Marshall, I confirmed by gasket failure and the compression gas in the coolant with an "block tester"... you can get one of these at NAPA. For those unfamiliar- It is a glass tube with a rubber squeeze ball at one and a rubber intake at the other. You hold it in the coolant reservoir (after removing enough coolant to keep the coolant out of the tester). The green fluid turns yellow if combustion gas is present. Although I did not try this I was told that I could isolate the failed seal by removing one spark plug at a time until you get a clean test. I didn't try this because I was skeptical that once the gas is present I would not expect to get a clean test unless I changed the coolant. Maybe this is not true? But the most compelling reason for my not bothering with further testing is because you would not want to reseal just one side of the engine anyway. If you have a failure you need to do both sides. Im not a professional mechanic (I just like to get in over my head on my own cars) but Im told there are reliability and performance reasons for doing both sides. Maybe someone could elaborate on this. Eric Small So.Portland, Maine '86 GL Weekender |
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