My milkshake brings all the mechanics to the driveway...
So I have water in my oil. It's pretty bad. When you pull out your dipstick and see this mess, and you think to yourself, "I don't recall dipping this in my Frappuchino," you know it's all over. But there is hope, and I am here today to bring you good news from the gospel of Auto[M]ay. There are a number of ways to temporarily fix such a problem without actually pulling the head off the car.
I have the cheapass way to do it. Run a can of K&W Block Seal or whatever through the cooling system. The primary ingredient of most block seals is an old receipe of sodium silicate, also known as "liquid glass" or " waterglass". This is something you could technically walk into a drugstore and buy. Well, maybe twenty years ago, because the guy at the Walgreens counter looked at me like I was a terrorist or something. Basically, it will fill in inperfections in the metal. The idea is that you have to drain all the coolant out, make sure there is no ethylene glycol left in there, and then run straight water through with the waterglass. Then you drain it out, and let the engine sit overnight, dry, to allow the waterglass to cure. The next day, you fill the system with 50/50 antifreeze and distilled water, and go about your business. The longer it holds, the longer you can put off your engine work. This is what I want to try.
Another way to try and stave off a blown head gasket is to pull the valve cover off, loosen the cylinder head bolts out, then tighten them down PLUS 10-20% over the normal torque spec. This compresses the head gasket some more, allowing material from undamaged parts of the gasket to fill in the spaces where it has failed. It also slightly increases engine compression. This is also something I want to accomplish now that the car is in the driveway and I can work on it without getting run over by the mail carrier.
And then when you look at the symptoms I have (water in oil, oil in water, smokes only when it starts, no excess pressure in the cooling system) you might think that only the intake manifold gasket is to blame. So I might just pull the intake off so I can check the integrity of that gasket. But I'm not so sure that this engine has oil and coolant passages in the intake manifold. I guess there's only one way to find out.
If any of these ideas, or any combination of these ideas manage to work long enough to pass inspection, it's all good. I just need my sticker. Then I can start driving it again. But also, I want to find a powertrain donor car. With all the people dropping Cadillac V8's into their Fieros, I'm thinking, hell, I have a Celebrity, uses the same engines as the stock Fieros, why can't I just do that? Or a Supercharged Buick V6 (3800SC). I'm thinking that may be the way to go, the 3800SC, since the N/A 3800 was actually offered in A-bodies (Century and Ciera, 85-88), it should bolt right in and the only fabrication I have to worry about would be electronics and wiring. Wish me luck finding a nice Superhcraged Park Avenue or Bonneville to get this done. I think they even had the Supercharged SSEi Bonneville in 1989, which is the same year as my car. But those are harder to find than the newer 92-94ish models. I can't go 95 or newer because I'd be getting into OBD II territory and my car simply won't support it without major modifications.
I have the cheapass way to do it. Run a can of K&W Block Seal or whatever through the cooling system. The primary ingredient of most block seals is an old receipe of sodium silicate, also known as "liquid glass" or " waterglass". This is something you could technically walk into a drugstore and buy. Well, maybe twenty years ago, because the guy at the Walgreens counter looked at me like I was a terrorist or something. Basically, it will fill in inperfections in the metal. The idea is that you have to drain all the coolant out, make sure there is no ethylene glycol left in there, and then run straight water through with the waterglass. Then you drain it out, and let the engine sit overnight, dry, to allow the waterglass to cure. The next day, you fill the system with 50/50 antifreeze and distilled water, and go about your business. The longer it holds, the longer you can put off your engine work. This is what I want to try.
Another way to try and stave off a blown head gasket is to pull the valve cover off, loosen the cylinder head bolts out, then tighten them down PLUS 10-20% over the normal torque spec. This compresses the head gasket some more, allowing material from undamaged parts of the gasket to fill in the spaces where it has failed. It also slightly increases engine compression. This is also something I want to accomplish now that the car is in the driveway and I can work on it without getting run over by the mail carrier.
And then when you look at the symptoms I have (water in oil, oil in water, smokes only when it starts, no excess pressure in the cooling system) you might think that only the intake manifold gasket is to blame. So I might just pull the intake off so I can check the integrity of that gasket. But I'm not so sure that this engine has oil and coolant passages in the intake manifold. I guess there's only one way to find out.
If any of these ideas, or any combination of these ideas manage to work long enough to pass inspection, it's all good. I just need my sticker. Then I can start driving it again. But also, I want to find a powertrain donor car. With all the people dropping Cadillac V8's into their Fieros, I'm thinking, hell, I have a Celebrity, uses the same engines as the stock Fieros, why can't I just do that? Or a Supercharged Buick V6 (3800SC). I'm thinking that may be the way to go, the 3800SC, since the N/A 3800 was actually offered in A-bodies (Century and Ciera, 85-88), it should bolt right in and the only fabrication I have to worry about would be electronics and wiring. Wish me luck finding a nice Superhcraged Park Avenue or Bonneville to get this done. I think they even had the Supercharged SSEi Bonneville in 1989, which is the same year as my car. But those are harder to find than the newer 92-94ish models. I can't go 95 or newer because I'd be getting into OBD II territory and my car simply won't support it without major modifications.