LUVTruck.com

Alrighty everyone. Got the LUV running today and it ran great. Well, until about 18 miles from home and it started to run crappy and died. Popped the hood and she was hot. My guages quit working so I don't know how hot. After sitting a while it started, but ran awful with no power to move. Got her towed home, thanks to a nice black guy named Uncle Bob, and dove into the engine.
Pulled the air cleaner off and found water in the carb. Removed the radiator cap, filled it up and tried to start it without the cap in place. It ran rough and was pushing water out of the radiator. Figure I blowed up my head gasket. Disconnected the coil and removed the spark plugs, turned it over for a while and no water was pushed out of the radiator. Put the plugs back in, but without hooking the coil up, turned it over and again, water was pushed out the radiator. Ok, so the head gasket is leaking and the compresssion is pushing water out. Ran a compression check to look for something obvious and the cylinders were between 140 and 150 psi. Removed the valve cover and it is coated in a water/oil mix. Yup, gotta be a blowed up head gasket. Pulled the head, intake and exhaust manifold off as one unit and inspected the head gasket. Could not find any cracks around the cylinders nor in the head gasket. Depresssion now begining to set in as I started thinking of what and where the problem is and my head hurts! Tomorrow I plan to remove the intake and exhaust manifolds and see what I can find.
Do any of you have ideas what to look for in this situation? If there are any ideas to help zero me in, that would prevent me from going on a wild goose chase and wasting time.
Thanks.......

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I've never been wrong! Once I thought I was, but I was mistaken.
Rick
Loranger, La
1980 Stepside LUV (Again)

that sounds like you have a plugged coolant passage. or a crack in the head itself.

check the block closely and see if there are ANY hairline crack anywhere near the cylinder walls


how do the plugs look? is there any whiteness on them at all? that will give you an indication of the cylinder that is burning coolant.


water in the carb? i dunno... never heard of that one before...

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To the Oquirr hills for awesome thrills! Go-go 4wd, Activate!

I would imagine water in the carb has to be pushed from a cylinder but then that means it has to push back up past the float if you can look in the carb and tell it's water. I would be looking hard at blown head gasket (which you did) cracked head, cracked cylinder wall (turn the engine over so you can see up and down the cylinder walls for cracks). Hmmmm, still racking my brain with this one.......thought about it for a few minutes.

Sounds like you are on the right track with the head off and chasing where you are headed. I'm thinking a leaking water port from head to block, crack, or gasket, water gets in the cylinder and has to go somewhere...either out the exhaust or I guess back up into the intake...carb. That seems like alot of fluid to push back up into the Carb considering the "smidgen of time" the valve is open. Keep us posted with what you come up with.

_________________
In life there is the "Way things should be" and then "There's the way they are".

2005 Silverado 3/4T Crew Cab
1981 Luv 2WD
1979 Luv 4x4 Currently going through Open Heart and Cosmetic surgery
1995 Roughneck JetBoat
1981 Luv parts trk

Hey guys, don't be scratching your head as much as I am doing. You'll go bald! I removed the intake and exhaust maifolds and cleaned everything up. So far I have seen nothing to indicate a problem, though I did figure out where some gas was leaking from as the lower screws holding the carb together were seriously loose! Tomorrows plan is to cover the water ports up on the intake and put a little air pressure in it while under water. I hope NOT to see bubbles comming from the intake runners. If nothing shows up I'll just go ahead and pick up a new head gasket, exhaust and manifold gaskets, and build it back up. (I wish I had put only one plug in at a time to see if any single cylinder maight have caused the problem) Once the head and intake are on, I'll turn it over to see if it pushes water out the radiator again. If it dosen't, I'll finish it up and fire it up. We'll see when my gaskets come in.

_________________
I've never been wrong! Once I thought I was, but I was mistaken.
Rick
Loranger, La
1980 Stepside LUV (Again)

have you checked the intake manifold really well? a plugged coolant galley will cause a major problem. especially when you have much calcification because of bad coolant mix, or running straight water in the system.


just make sure you inspect EVERYTHING REAL well


i spoke with my brother and he suggested doing a leakdown test but i guess it's out at this point.

Keep in mind that the coolant passages in the head are quite thin-walled, so try as best you can to make sure you dont have cracks in there.

hope you get her back on the road!

if you find something in the block, i might have a spare one available should you need it.

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To the Oquirr hills for awesome thrills! Go-go 4wd, Activate!

There are quite a few coolant passages in there, and intakes can crack too... that would explain the water in the carb. lol, you just might be talking to mokadeth here pretty quick.

How did the intake gasket look? And, are all the gasket surfaces flat?

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1980 4X4 LUV daily driver, as stock as can be.

I serched every nook and cranny, but saw nothing. Toady was a bit too busy with the wife and didn't get to the LUV. Tomorrow I plan to do what I had planned to do today! The gaskets should arrive by 3 pm tomorrow too. For now I will be working on my dang tower computer that won't LAN for me!

_________________
I've never been wrong! Once I thought I was, but I was mistaken.
Rick
Loranger, La
1980 Stepside LUV (Again)

Did a lot of inspecting today and the ONLY thing I found/saw, was the tiny hole on intake flange no.4 was blocked. I cleaned it out and preped everything for reassembly. Looking in by Chilton's for reference, I found the timing has been 180 degrees out. The camshaft pin is at the botom rather that the top. Tomorrow I'll spin the cam 180 degrees and finish it up.
So, nothing I have seen points to where the water in the carb came from and why the engine pushed water out of the radiator with the plugs in place. Gremlins maybe? Still, it could have been just some bad gaskets and with luck the new ones will resolve the problem.

_________________
I've never been wrong! Once I thought I was, but I was mistaken.
Rick
Loranger, La
1980 Stepside LUV (Again)

Any progress? Keep us posted.

_________________
In life there is the "Way things should be" and then "There's the way they are".

2005 Silverado 3/4T Crew Cab
1981 Luv 2WD
1979 Luv 4x4 Currently going through Open Heart and Cosmetic surgery
1995 Roughneck JetBoat
1981 Luv parts trk

Sorry for that. I posted it under 'Reassembled Engine'. Guess that suture in my thimb was too tight and shut the blood off to my brain cell!

_________________
I've never been wrong! Once I thought I was, but I was mistaken.
Rick
Loranger, La
1980 Stepside LUV (Again)