G car HC Engine conversion

[dazmans3]

Hi all

G & Stevens car owners I need you advice please.

Well I made a bold decision the other day & bought myself a complete HC turbo engine from an 88 Stevens car which is complete inc AC pump ready to drop into a car in need.

The Plan is to convert my 85 esprit turbo into a HC Turbo & try to keep as close to the original set up to the rarer G car HC's, allowing for a few Samco hoses & chroming here & there of course.

The reason: It seams that I have a problem with either my cylinder head gasket, or one of the liners isn't seated properly. Symptoms being creamy stuff coming out of the engine breather pipe (But not on the oil filler cap. It has been doing this a long, long time now but would disappear over the warmer months.

However more recently it seams to be more apparent & fills up my newly fitted Oil catch tank with both water & this creamy stuff. I have also noted the dip stick popped up with what looks like steam coming out of it after a run, & of course you can see that creamy stuff.

I was also dumping coolant from the expansion tank when pushing the car. However since thinning down the antifreeze it seams to have subsided for now.

The Newer HC Engine:

Good points: it has 55k on it with a rebuild 15 k ago in 2000. This covered most of the main bits like barings piston rings ect & it came with receipts to show parts ect.

& it does look well put together.

Bad points: so far is the Exhaust manifold is knackered.

I plan to use my Manifold & turbo with old style waist gate, as this seams to match the spec of the 87 HC G car (according to my parts manual) Also my Manifold & turbo are low milage & it will save me quite a bit in

Edited May 25, 2006 by dazmans3

[WayneB]

Did you try adding some Bars Leaks to your coolant?

A fair few cars with Aluminium blocks and heads have had minor problems with coolant seeping into the oil.

GM actually used to spec a sealant Pill for use in the Oldsmobile Quad 4 DOHC engine for just this reason.

My Imp did the same.

As for the vacuum pump, my 1983 has one so it must fit , and the A/C uses R12 refrigerant (no longer available legally in alot of places) so you will have to convert to R134a or Max Cool (if its legal in UK)

[slade]

My AC's due for a recharge. Wayne, as a tangent I recall you saying that the compressor on my car was the same as the Vintage Air setups on a lot of classic cars these days, which I know take R134. So before I stop being lazy and take a peek and look for myself, ought my car take R12 or R134?

Slade

Edited May 23, 2006 by slade

[gghc87]

Daz wish you well on this project.

Re air con I read recently about a Refrigerant that was a drop in replacement for the old R12 and saved on costly conversion and is Environment friendly.

Seemed a good solution and the reports suggested little or nil loss of effectiveness.

see this thread

http://www.glcforum.com/esprit/forums/inde...r++conditioning

Edited May 23, 2006 by gghc87

[scoule]

The Ac Pump, anyone know if the 88 Stevens had the environmentally friendly stuff in there AC, or will I have to have this converted, or how can I tell if it has been done? My current AC no longer works as needs upgrading to new stuff so I cant use this anyway.

My Excel of similar vintage faced the same problem ... no more R12 .. but the good news is R49 can be dropped straight in with no changes to the system!

If you're anywhere near Billingshurst (west sussex), I can give you the number of the guy who filled up my Excel after I replaced the condenser.

[dazmans3]

My Excel of similar vintage faced the same problem ... no more R12 .. but the good news is R49 can be dropped straight in with no changes to the system!

If you're anywhere near Billingshurst (west sussex), I can give you the number of the guy who filled up my Excel after I replaced the condenser.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for you input so far.

wayneB: no I hadn't considerd 'Bars Leaks'. I have always been wary of putting simular leque stop aditives in the coolant, as was informed could also block up the smaller water passages in the block, dont know how true that might be. I also noticed in my manual that there are 3 differrent chassis types, So I will have a good look this week end to see what space I have.

Thanks for tips on AC. gghc87: : I will check up on that & see what can be done. Last quote I had was about

[Evil_Dr_Fish]

Daz - I just saw a car down at Esprit Engineering where the guy had a coolant leak so chucked in a bunch of rad-weld type stuff...

Trouble is, because the water was leaking to oil, the rad-wled went with it....

It clogged up his oil-scavenge pipe like you can't imagine and the only reason it didn't lose a big end was because the filter of said oil scavenge pipe then fell off!

I am sure such substances are fine for water->atmosphere leaks...

...but personally I would now be very wary of using it on a water->oil leak

Having said that, Wayne has forgotten more than I know so he will have a much better idea of how common a danger this is.

[dazmans3]

Daz - I just saw a car down at Esprit Engineering where the guy had a coolant leak so chucked in a bunch of rad-weld type stuff...

It clogged up his oil-scavenge pipe like you can't imagine and the only reason it didn't lose a big end was because the filter of said oil scavenge pipe then fell off!

Thanks Rodin,

I now have another reason not to use Rad weld type stuff, I was always warey of this sort of stuff, more so on alloy & preformance engines.

Looks like l'll be going ahead with my HC engine. Going to spend these glorious summer evenings preping it, & hopfully have it ready for the winter for the change over, if my old engine will last that long. It will be interesting to see what was acually wrong with it when I do strip it, as long term I plan to rebuild it.

I think the main reason I lost my last gearbox was due to someone over doing it with the silicon sealant & blocking the oil patchways to the outer drive shafts. Both of these were completly void of oil when I took it to bits. So I expect its a simular mistake when this engine was rebuilt.

[WayneB]

GM require the use of AC-Delco coolant Leak sealing suppliment in its Northstar Cadillac engines. (pn# 3634621)

A customer of mine ran his Cadillac 300,000 kms with no coolant to oil leakage problems (what the Northstar is known for)

The product is made by Barrs-leaks(packaged for GM)

They would be shooting themselves in the foot specing a product for engines under warranty that would destroy them!

I have no idea what the bunged up oil pickup Esprit Engineering Esprit had in it (Holts radweld? or just sludge from cheap oil or huge oil change intervals?), but there are some crap products out there.

Of course there shouldnt be a need for any use of leak sealer in engines, but human error, bad metalurgy, machining or compromised design mean its a fact of life.

I myself would try theBarrs Leaks before yanking an engine for the full monty.

Edited May 27, 2006 by WayneB

[hilly]

I have put barrs-leak in my 912 engine and have run it for the last 3 years with no problems at all.

Mine was weeping a very small amount from the lower edge of the head gasket when starting from cold, fine once it had warmed up.

This was due to the 4 thou liner protusion above the alloy block, which levels out when the enigine is warm due to different expansion rates of the cast iron liners and alloy block. This causes the water channel seal areas of the head gasket to be less effective when cold as the liners are forcing the head and gasket away from the block.

This is why the earlier 907/912/910 engines tend to blow head gaskets as the area that seals the liners becomes less effective as the engine heats up. The liner & block become flat, the 4 thou pinch disappeares and the memory effect of the steel edged gasket causes leaks . The Nicosil coated alloy liners of the later engines suffered less from this.

That is my theory anyhow.

Andy

1981 S3

[dazmans3]

I have put barrs-leak in my 912 engine and have run it for the last 3 years with no problems at all.

Andy

1981 S3

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Andy,

Thank you for input. Its spooky that only yesterday I was talking to another Andy(He came off the track at Goodwood and hit a tyer wall causing quite a bit of damage to his lovely 84 chargecooled esprit)

He had cream on his dipstick & in engine breather pipe. He has used a simular coolant aditive, which he is going to get me details for, and he said it seams to have cured his problem.

So, I will investigate this option if its not too late, as on driving back from his place last night I seam to be back to loosing coolant out of the expansion tank again.

Daz

[dazmans3]

The product is made by Barrs-leaks(packaged for GM)

I have no idea what the bunged up oil pickup Esprit Engineering Esprit had in it (Holts radweld? or just sludge from cheap oil or huge oil change intervals?), but there are some crap products out there.

I myself would try theBarrs Leaks before yanking an engine for the full monty.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Wayne

Yes its is a good point (please also see my prevoius add) its like what my friend andy said, what have I got to loose at this point. & I supose it would have to be some pretty big lumps to totaly clog up that pickup pipe.

I have no plans to change engine just yet. I am going to run my current engine for at least this summer & see how it goes, which will give me time to get all the bits I need for the HC engine as well as giving it a good check over. So when/if it's needed it will be a straight engine swop.