TR2/3/3A TR3 has Rebuilt Engine and coolant in the oil

[aaronclark]

Some of you may have saw my post about the engine in my almost road-ready TR3 that was leaking oil on its first start up, well when I dropped the oil pan to look at the rear main seal i saw some coolant dripping off the crankshaft. I pulled the valve cover and found some coolant sitting on top of the head as well. I only ran the car about 15 minutes to adjust timing and carbs and stuff, but in doing that I managed to overheat it.

Well, i realized that i didn't add enough water so i topped it off and it cooled right down and stayed at 165 or so. I thought maybe the head gasket had just gone bad from sitting dry(it may have been rebuilt 4 or 5 years before actually running). I have a new head gasket but I am going to try re-torquing the head before i change it. So I have a couple questions:
1 how much damage could i have done by overheating it on its first start
2. are there any other places the coolant could leak past
3. what should i do to break in properly once it is back together(this could probably be a thread of its own)

Thanks all,

 

[DougF]

What does your oil look like in the pan? If it is normal to black, you should be okay. If it is milky looking, it would depend on the amount of antifreeze in sump asto how much damage may have been done. Don't reuse the oil if shows any signs of an antifreeze mix.
Antifreeze can make fast work at damaging an engine.
Head gaskets are the most common way of mixing oil and antifreeze. In a current post, I mention that my friend's engine was feeding antifreeze past the rocker shaft pedestal stud. Cracks in the block or head are another causes.

 

[YankeeTR]

If you didn't get the engine TOO hot for TOO long it's likely you didn't do any damage.

The coolant could be leaking into the engine from the figure of 8 gaskets located at the bottom of the sleeves. A repair would require removing the sleeves and replacing the offending parts.

I would buy/borrow/rent a cooling system pressure tester and refill the cooling system and look for the leak. Keep the pan off and check the Fo8 gaskets...and the head gaskets. I believe the head studs pass thru the water passeages and require a Permatex #1 or #2 coating before being inserted into the block. I've seen engine leak at these studs if the Permatex was not used.

If the camshaft and/or lifters have been replaced break-in the cam at 2500 RPM for 20 minutes to seat the lifters. Use a good diesel 15W40 and/or GM Engine Oil Supplement to add extra ZDDP additives to the oil to protect the cam during break-in. DO NOT use a modern CF-4 oil...you will destroy the cam/lifters.

 

[aaronclark]

The oil is mostly normal looking but if i swirl it with my finger a lighter milky color does seem to mix but not very noticeable.

I also wanted to mention that I still have the oil pan off and I have fresh coolant making its way down through and dripping off the crank. Looking up in the cylinders I don't see any leaking around the pistons or liners, I can't see it anywhere other than along the bottom of the crank.

I will check out the pedestal stud and investigate the head for any cracks.

Thanks

 

[aaronclark]

Well I am working on it right now, I have the oil pan off and looking up into the cylinders, number 3 seems to be leaking coolant, I can see it between the piston and the liner, does this make sense? That is where it seems to be originating, I don't know enough (yet) about internal engine stuff to know what to do next, but I do know that these tr's are wet liners right?

I have my laptop in the garage with me and will be watching if any one has any ideas for me I really appreciate this forum. This is my first restoration and I have done most of it myself but the engine stuff is still pretty foreign to me.

Thanks

 

[TR3driver]

Between the piston & liner would have to indicate that either the liner itself is cracked (very unlikely, IMO), the headgasket is leaking (most likely IMO), or the cylinder head is cracked.

Worth a try to retorque the head nuts (remember to loosen them a bit first); but most likely the head needs to come off. Try to avoid the temptation to overtorque the nuts, as that will usually make things worse and very likely will damage (distort) the studs. Also check the flat washers under the nuts, these are a special item and hardware store washers (or none at all) won't work very well. You can tell hardware store washers because they hang out over the edge of the flat place where the washer sits on the head. It's OK if they're a bit chewed up, as long as they're the correct hardened washer.

Once you've pulled the head, I suggest having a shop Magnaflux it for cracks. Also check the head surface carefully for flatness and damage. You can do this yourself if you have a good straight edge & feeler gauges, or have the shop do it for you.

Check that the studs are not distorted by spinning a new hardware store nut down the (clean) threads. It should turn easily to the bottom. If it binds about 2/3 down, the threads are likely distorted and the stud should be replaced.

Also, check the liner protrusion on both sides. On the block I got from a 56 TR3, something wasn't quite right and the liners were low only on one side. Result was a long string of leaking head gaskets before I finally found the problem.

Engines are really pretty easy, just lots of parts that have to fit together right. And unlike body work, you can't cover up problems with a coat of paint /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[YankeeTR]

The Fo8 gaskets are at the bottom of the liners...look closely to see if the collant is leaking from one of them. .005 thcker gaskets are available if yours are leaking. That MAY solve the problem of a leaky Fo8.

Here's a picture of a distorted Fo8 gasket at the bottom of a rusty cylinder.