Message text written by Ian Clough
>Driving home yesterday in 35 degre weather (I much
prefer when it's -35), I was at a red light and I
could smell something burning and thought "heh-heh,
some poor sucker's car is overheating". Almost that
same instance I saw steam coming from under my hood!
"Nooooooo! Why me Lord? Why ME??" Luckilly I was
almost home, so I took it really easy. I kept a close
eye on the oil pressure, but the temp gauge was off
the scale. Then it got worse, as I was turning onto
my street, as the revs were going doing to almost idle
I heard the distinct noise of grinding/breaking metal.
Okay, enough whining. The engine is now cool enough
to approach, where should I start? I really don't
want to start the engine not knowing what the grinding
sound was. My first stop will probably be the
thermostat, how can I tell if it was the root cause
and if it should be replaced? Then the engine itself,
what should I test first?
<
Start by taking the fan belt loose and isolating the water
pump and alternator. You just might get lucky and have
nothing more than a buggered water pump.
If that isn't the problem then if the oil pressure stayed
up at some reasonable level (more than 15 lbs) then
the bottom end is very likely OK and you may have
some broken rings but then I drove an MGB for months
with broken rings and never heard anything so that brings
me back to the water pump.
Good luck
Dave Massey (with fingers crossed)
71 TR6
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