This kinda feels familiar............

[1930artdeco]

Hugh, since you can time travel would you be willing to pick up some parts for me? I can give you part numbers for both my Model A and wagon.

Mike

[mustang6984]

Hugh, since you can time travel would you be willing to pick up some parts for me? I can give you part numbers for both my Model A and wagon.

Mike

OOPs! I SO wish I had retained my typing skills from school! LOL!!! Good catch! I'll edit it! Thanks!   

[Limey57]

I finally got it nailed back together yesterday, had issues with the starter as well, replaced that and I still had that itchy feeling that something just wasn't right.  Cranking the engine I could hear a metallic scraping sound, kinda like a flex plate bolt catching something but it sounded like it was from the front of the engine, I assumed it was the water pump bearings.

The engine fired up first time, revved well BUT the scraping noise was there so I switched off and removed the belts to rule out water pump/alternator/PS pump.  Started it up and it's still there.....  Time to start some basic checks.

Water - radiator was bone dry!  Oil (this was fresh an hour before) - chocolate milkshake time, so that's where the water went.  I drained some of it out and refilled the radiator and I could hear a "hissing" sound coming from the dipstick tube, the water was instantly filling the sump!!!!

There's clearly something very wrong inside, no idea how it's happened, possibly cracked the block due to previous overheating issues?  No idea, but I now need to pull the motor and investigate.  This one's fighting me all the way!

[mustang6984]

We blame things like that on a guy named Murphy over here. He was a real person who seemed to have a knack for finding ways to make life difficult.

"Murphy's Law is a popular adage stating that "anything that can go wrong will go wrong". It's often used humorously to explain unfortunate or unexpected events and is attributed to an American engineer, Edward A. Murphy Jr."

Didn't know he had visited across the pond! Good luck!

[djfordmanjack]

maybe something more obvious. I seem to remember you run a SBF, Gary ?
even a simple thing as a leaky intake manifold gasket could cause your problem.

[Limey57]

Yes it's a late '79 302, I had it rebuilt by a guy who works for the Mercedes racing team, he did a decent job and (apart from overheating which I traced to poor aluminum heads) it ran like clockwork.  Since leaving it idle for a few years it's developed this strange scraping/shrieking noise from inside the engine AND dumps the water into the sump very quickly.  Also when it runs the oil/water mix (chocolate milkshake anyone?) rises to the top of the dipstick tube indicating the sump is pressurising.

I also have a nagging doubt because I had it bored +40thou and more than one person has told me you shouldn't go more than +30thou on a 302.

It needs investigating so I'll start the strip down again at the weekend piece by piece with fingers crossed it's something simple!

[rmk57]

  You could try a quick compression test and see if it's a bad cylinder or leak down test if you have a compressor.

[Limey57]

You could try a quick compression test and see if it's a bad cylinder or leak down test if you have a compressor.

Yes we'll do that, rational thinking is now starting to appear rather than the screaming, hair-pulling hysteria I had at the weekend.  Hope to start to look at it on Saturday, I'll report back any horror stories as I find them......

[lalessi1]

I had a similar reaction to a similar problem about 6 months after installing my FE. The engine overheated to around 240 F. I shut it down and it started water hammering (thermal shock) which I am familiar with but NEVER it a car engine. After the car cooled down it seemed fine. About a year later it started "smoking"  (steam) out of the right bank... freaked out! Wound up changing the head gasket, solved the problem and never looked back, that was 10 years ago. Take your time relax and hope for GOOD LUCK!!!!

[Limey57]

Well..... things were a bit quiet this morning (working from home) so whipped all the plugs out and ran a compression test, a healthy 145 to 150psi on all cylinders so it's something a bit more terminal.  I'll try and drop the sump then fill the radiator to see if I can see where the water is coming from, it fills the sump so quickly that it should (hopefully) be obvious.

[gasman826]

Windsor engines have a variety of timing chain covers, water pump plates, water pumps and gasket sets.  A mismatch will cause a huge coolant leak directly into the oil pan.  The same issues exist with the matchup between the intake manifold and head...especially the mating up the coolant passages between head and intake.  Good news on the compression test.