Cruiser
05-10-2015, 07:56 PM
Ol' faithful ('92 TR 2.6L) has recently developed an unusual issue. Noticed while coming home a couple of weeks ago that the temperature gauge was creeping up toward three quarters. I turned the heater on and increased the RPM to increase the coolant flow rate through the water pump, which did the trick - the gauge immediately fell back down to half. Close call.
Drove it back home and let the engine cool down. Opened the radiator and noticed that a significant amount of coolant was missing, I had to add about a litre to the system to bring it back up to the full level.
The car had been making some unusual rushing water noises behind the dashboard (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104382&highlight=) for some time, but it seemed to come and go at random, often not occurring for months at a time.
Along with the loss of coolant, the engine has developed a misfire on one cylinder for the first 30 or so seconds after the engine is started. It'll run on 3 cylinders, and the fourth cylinder will cough and splutter for a bit before coming back online normally. The car then runs correctly on all four until the engine is shut down overnight.
I've quizzed a couple of mechanics on the matter and the same answer I've heard from all of them is that the head gasket could be leaking between a cooling jacket and a cylinder, slowly leaking coolant in the cylinder overnight and fouling the spark plug, which then burns off after the engine is started again.
I haven't yet had the chance to pull the plugs and look for the presence of anti-freeze in the cylinder, but that's next on the cards. I attempted to get ahold of a cooling system combustion gas tester, but haven't had much success there yet.
These people aren't Mitsubishi specialists though, and most of them haven't touched a 2.6L before, so I want to ask the opinion of the more knowledgeable people here.
At the moment it sounds like grim news for the Astron no matter how you slice it, and chances are should I choose to repair this car, I'd sooner throw another lower kilometre engine in there than attempt to repair the issues with this one. If I have to change engine I'll replace the water pump, radiator, hoses, fittings and everything in between at the same time. Have a lot of NIB spares left over from another car.
Thoughts?
Drove it back home and let the engine cool down. Opened the radiator and noticed that a significant amount of coolant was missing, I had to add about a litre to the system to bring it back up to the full level.
The car had been making some unusual rushing water noises behind the dashboard (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=104382&highlight=) for some time, but it seemed to come and go at random, often not occurring for months at a time.
Along with the loss of coolant, the engine has developed a misfire on one cylinder for the first 30 or so seconds after the engine is started. It'll run on 3 cylinders, and the fourth cylinder will cough and splutter for a bit before coming back online normally. The car then runs correctly on all four until the engine is shut down overnight.
I've quizzed a couple of mechanics on the matter and the same answer I've heard from all of them is that the head gasket could be leaking between a cooling jacket and a cylinder, slowly leaking coolant in the cylinder overnight and fouling the spark plug, which then burns off after the engine is started again.
I haven't yet had the chance to pull the plugs and look for the presence of anti-freeze in the cylinder, but that's next on the cards. I attempted to get ahold of a cooling system combustion gas tester, but haven't had much success there yet.
These people aren't Mitsubishi specialists though, and most of them haven't touched a 2.6L before, so I want to ask the opinion of the more knowledgeable people here.
At the moment it sounds like grim news for the Astron no matter how you slice it, and chances are should I choose to repair this car, I'd sooner throw another lower kilometre engine in there than attempt to repair the issues with this one. If I have to change engine I'll replace the water pump, radiator, hoses, fittings and everything in between at the same time. Have a lot of NIB spares left over from another car.
Thoughts?