zekgb

Thanks Dan!

Anyone have any advice on initial oil/filter change interval after using assembly lube on the cam journals/caps during reassembly? Change the oil and/or filter after 500 miles? Normal interval for both? Something else?

FYI I have Castrol GTX 20W50 in there now with the intent on switching out for Brad Penn at the first change.

Mrmerlin

I would put 1000 miles on it before swapping out the oil,
change the filter after 100 miles and drive on.
fill the new filter with oil before screwing it on

linderpat

great save! Nice job.

zekgb

Well my victory lap may have been premature. Came out this evening to a puddle of coolant and more dripping from the oil pan below the AC compressor bracket. Follow it up and there's a bunch of residue on the top of the AC compressor heat shield and on the block opposite the compressor bracket. I pulled out the air pump to see if I could locate the origin and I don't see anything obvious, there is some residue an inch or so below the top of the block but no telltales that the head gasket is the source. I also see a bit (but not as much) residue as the base of the water bridge as well as some more on top of the timing belt cover and the clamp screw. I cleaned off the residue in the water bridge area and took it out and got it nice and hot, came back to the garage and it was dry as a bone in both spots. Hmmmm.

Anyway I decided to stop there for the evening and go ahead and drop the compressor tomorrow to investigate that area a little closer. I did go back in and was able to put a full three more revolutions on the upper hose clamp using a 10mm socket after having tightened after the first couple of heat cycles. Anyone ever have an intermittent leak from a clamp that's not quite tight enough?

zekgb

Oh one thing I forgot about was that I did find a leak from the coolant level sensor in the expansion tank on Sunday from not being properly torqued so today was the first extended driving with the cooling system pressurized.

linderpat

I would bet a hose somewhere wasn't tightened enough. This has happened to me - at first panic, then a few turns of a screwdriver and problem solved. Nevertheless, do try again to duplicate it to make sure.

zekgb

So I decided to go ahead and remove the compressor since it and the high side hose were leaking badly (I have a rebuilt unit ready to go in) and I wanted to see if there was any evidence of the coolant leak coming from the head in that area. Several years ago Bill Ball and I were examining the system and were surprised to see an r134 valve installed on the low side with no other indicators that a conversion had been done. We shrugged and assumed that it had been installed because something was wrong with the R12 valve because clearly they would have put an R134 sticker somewhere to indicate that a conversion had been done, right? Anyway we topped up with R12 then and I've added a can every other year or so since, the system's always worked just ok but has never outright failed until after re-installing the engine which I attributed to the after effects of hanging by the hoses for a couple of minutes after the wires I had supporting it failed.

After opening up the system today I was very surprised to see green o-rings - so the system has definitely been opened up before and I'm wondering if we have actually been mixing r134 and r12 for years now. Any chance this wouldn't have resulted in total system failure a long time ago? Am planning on flushing the system and replacing the expansion valve along with the compressor and dryer and all the other o-rings, any other precautions I should take given these circumstances? BTW I plan to take it in to a well regarded AC shop that specializes in older cars for evacuation and recharge.

On the other thread still no telltales of a head gasket leak, so going on the assumption now that this was coming from the top radiator hose at the water bridge and the coolant was being pushed by airflow around to that side of the engine.

zekgb

Scratch that, green o-rings are only on the compressor fittings, black everywhere else. God knows what was in there.