Frank B

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet..... = = = I like two the best.

Spray the crap out of it with penetrating oil! Like WD40, PB Blaster, or liquid wrench. Let it sit overnight, and try to move it.

That's cool, but I'm not all that impressed since it's had a drivetrain swap! If somebody built a 9 or 10 second EA81 Brat, that would be impressive. Still cool though........

Try it without the chemicals first. If you can't get water to flow through it, you can't get the flushing agent though it either. You can try less caustic stuff first like a 1lb box of baking soda disolved in water in your cooling system, or a bottle of vineger. Either one you'll have to remove all the anti-freeze anyway and that's not a good idea this time of year. I'm telling you man, try the garden hose thingy flush first, I've had some locked up cores flush out that way. Remember, your household water pressure is 60 lbs +, sometimes higher than 100 PSI!! Your cooling system vents at 13lbs.....Just remember to krimp the hose in your hand, then gradually open it up to slowly increase the pressure through the core.

If the RX and this wagon are of the same type, meaning the electrcial differences in the early to later years. Then I say part out the wagon but keep anything like electrical sensors, fuel injection stuff, turbo etc. The RX is worth more, or more desirable anyway, than the wagon.

Also, are you sure the thermostat isn't stuck open? Is the guage reading the proper temps? If it's so cold outside that the engine isn't getting up to temp, try sliding a piece of thick cardboard down in front of the radiator. I've had to do that on cold days(1 degree or less), remember the wind chill factor while driving at 60 + MPH too! But never cover the entire rad. Just 3/4 of it. I like to cut a diamond out of the cardboard in the middle.

try flushing your heater core. Go to the hardware store and buy a garden hose repair end, the female kind that will screw onto your garden hose, a short pice of heater hose, like 12 inches, then you clamp the heater hose onto the repair end. or you could cut the end of a garden hose off and use that. Remove both hoses from the heater core and clamp the hose you just made onto the outlet pipe, to back flush, the one that goes to your intake manifold IIRC. I like to turn the water hose on, crimp the hose in my hand to stop the flow, then hook it all up. It's tricky but you don't want all that pressure going into the heater core. If you have a helper, just hook it up, crimp the hose, have them turn the water on, then slowly release the crimp to slowly increase the water pressure. You will see all kinds of crap come out of it! After the water runs clear, hook the hose to the other pipe and do it again. Reinstall everything and enjoy. If water doesn't flow though it, flushing won't help and you need to replace it. If it's in real poor condition, corroded, you may burst a hole in it and soak the carpet, but I have never had that happen, yet. You MAY get lucky and get the same results simply by reversing the hoses on your heater core. It doesn't matter which way coolant flows through it, but reversing the flow can break up the deposits. If it works, flush your coolant out after you've run it that way for a while to get that crap out of the system. Good luck.

Proprely inflated tires, 32-38 psi. Take out all the junk that you don't need, reduce weight. And drive sensibly. No fast starts, drive the speed limit or less. And wash and wax the car. Less drag. Keep your engine in tune. Don't expect much but that's about all you can do. Realistically, you may get worse mileage than what your used to since you'll have two adult bodies, and luggage/gear with you to tote acrossed the country so all that will weigh your car down a bit.

So this is push-button 4WD ? The lever should be on the front passenger side ??? I can't remember. Drive it in circles in your yard, or just back and forth on the grass. Water the grass first for extra slippage. Or, if you can do it safely, lift all four corners of the car off of the ground and put it in gear, just let it idle, while you try to disengage it. If all else fails, take the rear half of the driveshaft off untill you get it sorted out.

That's right, Manual 4-speed 4wd.

Just re-read your post. The bubbles are the biggest sign of a cracked head. It will crack between the exhaust port and coolant passage. The exhaust pushes into the coolant creating bubbles and super heating the coolant to the point that the cooling system can not cope with it.

The coolant held pressure because the crack in your head, or gasket expands and contracts with engine temp. I've has two EA82 cars that had cracked heads. They both held pressure all night long, but start it up and drive and the coolant goes right out of the exhaust in a nice sweet smelling cloud.

My 82 all stock and tired 300 six, will rev up past 3000, but there's no power there. I can shift that sloppy 4-speed as fast as I can keeping the rpm below 3000 and it accellerates like no other truck I've driven. Except for that freightliner of course.... The 300 is a long stroke, big bore engine, totally different than driving a V8.

Yes the intake valves are closed during the compression, power, and exhaust stroke. None of that stuff will pass by the rings. If liquid could get past the rings, so would the compressd air/fuel mix so the engine would not run. Oh, and when you do get it fired up, it WILL smoke. Let it run to burn off the oil and coolant that's in the cylinders. But just let it idle untill it's done smoking.

Yes, that's the only way you'll get the coolant out without damage.

With the plugs out you won't damage anything by cranking it over and pushing out the coolant. But after you've cranked it all out, it wouldn't hurt to pour some engine oil down the plug holes, then crank it over some more before you reassamble and start it up.

I just picked up a new speedo cable and intake gaskets for my 89 EA81 Hatch, so I thought I'd share the part numbers. Speedo cable, 737411021 intake gaskets, 14035AA000 or 14035AA150 one of which is a new number.

Well 86BRATMAN has come trough with one for me, should have it in a few days. I did check with AutoZone, and the manufacturer is out of stock. You know what that means, they don't make it anymore. It was Siemens PM3716. Napa, and Advance showed one as well, but a different manufacturer so they may still be able to get one.

There's a lot of 1 ton trucks with a 300 six, that engine is insane!!! Everone I've ever talked fords to has said that ending production on the 300 was fords biggest mistake!! Hell, they made it from 68 to 96 I think!!! They only weakness is the lack of breathing ability from the tiny manifolds. Put on a clifford or offenhauser 2 or 4 barrel manifold with a 2100 2 barrel or a small 4 barrel and a set of EFI 300 exhaust maifolds and you almost double the horsepower! Put in a mild cam with that combo and you will! It's like driving a diesel, your redline is 3000 but the torque is incredible!

The reason you put your finger over the plug hole to feel compression is to make sure your not on the exhaust stroke. If you skip that and just get the rotor lined up with #1 terminal, and the timing mark at 0, you could have the disty 180 degrees out.

Some engines, like the chevy 2.8,3.1 V6, have bumps like that made into the ports. It's said the they are to increase flow in the port and removing them will hurt performance.

That's why I look it up myself on the website first!! They love it when I come in with a part number too .

Are you talking about the little solonoid on the front of the darb? That one shuts off fuel when the key is off to prevent dieseling after shut-down. If that goes bad, it will not run. The other one pulls the throttle open when you turn on the AC, if you don't have AC, you won't have it. Check the throttle cable for slack, it should have a bit of slack so it won't hold the throttle open. Check the slack and adjust with the engine is warm. Also spray all the linkage with carb cleaner to clear the gunk off of it. Sometimes it gets stuck. You can use a 2 or 3 foot piece of fuel or heater hose to find vacuum leaks too. Put one end to your ear, the move the other all over the intake and the hoses and listen for a loud hiss.

It isn't the best solution, but you could smear on some Silicone RTV on the outside to cover the area untill you get the new gasket. Don't use silicone on the new gasket, clean up the gasket surfaces with a wire brush or wheel on a drill. Then use Indian Head Shelac in the little brown bottle. Every parts store has it. It will not be effected by gasoline at all. Just use a little bit too, don't slop it on.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/ A big one. Does it have the 300 six engine? Mine does and I go here from time to time. http://fordsix.com/forum/