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EA82 Sanity Check Question


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Long story short- EA82 parts car wrecked on the drivers side front.. Engine appears externally undamaged with the exception of the timing sprocket being slightly bent (belt was broken, no covers.) 103k miles. 

Transplanted into my driver, it started and ran surprisingly well. No strange noises, and no smoke - at first. Put the rad cap on and buttoned it the rest of the way up, got it up to temp (built some pressure in the cooling system) and it started spewing coolant smoke from the exhaust. Opened the rad cap after it cooled off a little bit, caught a good wiff of exhaust smell. 

My question for the collective guruness: What is the likelihood that a side impact to the cam sprocket has damaged the head somehow? I'm thinking the head gasket decided it was time to retire, but wanted to check with the pros before I pull it back out and pull it apart. Seems if something was catastrophically cracked, it would have shown itself immediately, which is why I'm leaning towards just the HG. Thanks for reading. 

Dan

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I would suggest buying or renting a cooling system pressure tester if you don't already have one. Pull out all of the spark plugs and fill up the radiator with water.  Pressurize the cooling system to about 15 lbs and try to find the leak. I would suggest leaving the car together until you know what's wrong. Once you locate the coolant leak you will know how to fix it.

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Possibly a severely cracked exhaust port. More common on the turbo EA82 engines when driven hard. But if the coolant was lost in the impact the overheat and crack extension could have happened then. 

Best case scenario is a dead HG that was exposed with the warm up.

You could drop the Y pipe and inspect the exhaust ports to see if you can find a visual crack there. Or get the engine back up to temp and drop the Y pipe to see what’s happening in the exhaust ports. 

Lastly, are you sure it’s not just the usual condensation from a cold start before the exhaust is fully warmed up? 

Cheers 

Bennie

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10 hours ago, el_freddo said:

 

You could drop the Y pipe and inspect the exhaust ports to see if you can find a visual crack there. Or get the engine back up to temp and drop the Y pipe to see what’s happening in the exhaust ports. 

Lastly, are you sure it’s not just the usual condensation from a cold start before the exhaust is fully warmed up? 

I was actually going to drop the y a little bit and find out for sure which side it's on. If it's on the other side it would take impact damage off the table (I think....lol) 

As to the condensation, this was full on mosquito man spray type fog......lol On a side note, I started it again yesterday to get it out of the driveway, and it smoked from the outset, so whatever happened, it looks like it happened during the first run. Even with the smoke, it ran like a sewing machine, so I'm optimistic its the HG. 

Thanks for the input!

Dan

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16 minutes ago, 6 Star said:

Good to see you still have the hatch on the re-drilled Dodge Wheels. (Or chevy?)

Hopefully nothing happened with the cam, if the timing gear was bent... knock on wood.

Good eye! They are Dodge D50 wheels.

The gear was bent in ever so slightly on the part the belt rides on. It wasn't enough to distort the front flange, and everything turned freely when I was doing the belts- no weird resistance outside of normal spring compression. I've got a camper in the driveway that desperately needs some spring attention, so I'll get back after it in a week or so. 

Thanks!

Dan

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And the coolant sitting in the exhaust is going to vaporize immediately. As above I’d just replace the intake gaskets and if FI that same mentioned O ring. 
 

At this cars age if you’ve never replaced the intake manifold gaskets it’s about time you did. 
 

Such a nice moment when you’ve done the intake , start it up , and no more problem. Worth the try. After a compression test. 
 

Hope your camper episode ends well. Cheers ! 

Edited by moosens
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13 hours ago, DaveT said:

If ypu never had the intake off, or it wasn't put together with anti seize,  run it till it's up to temperature before loosening the bolts.  Saves snapped bolts.

I remembered you saying this many times over the years, and was going to put it into practice this go round. Thanks for the reminder!

Dan

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