I blew the head gaskets on my 97 Leg OB last year, flushed the cooling system and have been using engine block sealer in the coolant ever since. The car hesitated prior to blowing the gaskets, but it has gotten progressively worse over time. It is especially bad when the engine is warm, ie. lots of hwy driving followed by in town. Lots of the time, there is missing and lack of power when starting from a dead stop. I have to rev the engine rpms up to 4000, then let the clutch out to keep it from bogging down.

 

Is this likely the infamous classic hessitation problem that so many 2.5's have, or is this more likely a result of the increase in head gasket blow by? BTW, it does blow some coolant out into the resevoir all of the time, but just not sure if its related to signs of power loss, missing, and hessitation. Any thoughts/recommendations appreciated.

 

Best regards,

 

Eq

Dude,

Fix your head gasket!

 

You are blowing coolant out of your radiator because there is too much pressure in the cooling system from the blown head gasket.

The power loss, missing and hesitation are all from the blown head gasket. Replace the gasket before it's too late and you warp your head (if you haven't already)

Slo5oh,

 

That's all I wanted to know. Just needed to confirm this before throwing more good money at bad. Considering the 200k+ mileage, I am looking for a good confirmable, low mileage used engine. Do you happen to know which years would be compatable w/the 97? After reading about blown h-gaskets in newer cars, I'm still not sure if SOA has corrected their defect.

 

Until I find a junker w/a good engine for a reasonable price, I w/flush this one again and use another container of the engine stop-leak.

 

Thanks,

 

eq