Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Technical => Engine Swapping => Topic started by: 1BadBird on March 26, 2017, 12:12:17 AM

Title: 5.8 swap or not to swap, that is the ????
Post by: 1BadBird on March 26, 2017, 12:12:17 AM
So my black birds little 2.3 is starting to give me fits. First, it's starting to puff a little at first start up, not to concerned about that though. The main issue though is its losing coolant.
It has a new heater core, no coolant in passenger compartment, 
No leaks at any of the houses anywhere,
No leaks at water pump,
No water in the oil or oil in the water,
It does have some medium sized bubbles in the coolant at start up and when it's at operating temp, the coolant turns cloudy from tiny tiny bubbles. It seems to be getting aerated.
My thoughts are that I have currently have a small head gasket leak. I haven't done a compression check yet. I pulled the plugs and they showed no signs of burning anything other than fuel.
Thoughts anyone ??
Title: 5.8 swap or not to swap, that is the ????
Post by: Haystack on March 26, 2017, 01:11:05 AM
My 302 did the same thing, previous owner busted off a head bolt then put everything back together without gaskets on the exhaust.
Title: 5.8 swap or not to swap, that is the ????
Post by: TurboCoupe50 on March 26, 2017, 09:39:31 AM
Tiny, fizzy like bubbles are compression into coolant is a leaking head gasket... Leak is small enough that a compression test likely won't show a thing... Removing plug wires one at a time till bubbles stop will tell you which cylinder has the issue, not impossible to be a cracked head...
Title: 5.8 swap or not to swap, that is the ????
Post by: 1BadBird on March 27, 2017, 10:02:31 PM
I'm leaning towards the head gasket because when the hose leading to the wastegate split, the boost gauge pegged at 24 lbs of boost and the overboost buzzer/light scared the begeesus out of me. I stepped on it 1 more time just to see if I saw and heard what I did...... yep 24 lbs of boost and I didn't have to step to hard either. I fixed that the next morning.