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Want to buy it and fix it?

3K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  GXP08jrf 
#1 · (Edited)
What's up guys, I have a black GXP with 58k miles in great condition other than overheating. I changed wp, thermostat and now I'm left with head gasket. I'm sure it's that. Will be doing a compression test today. Well I just got offered a job out of state. Not sure if I'll have the time to fix it. Anyone want to buy it cheap and fix it themselves? I'll knock the price down $2k which is the high end price for a shop to fix it. I don't want to sell it but it would be less of a headache than trying to get it fixed and move. I'm in Tampa area.

 
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#4 ·
Ran it for about 30 mins. The idle maxed out at 214 but when I touched the gas lightly for about 5 mins it went up to 225 then I shut it down. Pretty sure air is getting back in there from the heads. No oil in the coolant and no milky oil. Leaves me slightly clueless.
 
#5 ·
I have had gaskets allowing water into the chambers but no loss of compression and negative chemical indication when tested that way. It was on my 6 cylinder MG, and in the end I threw up my hands and changed the head gasket as I didn't know what else to do. It fixed it and I've had no trouble since.

Sounds like you might be at about that point.....
 
#6 ·
Yeah I have similar symptoms. I just did a compression test. Got 185, 175, 175, 180. Also did a fluid pressure test with each spark off 1 at a time and at 15lbs. All of them acted the same. Took about 5 mins to lose .5lb of pressure. Anyone know any indications here? I also did a combustion chemical test in the coolant and it failed.
 
#12 ·
#15 ·
Myllertime, you might want to check out a tool for filling your cooling system called an airlift. A few of us on the forum have used them and have good luck getting the air out of the system.

One of the threads that discusses the tool can be found here;

http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f11/overheating-129562/#post1847554

I've used this tool on a few cars and have no problems with air in the system, plus if you do have a leak somewhere it will be pretty evident by the fact that your system won't hold vacuum. My car will hold about 20 HG of vacuum for as long as I wanted it to and all I had to do to seal the system was to plug the overflow line.
 
#16 ·
If the check valves don't do the trick, take it to a dealer/shop that can pull a vacuum on the coolant system then pressure fill it. This will typically be more reliable than the processes for gravity/driveway filling the system to ensure you don't have trapped air. The money they'll charge to do the work will be far less than taking a $2k hit on your asking price and you'll have more confidence that you're not chasing some other leak.
 
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