Re: [Amc-list] motor motion

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

Only one I've ever had was so bad that the cracks were visible, and it was catastrophic failure! The thing had been run hot a few times before I got it, and I ran it hot once. The PO had replaced the head gasket the last time without shaving the head, and it leaked. I didn't know any better at the time and did the same thing -- drove it a couple weeks then ran hot due to head gasket leaking. Had it shaved but didn't know it could be cracked and didn't have it checked (this was back in early 85/late 84). That thing lost a little water every 5-6 weeks and had a slight skip at idle that "wandered" around -- never could pin it to a specific cylinder. By "slight" I mean it would miss a beat every 2-3 seconds, and never the same cylinder in a row. Heck, it was old, but ran great except for those two things, so I didn't do more than a good tune-up. Thought maybe the distributor was worn, but not so bad it needed replacement. At speed everything was as smooth as a 196 could be! Drove
  it for three years that way. I was stationed at Mtn. Home, ID, and drove it to AMCRC meets in Seattle and Denver while there. On the trip to SC when I left ID the head "came apart". I was pulling a small trailer and drove through a late blizzard through the Rockies (between Salt Lake City, UT and Cheyenne, WY). Had to drop down to North Texas to continue from Denver, as the blizzard passed us over night and hit Kansas hard -- I-70 between Denver and St. Louis was closed! Got as far as the east OK border when the head ruptured. Got up that morning, topped the radiator off (down about 1/2" in the tank), and drove just long enough to get to full operating temp and it blew water out. Stopped, let it cool, figured I'd overfilled and maybe left the cap loose, started again, same thing! A shop helped me pull the head off, and you could easily see 3-4 cracks around EVERY exhaust valve! Shop figured it had been cracked since I got it (after hearing my story) and the iron had "crysta
 llized" -- it finally just had enough and all the cracks let loose. I've only seen one or two heads since then where you could actually see a crack without some kind of dye or other assistance. 

------------
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:09:14 -0800
From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>

Were the cracks visible? Not that plan on eyeballing! Off they go the shop (I think I will have time before work tomorrow).

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)


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