[AMC-list] oil and water DO mix...

[tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>]

... in a crankcase. As in my 195.6i OHV.

Dunno what happened yet, but I'll likely just pull the motor out.

This morning heading to work, thought I'd check the oil. Last week it was
down a quart, which has NEVER happened before. It has never used any oil
between 3000 mi changes. What I found was, down two quarts! and brown goo on
the dipstick and in the steel wool in the dipstick cap. We all know what
that means.

I'd just put new plugs in it a week ago, so I pulled each. All are perfect
(out-of-the-box new but heated up) so it's not one of those type head cracks
or leaks. Hasn't overheated recently, though you may recall I did have that
weird bout of trouble with the lower hose popping off a few months back.

Down about a pint or two of coolant too, but no sign of oil in there. I'd
recently had it out to seal the minor seep at the thermostat neck (a chronic
corrosion spot, mine is pitted, like many). The coolant is new and spotless.

Funny thing is, I'd just filled up the tank and it got a nice solid 22mpg.
Idles perfectly, 19 - 20" mercury, smooth, no sticky valves etc.

So I didn't break anything, no bent rods or ventilated block, so a teardown
and freshen or rebuild should do the trick. I have spares for everything.

I wasn't even in the slightest mad or disappointed, oddly. In fact, the
motor is leaky all over and I know I should do better than 22mpg, and hell,
who could complain about 3 years and 25,000+ fun and hard miles on an
ancient, unknown, mostly untouched motor?

I dread pulling the axle, trans etc more than the motor. I don't have the
lift height to get it out with the trans on, and I hate doing it that way
anyways. But when it's back together, it will be 100% like-new from nose to
butt, likely I'll do some southwest road trips with it on the new motor.


But that's what a spare car is for. Driving the 63 Classic wagon to work.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://list.amc-list.com/pipermail/amc-list-amc-list.com/attachments/20100114/f07c7d01/attachment.htm>
_______________________________________________
AMC-list mailing list
AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com