Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Phelan65]

OK I have been reading about the head gasket's and the oil coolers and the HBV, my question is I have a guy lined up to work on the car but this being a rareish engine here in NZ most wont have a clue what to look for. I have picked a small garage/workshop and I am not sure what I should tell him to look for. The HBV could be the cause of the problem as there is no mayo on the dipstick but there is a little on the filler cap. I got the car going the other day and it revved right up to 6000rpm ok but it was splitting alot of coolant out the back.
Basically I dont want him to rip the heads off and find they are ok.
I need some help finding an owners manual but dont really have the time to wait for things to come from the UK.
Any thoughts or links to pages so I can give as much info to the mechanic as possible
Oh there is one thing, there is a busted hose that comes from the front of the engine off what looks a bit like the HBV, one in, two out?? I just checked out the pic of the engine bay put up by 'The Boy', it is off the SAI valve. could that cause coolant to leak through??

[hotel21]

The secondary air injection simply addes excess air in order to allow the cats to heat up qicker and thus be more efficient at their job.  Nothing to link to the heads/oil cooler, its a simple air pump from under the passenger front wing to the engine.

The engines, by default, do throw out a lot of water when cold, simply because its a byproduct of efficient combustion.  Are you loosing any water from the header?  

Did you have a look at the flowchart that appeared in other threads to assist diagnosis?

[Phelan65]

where do I find the flow chart? it is loosing water from the header and going straight out the exhaust as far as I can tell.

[ians]

Hi,
What do you mean by spitting coolant out of the back?  
back of the engine , or the exhaust?
coolant or water?

Water is of course a by product of combustion so its not unusual for it to condense on the rear of the exhaust especially when cold and be seen dripping out of the tail pipe.

If however you have a drip off the back of the engine (and assuming its not condensation of the AC) it may very well be HBV leaking.

HBV's usually go big time so pretty obvious - and you will find the coolant level in the expansion tank dropping.

But whatever you do, further diagnosis is necessary before the garage starts ripping heads off..!

I think there is a How to on the HBV change on this forum - maybe worth starting there.

Cheers

Ian

[hotel21]

As Ians said, where is the water spitting from?  Out the xhaust or the rear of the block, drivers side.  If the latter, most probably the heater bypass valve.....

[cem_devecioglu]

For HBV check this

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1193594464


also can loose from oil cooler area and and the coolant pipe

connection point

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1192574209

[Darth Loo-knee]

Excellent Trouble Shooter Broocie

[Phelan65]

Thanks guys, now at the moment as far as I know it is only comming out the exhaust both out the tail pipe and the front of the last muffer ( which means replace )
There are bubbles in the header tank if I try to fill it when running, it does pressurise and after running for a few mins, after a shakey start it settles down and runs well then the coolant warning comes on and I tried driving it and it went into limp mode which meant I had to stop, wait and refill to get back home, part of me is saying just let it be something like the HBV which will fun finding one but not as expensive as the head gasket.........
IF I do get the head ripped off and done, what are the main things to do at the same time?? The cam belt was only done about 25000kms ago. the water pump should be good, I saw the things on clean the rockers and vacum lines etc which I will get done as I will have to buy the full gasket set anyway.....
I know its not easy doing this from so far away but as I said this is a specialised motor here, in this case think Saab dealership and the $$ that go along with it, as a poor ex student looking for a job this is killing me as I had planned to use this car to drive around NZ going to interviews etc and that has sort of been put on hold a bit....

Anyway the advice has been great so far thanks so much for giving me a hand, I really like this car even though it would be considered old in the UK its a hell of a good car if I can get ti fixed for under $4000 all up, currently has cost me $2100

[Kevin Wood]

Have you tried pulling the spark plugs and checking them? If you've got a cylinder pumping water I would have thought it would have a wet / clean spark plug. Might also be worth putting a leakdown tester on each cylinder and see if there's any evidence of air coming out of the water jacket. Checking for exhaust gases in the header tank will tell you if the pressurisation is down to air or a head gasket too.

If it does come to it and you have the heads off, definately change the exhaust manifold gaskets for genuine GM ones as these can be troublesome and are much more difficult to get to when the heads are on. Use genuine cam cover gaskets and check the breathers are clean too. Cam belt and water pump might be worth doing while it's apart but that's your call based on expense versus time to do the job later. Personally, I'd replace the thermostat too, as this is not easy to get to on a V6 and you have had some cooling related issues.

Kevin

[Phelan65]

Here is the old radiator and you can see temp patch (now replaced with a new radiator) and the tape on the hose running to the SAI

[tunnie]

Here is the old radiator and you can see temp patch (now replaced with a new radiator) and the tape on the hose running to the SAI

Hi,

Got your PM, thought it was best to reply here.

That picture is a tad worring, i see the bronze/brown colour around the coolant pipe.

Thats a sign of 'rad weld' or some other solution which is put in to try and fix HG's...

Does the coolant look brown?

On the up side, it will be easy to identify leaks, is any of that brown colour around the HBV area?

Also can you post a picture of the coolant header tank? and its content?

thanks

[JamesV6CDX]

Some cowboy has put some resin based glue around the rad to stop a leak!!!!

[Phelan65]

That cowboy was me, so I could try and get the car home without it blowing up, a NEW rad is now in place.

I will put up new pics tomorrow as it is now 3am here, needs a good flush, just found out about the HBV tonight so will look at it tomorrow

[JamesV6CDX]

That cowboy was me

Whoops! I'm good at putting my foot in squlchy stuff at the moment    

No offense meant, I figured it was already like it and you weren't aware.

Good stuff that you have a new rad... I'll have another look at the original post

[tunnie]

That cowboy was me

Whoops! I'm good at putting my foot in squlchy stuff at the moment    

No offense meant, I figured it was already like it and you weren't aware.

Good stuff that you have a new rad... I'll have another look at the original post

I was thinking the same James, you just said it more 'clearly'

Personally i would not use chemicals like that to stop a rad leak, try an egg yoke, or just keep filling with water!

Those rad weld stuff just cause other problems in the coolant system.

Flush well with water... really well.....