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my72vette454
12-05-2004, 10:27 AM
Ok dont shoot me as this is my daughters car and I couldnt talk her into the camero. She has a 98 eclipse spider turbo vert and it just turned over 100,000 miles. Yesterday she noticed the water temp starting to cycle up and down while driving home from college. Popped the hood and checked the coolant level and it took a pint or so to top it off and I had her start it and we watched the radiator for a minute..those nasty litle air bubbles started showing up in the anitfreeze. So it looks like time for a head gasket, does anybody know anything about those 2.0 liter turbo motors?I have never messed with anything but good old made in America stuff and I dont know if I want to tackle the job or not. Maybe we should dump it and get her somthing else but she loves the car and doesnt want to part with it. :hmm:

Mike

Zefhix
12-05-2004, 11:38 AM
Ok dont shoot me as this is my daughters car and I couldnt talk her into the camero. She has a 98 eclipse spider turbo vert and it just turned over 100,000 miles. Yesterday she noticed the water temp starting to cycle up and down while driving home from college. Popped the hood and checked the coolant level and it took a pint or so to top it off and I had her start it and we watched the radiator for a minute..those nasty litle air bubbles started showing up in the anitfreeze. So it looks like time for a head gasket, does anybody know anything about those 2.0 liter turbo motors?I have never messed with anything but good old made in America stuff and I dont know if I want to tackle the job or not. Maybe we should dump it and get her somthing else but she loves the car and doesnt want to part with it. :hmm:

Mike

I'm not certain about their newer design but the older Eclipse Turbos (circa 1990) used an interfence OHC design with a belt. If not done exactly right, the pistons can easily start smashing into the valves. Just be cautious and go slow but I don't see why you couldn't do it. I have a little experience and was able to do the 90 model pretty easily.
:cool:

zbugger
12-05-2004, 11:42 AM
It's ok. We'll just chalk it up to her being young and a girl... :box2:

Oh, and I can't help it. It's CamAro. Darn 'Vette guys...... :wedgie:

my72vette454
12-05-2004, 10:33 PM
I will appologize for the typo....I was in a hurry and I thought that looked wrong. :hammer:

dennis68
12-06-2004, 06:50 AM
The Mitsu is an interfierence engine, be careful. Not typically prone to popping head gaskets unless somebody has benn playing with an aftermarket BOV. At 100K I would defineatley be replacin gthe water pump, timing belt, belt tensioner, etc...Be careful using the bubbles as a tell for a blown gasket, those engines are difficult to get a good bleed on, might just be air purging from the system.

my72vette454
12-06-2004, 08:31 PM
Hey thanks for the info, after we topped off the coolant, she said the temp was good on the 100 mile drive back to college so maybe we are good to go. We did do the timing belt at 80,000 miles. So if left stock those motors are pretty stout?

dennis68
12-06-2004, 09:32 PM
Yeah, change the timing belt in regular intervals (75-100K) and you'll be good to go.

gmachinz
12-06-2004, 10:05 PM
For starters, the dealer recommends replacement of that belt @ 60K or five years. And the belt tensioners are NOTORIOUS for seizing and cause excessive slack in the timing belt. If you tackle the head gasket job (I'll explain why you are not out of the woods on it yet....) once you remove the accessories and timing cover (it ain't fun) you'll have a timing mark on the block to the right of the crank gear which lines up with a notch on the idler gear. To the left you'll see a notch in the block which lines up with the notch on the interference idler/tensioner. Then the crank has a reference mark to the block and the two cam gears must line up dot to dot. How do you take the timing belt tensioner off? I just unbolt the damn thing and push the piston down and slide a roll pin through the body of it to hold in place until I re-install. If the piston don't go down fairly easy, replace it. Now, I had fun with a 2.0 about a month ago when the customer told me the temp. gauge would peg after only a few minutes of driving. The gauge progressively read higher and higher previously until they brought it to me. After checking EVERYTHING out-I got down to the problem being a head gasket. I got little bubbles coming to the top of the filler neck and each time a few of these bubbles came up, the RPM's would drop by 20-35 then go right back up. It did this regardless of engine temp, too. I'd say he went through about a quart of anti-freeze a week-daily driven. Not even enough to foul plugs or damage O2 sensors. If your RPM's vary as you see bubbles, it's a head gasket-no doubt about it. Gaseous compression is getting into the cooling system if there is a head gasket leak. You can also verify this with a vacuum gauge-do the readings falter a little just when you see bubbles then go back to a steady state? -jabin

dennis68
12-06-2004, 10:38 PM
You sure on that 60K Jabin. We used to recommend 60K on belts but went to somewhere between 75-105K depending on application back in like 1997. I agree tensioner and water pump everytime your in there. Good insurance if nothing else.

my72vette454
12-07-2004, 06:49 AM
It seemed to idle fine. So did any antifreeze end up in the oil? A quart a week seems like a lot to me as small as the entire cooling system is on the car. I told her to watch the coolant level and watch the oil to see if it changes color from water getting in it.

gmachinz
12-07-2004, 07:11 AM
Dennis, I'm sure the dealers are just being on the safe side of things-you know, replacing something before it becomes a problem only because the timing belt can take out so many things if it does go (like the whole motor :crying: ) -PIA to replace but worth it every 60K I would say. And no, if the leak is small enough-it will not get into the oil-unless you have worn rings, and then it'll only seep while the engine is not running. Small amounts of antifreeze into the air/fuel mixture actually makes the engine burn a little cleaner/hotter-it won't trip an OBII into storing a cylinder mis-fire code even. It'll only burn out the O2 sensor after a while. After I removed the cylinder head from the 2.0 I was working on, I seen tiny green droplets on the tops of all four pistons and the gasket itself seemed moist all over-no dry spots. I was told by a local radiator shop that the head gaskets on those particular motors were crap-I'm talking' 89-'93 2.0's though-I don't know if they changed them after that to a different brand. Man, imagine the increased frustration when you add a turbo to these little motors! Sheesh. These motor are plenty strong, though-and carefully inspect the harmonic balancer on yours too if you change the head gasket. They have a nasty reputation of seperating without warning-I bought a new one just in case. Those are the three issues to look out for on them 2.0's-head gasket, timing belt tensioner and harmonic balancer. Other than that, no problems. -Jabin

boodlefoof
12-07-2004, 08:34 PM
I agree on taking caution with the timing belt job... if you don't line it back up right when you put the new one on, piston-valve impact = bad news.