Hello all,
Well it has been a while since I have posted due to some life changes but I am back now and I have a question regarding my EFI swap I had done in the summer of 2006.
So I have a 1978 302 that I had converted to EFI. I had gotten it started and driven it around town since I had completed the swap but there had always been an issue. It sounded like there was a marble banging around somewhere on the front of the engine when ever the engine was on. It was a random noise occuring every 5-10 seconds on average. Spare this, the car ran and started beautifully.
This fall, as usual I had turned the car to run it for about ten minutes to charge the battery and run the fluids. While it was running, the "marble" noise suddenly increased, became constant, and coolant started pouring from the front of the engine around the bottom of the water pump. I shut the car off immediately.
I am now focusing on fixing this issue and this is what I have found so far:
-The coolant had a noticeable about of orange, rusty tint to it.
-The thermostat housing, which I had cleaned out during EFI swap, had an excessive amount of scale in the section on the front of the car.
-The EFI intake manifold immediately beyond the thermostat has a rust residue that appears to have been carried by the coolant.
-After removing water pump, it seems to spin however it sounds like it has a low spot where it rubs against the thin metal plate for a 1/8 of a full revolution.
This evening I took off the water pump and plan on replacing it. I now have the following questions that I hope you can answer.
-What caused the increasing "marble" noise and then catastrophic leak?
-Have I been running the wrong water pump since the EFI swap?
-Was the failure a result of the EFI or just time for it to go?
If you could all provide your experiences I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Mike
Well it has been a while since I have posted due to some life changes but I am back now and I have a question regarding my EFI swap I had done in the summer of 2006.
So I have a 1978 302 that I had converted to EFI. I had gotten it started and driven it around town since I had completed the swap but there had always been an issue. It sounded like there was a marble banging around somewhere on the front of the engine when ever the engine was on. It was a random noise occuring every 5-10 seconds on average. Spare this, the car ran and started beautifully.
This fall, as usual I had turned the car to run it for about ten minutes to charge the battery and run the fluids. While it was running, the "marble" noise suddenly increased, became constant, and coolant started pouring from the front of the engine around the bottom of the water pump. I shut the car off immediately.
I am now focusing on fixing this issue and this is what I have found so far:
-The coolant had a noticeable about of orange, rusty tint to it.
-The thermostat housing, which I had cleaned out during EFI swap, had an excessive amount of scale in the section on the front of the car.
-The EFI intake manifold immediately beyond the thermostat has a rust residue that appears to have been carried by the coolant.
-After removing water pump, it seems to spin however it sounds like it has a low spot where it rubs against the thin metal plate for a 1/8 of a full revolution.
This evening I took off the water pump and plan on replacing it. I now have the following questions that I hope you can answer.
-What caused the increasing "marble" noise and then catastrophic leak?
-Have I been running the wrong water pump since the EFI swap?
-Was the failure a result of the EFI or just time for it to go?
If you could all provide your experiences I would appreciate it.
Thanks,
Mike