brentalan
Dedicated LVC Member
I gotta start my own thread and say thanks LVC!!!!
If you hadn't heard the story, I thought I blew a head gasket driving to the Boscobel meet. I was driving my 1970 Mercury Cyclone since I brought my Lincoln last year and it was a new car to me. I've been installing new parts and odds and ends since April in an attempt to make it more reliable but I gotta say driving 17 hours in a 40 year old car had me a bit worried.
I got into Illinois and I saw my oil pressure rise to above 90 PSI. Shortly thereafter the temp gauge pegged on the red. I shut it down and got a hotel for the night. Keep in mind I was driving all day and had a massive headache from the noise, the heat (no a/c) and the lack of sleep.
In the morning I decided to run to the Advance Auto Parts and see if it would get hot again. First thing I noticed was that there is a anti-collapse spring in the upper hose that got sucked halfway into the radiator. Could this be the problem? I threw a spare hose from the trunk on with no change in symptoms. The car was definitely still hot along with the high oil pressure. I had been putting in oil because the stick was reading low so I thought b/c of the high pressure, maybe I put in too much. First things first I changed the oil. The oil that came out had a green tinge to it and I immediately thought anti-freeze. I took it to the parts counter guy who asked a local mechanic and they both agreed there was anti-freeze in the oil. I was so dejected because I thought I lost a head gasket and I couldn't make it to the meet.
I went ahead and changed the thermostat, the oil and I threw a can of bar's leak in the radiator. I drove it back to the hotel and it was hot as ever. At this point I called mespock who promised I'd get help for the meet. He gave me K9T8M's number and I called him. Come to find out I was about 50 miles from him. My last hope was the bar's leak did something so I took it for a quick ride. The temp was now one tick off the red. WAY higher than it had been all trip but maybe I could ride like that if I took it easy.
I headed in K9T8M's general direction and the temp gauge fluctuated up to the red a few times. Every time it did so I dropped it in neutral and coasted it. The Oil pressure would come down and the heat dropped two ticks. I made it do K9T8M's place of work and dropped the car there. K9T8M gave me a ride to Boscobel to enjoy the festivities. While at boscobel I got a lot of great advice on what to check, what to try. 94m5 lent me his car to drive around MSM8TRESS gave me rides and drove me back to Indy airport where I flew home. LSC8 said he would trailer the car if need be.
After the meet, Chicken went out and spent a day and a half troubleshooting it. tried a new oil filter, then used a gun to test the temp of the hose and intake. This showed 160 degrees. What about that odd looking oil? Chicken said it looked fuel soaked, not antifreeze. Hmmmmm. Went to start up, no fuel pressure. I threw a spare fuel pump in there before I left so that was swapped in and started again. Chicken picked up an aftermarket temp gauge which never showed more than 205. After all that I had a bad gauge!!!
Car is back at K9T8M's shop now and my brother is coming to pick it up on Sunday evening. I'm still finalizing that. The idea is he's going to take it to Michigan and now I can drive it in this year's woodward dream cruise then take it home.
I just want to thank everyone that offered advice and help. Specifically:
K9T8M for giving me a place to store the car and rides!
Mespock for making sure I was covered no matter what.
LSC8 for being willing to trailer the car where ever it needed to go
MSM8TRESS for giving me a ride home!
94m5 for advice and the use of the 5-speed mark for my runs to the hotel!
And last but not least Chicken for spending a day and a half making sure it was safe to drive home.
I feel stupid that it was just a gauge but man, all of the symptoms seemed bad and I was nervous driving that far already!
If you hadn't heard the story, I thought I blew a head gasket driving to the Boscobel meet. I was driving my 1970 Mercury Cyclone since I brought my Lincoln last year and it was a new car to me. I've been installing new parts and odds and ends since April in an attempt to make it more reliable but I gotta say driving 17 hours in a 40 year old car had me a bit worried.
I got into Illinois and I saw my oil pressure rise to above 90 PSI. Shortly thereafter the temp gauge pegged on the red. I shut it down and got a hotel for the night. Keep in mind I was driving all day and had a massive headache from the noise, the heat (no a/c) and the lack of sleep.
In the morning I decided to run to the Advance Auto Parts and see if it would get hot again. First thing I noticed was that there is a anti-collapse spring in the upper hose that got sucked halfway into the radiator. Could this be the problem? I threw a spare hose from the trunk on with no change in symptoms. The car was definitely still hot along with the high oil pressure. I had been putting in oil because the stick was reading low so I thought b/c of the high pressure, maybe I put in too much. First things first I changed the oil. The oil that came out had a green tinge to it and I immediately thought anti-freeze. I took it to the parts counter guy who asked a local mechanic and they both agreed there was anti-freeze in the oil. I was so dejected because I thought I lost a head gasket and I couldn't make it to the meet.
I went ahead and changed the thermostat, the oil and I threw a can of bar's leak in the radiator. I drove it back to the hotel and it was hot as ever. At this point I called mespock who promised I'd get help for the meet. He gave me K9T8M's number and I called him. Come to find out I was about 50 miles from him. My last hope was the bar's leak did something so I took it for a quick ride. The temp was now one tick off the red. WAY higher than it had been all trip but maybe I could ride like that if I took it easy.
I headed in K9T8M's general direction and the temp gauge fluctuated up to the red a few times. Every time it did so I dropped it in neutral and coasted it. The Oil pressure would come down and the heat dropped two ticks. I made it do K9T8M's place of work and dropped the car there. K9T8M gave me a ride to Boscobel to enjoy the festivities. While at boscobel I got a lot of great advice on what to check, what to try. 94m5 lent me his car to drive around MSM8TRESS gave me rides and drove me back to Indy airport where I flew home. LSC8 said he would trailer the car if need be.
After the meet, Chicken went out and spent a day and a half troubleshooting it. tried a new oil filter, then used a gun to test the temp of the hose and intake. This showed 160 degrees. What about that odd looking oil? Chicken said it looked fuel soaked, not antifreeze. Hmmmmm. Went to start up, no fuel pressure. I threw a spare fuel pump in there before I left so that was swapped in and started again. Chicken picked up an aftermarket temp gauge which never showed more than 205. After all that I had a bad gauge!!!
Car is back at K9T8M's shop now and my brother is coming to pick it up on Sunday evening. I'm still finalizing that. The idea is he's going to take it to Michigan and now I can drive it in this year's woodward dream cruise then take it home.
I just want to thank everyone that offered advice and help. Specifically:
K9T8M for giving me a place to store the car and rides!
Mespock for making sure I was covered no matter what.
LSC8 for being willing to trailer the car where ever it needed to go
MSM8TRESS for giving me a ride home!
94m5 for advice and the use of the 5-speed mark for my runs to the hotel!
And last but not least Chicken for spending a day and a half making sure it was safe to drive home.
I feel stupid that it was just a gauge but man, all of the symptoms seemed bad and I was nervous driving that far already!
