Hi Guys

A neighbour of mine gave me his old car for free since it broke down on him.

I started looking over the car, originally the problem was with the shifter cable, I replaced that and now I can shift and start in all the correct gears.

A new issues has come up on top of that, and I am a bit intrigued with it.

The car spews water from the exhaust and the exhaust smells terribly, as if it is burning collant, I'm not sure because I never smelled burnt coolant before. There is also a lot of white smoke, more evidence towards coolant burning. So it looks like one of the head gaskets, since it's a V6 might be blown and is leaking quite a BIG amount of coolant into to the cylinders. That's fine, I will replace both head gaskets once I have the opportunity.

There is another problem on top of this though. I started the car and let it spew water for a while, then I shut it down and I started checking the coolant hoses. I know there is supposed to be pressure in some of them, but not when the engine is off.

The car has no heating, which suggest to me that the thermostat is stuck open. There is pressure in one of the mian hoses going to the radiator and under the radiator cup which is confusing me.

I think the radiator might be clogged, the thermostat stuck open, and this adds to the leaking head gasket. Right now I am waiting to see if the pressure will drop as the car cools down, or if it won't.

If anyone is interested, the car is a 1991 Plymouth Acclaim, a major POS, but it was free, and still might run for a while if I fix up what I can on my own.

xp

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1985 190E 2.3L - a constant project.