Sounds VERY familiar. I bought an M38A1 that had one of those "mass
engine...trade the engine, not the car , remanufactures type of rebuilds"
less than a year before. It would blow coolant out the overflow ONLY at
highway ( 50-55mph) speeds after about 15 minutes. Coolant would come in
through the firewall/floor on passenger side.
Took it to my local mechanic and he pressure tested system and found
nothing. I took it home, week later same problem. The mechanic had it for a
couple of more days. He drove it around, found nothing, couldn't get it to
blow fluid. No oil in coolant, no coolant in exhaust. He said probably an
overfill condition, live with it. I drove it for another month or so and
then parked it.
Bottom line, parked it for a year, went to start it, frozen engine.
Pulled head, head gasket failure at web between #3 & 4 cylinders allowing
coolant to seep into #4 cylinder and rusting "NEW" motor solid.
I was told by another mechanic that it was probably a bad head job or bad
head torque. When engine was driven really hard for a period, it would heat
and the head would warp enough to allow compression from #4 cylinder into
cooling system, pressurizing system and emptying top tank to level of filler
neck. Eventually it would erode the gasket and allow coolant into cylinder
when engine was cold. Not a problem on a daily driver if eventually caught,
but a killer on a vehicle in storage. Have your friend pull the head and
have it checked for flatness and replaned if necessary and replace the head
gasket with the best one he can find. Rebuilders are in it for profit and
use parts to make it past the warranty period only.
Oh, the toasted engine is in pieces around the garage, pushed aside when
the M715 arrived and then that got pushed aside when the M35 showed up,
which is on jackstands in the driveway. Wanna kill a vehicle? Sell it to me.
It's a kiss of death.
Maybe I'll put in for the bid on demilling everyone's vehicles. Then when
it gets overturned, you can all come to my place and pickup your untouched
trucks.
Good Luck, Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Brubaker" <b52d@piace.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 10:11 PM
Subject: [MV] M38A1 cooling problem - one of our club members
> I have a friend, a member of our club, who has an unusual problem with his
> M38 cooling system.
>
> A little background history first. The engine has been rebuilt within the
> last year.
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