I haven't posted on here in a while because I was looking for an engine for my disco, well I finally found one I liked at auto sports in Zeeland. They had an engine with 98,000 miles on it that they said had a blown head gasket that they sold me for 500 bucks. They tried long and hard to sell me a "good" engine but I liked the idea of having a look inside an engine before I put it in anyhow, I figured if the heads were shot I'd just use the ones off my engine.
So today I pulled the heads and pan off the new engine, and here is where the problem arises, I can't find a blessed thing wrong with this engine. No gapeing hole in the head gasket, no warped heads or block, and most strange of all no evidence of any water burning at all. All the engines that I have ever taken apart with water burning issues had cleaned all the carbon deposits out of the cylinders that were drinking coolant, every cylinder in this enging showed perfectly normal deposits for an almost 100k engine. So I'm left with a couple of possibilities No.1 these guys don't know how to inspect an engine before they pull it (altho they did tell me they "never" sell core engines they just rebuild them in their shop) No.2 it was leaking combustion gases into the cooling system without allowing coolant into the cylinders (I don't view this as a verey likely senerio).
The guys I got the engine from have no idea who pulled the engine or why it got labled as having a bad head gasket, so I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions on what I should check out before I say to heck with it and just put it back together with new gaskets and head bolts.

 

they do leak combustion into the coolant, with the cooling setup of the head, this is more common then steam cleaning the pistons, although, they usually leak out before any of this happens

 

What do you mean by "leak out", as in down the side of the block? The other fishy thing was in any situation I have seen where the head gasket was leaking combustion gasses it left discoloration on the fire rings where it leaked, these gaskets just don't show any evidence of that. It made me wonder if these things are prone to any head cracking issues because that is the only time I have ever seen an engine that would leak gas and not water, but even that doesn't strike me as likely. I mostly am trying to find out if there are any stupid things I may be over looking that these engines are prone to. Thanks for the help.

 

The two most common head gasket leaks are into the cylinders and down the side of the block.
It was probally a external leak.
The heads may warp if overheated but they usually dont crack.
I would just put all new gaskets and bolts into her and call it good.
I think youi are overthinking it.

 

Thanks, If you asked any of my friends they would tell you I'm a mechanical hypercondriac(SP?). That is what 12 years of repairing other peoples mistakes has done to me.

 

How much did AutoSports want for a "good" engine?
I drive past those guys everyday when I am working, makes it easy to get my parts.

 

lol. nice.

 

They have a 75k engine they will sell for 1350.00

 

when my DII needed an engine I actually found one from AZ (i'm in AZ) with 53k for $1185. just giving compar.

 

When I looked on car-part.com I noticed that they were a lot cheaper further south. But I just couldn't justify the fuel and time away from work to go get one and having one shipped was to expensive. Just another example of why living in Michigan stinks.