Going into town on New Year's Eve, stopped with no water.
Trailered the car home, where it sat until I could get around to looking at it.
Turns out the heater water hose had come off the outlet at the back of the head.. There had been no smoke or steam at the time, so the radiator was filled, and with fingers crossed the key was turned - started immediately, idled nicely, no smoke, no overheating. Compressions are down a bit (~130), but pretty even, and it is not using water. Bullet dodged? Maybe, hopefully - time will tell. Certainly seems to have the same grunt as before, too much time driving the barge (the old Falcon wagon) resulted in a speeding ticket first time out ...
A Qmax coolant re-route is on its way, it was meant for when the head came off for the (assumed) blown HG, and the catch tank setup needs a bit of work. The rego check showed up a weep on the bottom of the bellhousing, so it looks like the gearbox has to come out and new rear main seal installed before the car is inspected for rego next year.
I have been looking closely at the radiator, and the oil cooler mounted on the back. I am thinking about a dual pass crossflow rad, inlet and outlet on the cold side. That might allow me to mount my as-yet-unused oil/water heat exchanger under the crank pulley - I need to pull the undertray off, and start measuring and see if this might be feasible.
)
You can always rely on Murphy!!
