Famous Last Words
I wrote this on Aug 18:
Wednesday morning I was on my way to work in my 70 LT1. The weather is rapidly getting cold and it won't be much longer before I have to put The Beast away for the winter so I have been trying to drive it more. I had been good from my village through the next two villages and the vineyards in between to the point of annoying the locals becasue I was driving so slowly. I try to be considerate and stay at least one gear higher than I would normally use and stay around 1,500 rpm in order to keep the dB level from getting too far into the obnoxious range through populated areas. I took the ramp onto the autobahn, cleared the trucks and was finally able to turn it loose. I was pulling uphill and just climbing past 110 mph (~5K rpm) into the rising sun when it happened.
I'm not sure what I heard or felt over the scream of the engine, but I knew that something bad had just happened. A glance in the mirror showed me the enormous white smokescreen that obscured everything behind me. I jumped out of the throttle and started slowing down as I descended the hill looking for a gap in the trucks to get out of the left lane before I got run over or dumped oil in front of some poor sap unlucky enough to be screaming up behind me. I settled in between 2 trucks at 60 mph to find a safe place to get off the road. My oil pressure and water temp were both normal. I knew that I was only 2 miles from an exit, so I decided to nurse it there instead of stopping on the narrow shoulder of an unrestricted stretch of autobahn just before the morning rush started. The white smoke was still present and thick but now only extended less than 10 feet from the back of the car from both exhausts before dissipating. That seemed to be a reasonable trade-off until I realized that I was watching the water temperature gauge needle actually MOVE. As it climbed past around 230 I decided that traffic would just have to suffer; I was getting off the road and shutting down NOW! I dove for the shoulder and saw the 300m exit sign just past the truck in front of me. I threw the shifter into neutral and tried to coast onto the exit ramp and shut down there. That would have worked except that to exit I had to merge through the cars entering onto the autobahn from the same exit. By now the temp gauge was pegged past 250 and I had to get back into fourth gear and give some throttle to manage the merge with a corresponding extra thick billow of white smoke. I popped out the other side of the zipper, dove for the shoulder and coasted far enough to clear the merging area before stopping.
I killed the engine and set the emergency brake as the white smoke was now billowing up from under the hood. I fumbled my fire extinguisher from the rear compartment, popped the hood latch, cleared my 6 for traffic and jumped out of the car running around to the passenger side. I waited about 15 seconds to confirm that the smoke was not a fire before I went back and raised the hood with the fire extinguisher ready just in case. I was greeted by another thick cloud of antifreeze sweet steam but no fire. I moved to behind the guardrail forward of where my car sat and stood there numbed by shock and horror for a few minutes before I came back to my senses. I got back into the car, put the fire extinguisher away, shifted into reverse and removed my keys, turned off the headlights, turned on the hazard flashers and grabbed my warning triangle. As a walked back along the autobahn to place my triangle I saw a distinct liquid trail less than a foot wide (not solid) that traced a perfect line from the exit ramp to the centerline of my car. There was also a sizeable puddle of fluid underneath the rear of the engine. The radiator cap was cold to the touch and the rear of the car was covered with coolant with a higher concentration near the exhaust tips. There was clean oil on the dipstick but it was very hot. I decided that I had done enough troubleshooting and went back behind the guard rail and called ADAC.
A side note here, ADAC (the German version of AAA, but better) was every bit as good as they claim to be. I gave them my member number, they asked me where I was, numerous details about my car so they could ensure that they sent a compatible wrecker to include how many passengers need to be transported, and where I wanted my car taken to. And that was it. And, they even did it all in English. I had my car delivered back to my house and the driver even helped me push the car into my garage since there was no way to maneuver the wrecker any closer on my narrow little landscaped cobblestone street.
It was not until this evening after work that I had worked up the courage to start the autopsy. I had already done a quick visual of the block but could find no obvious cracks. First, I checked the floor under the car and did not find any oil and very little antifreeze. That seemed very odd, but I guessed that I had driven too far and run the car out of fluids. I checked the radiator and it was maybe 20% full, but clean. I checked the oil and it was full, looked like brand new (I changed it less than 300 miles ago) and had no obvious traces of coolant on the dipstick. Hmmm. I checked the engine from the top, but could find nothing abnormal. (As a driver, my engine has only been show quality clean once in the 13 years that I have owned it, and that was only because I had just put the top of the engine back together.) I checked the underside of the car and found most of the back of the engine and surrounding area on the driver's side coated with coolant. The passenger side did not have any coolant residue. I jacked up the front of the car and climbed under there to take a better look. As I am inspecting the driver's side head gasket for the third time still unable to find a leak path, I make a startling discovery. The freeze plug is resting in the ignition shielding elbow. I can't be that lucky. After about an hour of internal debate, I decide that all of the symptoms match and it is possible that I just spit the freeze plug. I decide that one further check can't hurt, so I lower the car, take a deep breath, and try to crank the engine. It fires right up and runs smoothly. I only let it run for 15 seconds before I shut it off, but the only negative indication I noticed was the small new puddle of antifreeze on the floor. I jacked the car back up and drained the oil into a small garbage can instead of my oil changing pan and found no discoloration or traces of coolant. It still looked virtually new.
So, all that for this:
1) Did I just get that lucky? I am considering replacing the freeze plug, re-filling the oil and coolant, and firing it up and looking for more leaks. I feel like that is an insane idea, but I can't give myself a sound reason to not try it.
2) When I replaced the service replacement intake manifold with the correct manifold, I had great difficulty installing that freeze plug. Twice I had to fish my new (new both times) freeze plug out of the block when attempting to install it. In order to avoid the possibility of spitting out the freeze plug one day, I decided to install one of the expandable freeze plugs since my car was a long was from NCRS judging at that point and I was living in Florida. Should the expandable plugs be avoided? Is there a trick besides chilling the plug in the freezer overnight and hammering it in with an appropriately sized socket in the pocket of the plug to installing the correct solid plugs?
3) Have I learned my lesson yet? The conventional wisdom is that the ZZ4 crate motor is really the best choice, but I read that I cannot use my original valve covers or normal crankcase vent routing with those heads. The engine is very impressive, but it would just look WRONG to me. Is there another option other than building another LT1 spec engine from scratch? Is there a new design head that will accept my stock valve covers and PCV routing?
PS I was so relieved that I sat dumbfounded in the garage for about 30 minutes, then paced around my driveway for at least that long shaking my head and mumbling to myself. That's fine, as my neighbors already think I'm "that crazy (but nice) American."
Wednesday morning I was on my way to work in my 70 LT1. The weather is rapidly getting cold and it won't be much longer before I have to put The Beast away for the winter so I have been trying to drive it more. I had been good from my village through the next two villages and the vineyards in between to the point of annoying the locals becasue I was driving so slowly. I try to be considerate and stay at least one gear higher than I would normally use and stay around 1,500 rpm in order to keep the dB level from getting too far into the obnoxious range through populated areas. I took the ramp onto the autobahn, cleared the trucks and was finally able to turn it loose. I was pulling uphill and just climbing past 110 mph (~5K rpm) into the rising sun when it happened.
I'm not sure what I heard or felt over the scream of the engine, but I knew that something bad had just happened. A glance in the mirror showed me the enormous white smokescreen that obscured everything behind me. I jumped out of the throttle and started slowing down as I descended the hill looking for a gap in the trucks to get out of the left lane before I got run over or dumped oil in front of some poor sap unlucky enough to be screaming up behind me. I settled in between 2 trucks at 60 mph to find a safe place to get off the road. My oil pressure and water temp were both normal. I knew that I was only 2 miles from an exit, so I decided to nurse it there instead of stopping on the narrow shoulder of an unrestricted stretch of autobahn just before the morning rush started. The white smoke was still present and thick but now only extended less than 10 feet from the back of the car from both exhausts before dissipating. That seemed to be a reasonable trade-off until I realized that I was watching the water temperature gauge needle actually MOVE. As it climbed past around 230 I decided that traffic would just have to suffer; I was getting off the road and shutting down NOW! I dove for the shoulder and saw the 300m exit sign just past the truck in front of me. I threw the shifter into neutral and tried to coast onto the exit ramp and shut down there. That would have worked except that to exit I had to merge through the cars entering onto the autobahn from the same exit. By now the temp gauge was pegged past 250 and I had to get back into fourth gear and give some throttle to manage the merge with a corresponding extra thick billow of white smoke. I popped out the other side of the zipper, dove for the shoulder and coasted far enough to clear the merging area before stopping.
I killed the engine and set the emergency brake as the white smoke was now billowing up from under the hood. I fumbled my fire extinguisher from the rear compartment, popped the hood latch, cleared my 6 for traffic and jumped out of the car running around to the passenger side. I waited about 15 seconds to confirm that the smoke was not a fire before I went back and raised the hood with the fire extinguisher ready just in case. I was greeted by another thick cloud of antifreeze sweet steam but no fire. I moved to behind the guardrail forward of where my car sat and stood there numbed by shock and horror for a few minutes before I came back to my senses. I got back into the car, put the fire extinguisher away, shifted into reverse and removed my keys, turned off the headlights, turned on the hazard flashers and grabbed my warning triangle. As a walked back along the autobahn to place my triangle I saw a distinct liquid trail less than a foot wide (not solid) that traced a perfect line from the exit ramp to the centerline of my car. There was also a sizeable puddle of fluid underneath the rear of the engine. The radiator cap was cold to the touch and the rear of the car was covered with coolant with a higher concentration near the exhaust tips. There was clean oil on the dipstick but it was very hot. I decided that I had done enough troubleshooting and went back behind the guard rail and called ADAC.
A side note here, ADAC (the German version of AAA, but better) was every bit as good as they claim to be. I gave them my member number, they asked me where I was, numerous details about my car so they could ensure that they sent a compatible wrecker to include how many passengers need to be transported, and where I wanted my car taken to. And that was it. And, they even did it all in English. I had my car delivered back to my house and the driver even helped me push the car into my garage since there was no way to maneuver the wrecker any closer on my narrow little landscaped cobblestone street.
It was not until this evening after work that I had worked up the courage to start the autopsy. I had already done a quick visual of the block but could find no obvious cracks. First, I checked the floor under the car and did not find any oil and very little antifreeze. That seemed very odd, but I guessed that I had driven too far and run the car out of fluids. I checked the radiator and it was maybe 20% full, but clean. I checked the oil and it was full, looked like brand new (I changed it less than 300 miles ago) and had no obvious traces of coolant on the dipstick. Hmmm. I checked the engine from the top, but could find nothing abnormal. (As a driver, my engine has only been show quality clean once in the 13 years that I have owned it, and that was only because I had just put the top of the engine back together.) I checked the underside of the car and found most of the back of the engine and surrounding area on the driver's side coated with coolant. The passenger side did not have any coolant residue. I jacked up the front of the car and climbed under there to take a better look. As I am inspecting the driver's side head gasket for the third time still unable to find a leak path, I make a startling discovery. The freeze plug is resting in the ignition shielding elbow. I can't be that lucky. After about an hour of internal debate, I decide that all of the symptoms match and it is possible that I just spit the freeze plug. I decide that one further check can't hurt, so I lower the car, take a deep breath, and try to crank the engine. It fires right up and runs smoothly. I only let it run for 15 seconds before I shut it off, but the only negative indication I noticed was the small new puddle of antifreeze on the floor. I jacked the car back up and drained the oil into a small garbage can instead of my oil changing pan and found no discoloration or traces of coolant. It still looked virtually new.
So, all that for this:
1) Did I just get that lucky? I am considering replacing the freeze plug, re-filling the oil and coolant, and firing it up and looking for more leaks. I feel like that is an insane idea, but I can't give myself a sound reason to not try it.
2) When I replaced the service replacement intake manifold with the correct manifold, I had great difficulty installing that freeze plug. Twice I had to fish my new (new both times) freeze plug out of the block when attempting to install it. In order to avoid the possibility of spitting out the freeze plug one day, I decided to install one of the expandable freeze plugs since my car was a long was from NCRS judging at that point and I was living in Florida. Should the expandable plugs be avoided? Is there a trick besides chilling the plug in the freezer overnight and hammering it in with an appropriately sized socket in the pocket of the plug to installing the correct solid plugs?
3) Have I learned my lesson yet? The conventional wisdom is that the ZZ4 crate motor is really the best choice, but I read that I cannot use my original valve covers or normal crankcase vent routing with those heads. The engine is very impressive, but it would just look WRONG to me. Is there another option other than building another LT1 spec engine from scratch? Is there a new design head that will accept my stock valve covers and PCV routing?
PS I was so relieved that I sat dumbfounded in the garage for about 30 minutes, then paced around my driveway for at least that long shaking my head and mumbling to myself. That's fine, as my neighbors already think I'm "that crazy (but nice) American."
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