Recently a zed was presented to us on a trailor by the tired owner, a long project spanning over over 3 years and although the body work was now mostly complete in his eyes the mechanics needed a special touch and hence we were tasked with the job.

 

The very worn suspension was changed wholesale and the rear tailgate was replaced with a same colour one ( lucky) we had in stock as the owner had made a bad choice of using a crow bar to open the boot when he locked himself out!!!

 

So on to the engine, a water leak was mentioned by the puzzled owner who said it suddenly developed the leak after not been used for over 1 year, it was quickly established to be quite empty of coolant.

 

Here is where it starts going wrong! the water was leaking out as quick as we could put it in both from the front and the rear of the engine at the same time!

 

Based on experience we were sure the issue was in the valley in the middle of the engine under the plenum and the lower ( injectors ) plenum.......not nice

 

 

So the top end strip down was started, unfortunately the cambelt top pulley and the left hand back plate has to be removed so a front strip down is also required. The strip down did in fact prove us correct that one of the core plugs had come displaced, a clean up and a new one was fitted solving the problem, comparing the new one to the old plug suggests the plug did not rot out but was pushed out and there is only one cause of that ICE!!

 

A warning that any zed not in use can succombe to the evil low temps we had recently if the antifreeze strength is low, even if you have no intention of running the engine for some time and suspect the antifreeze is weak refill with the correct amount or at the very least drain the coolant to prevent this issue.

 

A costly mistake but could have been worse if the core plugs had not popped the block would have cracked!

 

Jeff TT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 201213 yr by JeffTT

lucky, and unlucky i suppose

Nice write up Jeff and a heads up for us all.