So walking out to my Gen3 after getting supplies for a 7200 mile road trip, I see a puddle under it. No big deal, I had the AC on.
I get home to start doing a transmission fluid change and notice there is coolant dripping from both sides of the transmission. ******?! There isn't a cooling line anywhere near the leak...
So now I am kinda freaking out.
I put the tranny fluid swap on hold while I investigate the source.
A little back story, I decided to let the local highschool work on it because they asked if they could and I figured why not I remember autoshop class and loved working on unique vehicles.
Big mistake as I am down a vehicle now.
The couldn't get ANY of the bolts on the intake torqued correctly and stripped out 23, yes, 23 stripped out bolts I am now a master Helicoil installer. I have coolant leaking INTO #3 cylinder, out the back standpipe, from the back of the water pump. and every other place there is an O ring because some one glooped in RTV to compensate for having gouged every o ring in the cooling sysytem.:violent-smiley-031:
So after stripping down the engine to the heads, I don't have time to fix it before my trip so I am putting everything back together so I can deal with it when I get back.
Super bummed out but thank goodness it basically came apart in my driveway and not in the middle of BFE. Boy howdy is there a lot of little things wrong with this thing. Typical 145,000 miles of deferred maintenance from the previous owner. Was looking forward to enjoying my creature comforts, new tires and OME 2" lift...
Now I pivot to getting my Jeep Montangler (half Montero, half Wrangler:smiley_drive
to 100% for the journey instead.