Bought a car for my son from a neighbor, 2000 Isuzu Rodeo with 3.2L V-6. 140,000 miles with all the service records, new water pump, rebuilt tranny, new timing belt, tires, brakes and rotors, thermostat, battery etc. I thought what could go wrong? Everything, I guess.
In the first 30 miles after I bought it it started misfiring. I finally determined it was a cracked head judging from the antifreeze in one of the plug wells which was shorting out the spark plug. I tried a stop-leak which didn't work so I ordered a new head and we've spent the past few evenings pulling the driver's side head. First problem we ran into was stripping the head of one of the head bolts which took me an hour and a half this evening to drill out. We finally got the head off and discovered one of the head bolts on the back of head which we had loosened but not taken out had actually broken off about half way up the threads and about half an inch of bolt is stuck in the block. No way to get to it, it's about 3 inches down inside the block. From some research I've done on the web apparently the only way to get it out is to pull the engine and either drill it out or take it to a machine shop.
What a PITA, I'm really irritated. The only plus is if I do end up pulling the engine it will be easier to put the new head on but what I thought would be a two or three day job is turning into a nightmare. The other thing that really irritates me is when I initially found the issue and drained the coolant and flushed it to put the stop leak in I found stop leak in the coolant which tells me they knew there was a problem because that stop leak didn't get there on its own. I'd like to wring my neighbor's neck.
In the first 30 miles after I bought it it started misfiring. I finally determined it was a cracked head judging from the antifreeze in one of the plug wells which was shorting out the spark plug. I tried a stop-leak which didn't work so I ordered a new head and we've spent the past few evenings pulling the driver's side head. First problem we ran into was stripping the head of one of the head bolts which took me an hour and a half this evening to drill out. We finally got the head off and discovered one of the head bolts on the back of head which we had loosened but not taken out had actually broken off about half way up the threads and about half an inch of bolt is stuck in the block. No way to get to it, it's about 3 inches down inside the block. From some research I've done on the web apparently the only way to get it out is to pull the engine and either drill it out or take it to a machine shop.
What a PITA, I'm really irritated. The only plus is if I do end up pulling the engine it will be easier to put the new head on but what I thought would be a two or three day job is turning into a nightmare. The other thing that really irritates me is when I initially found the issue and drained the coolant and flushed it to put the stop leak in I found stop leak in the coolant which tells me they knew there was a problem because that stop leak didn't get there on its own. I'd like to wring my neighbor's neck.