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Comments
I learned a couple of things in the process. Manifold and intakes have a tremendous buildup despite I have been running Chevron for the last year. I attempted cleaning manifold with oven cleaner, but only had half can. So got about 2/3 of the crud out. Also discovere that anti-backfire valve on end of manifold and part of it's seal on the flapper was missing.
Ugly part is I discovered about half quart of oil laying in the V, opposite end of starter. No attempt to fix that at this time, so clean up engine and reinstall. Dang, still have miss.
If you've never cleaned your intake, I'd definitely consider doing it as this buildup seemed excessive. I know this is EGR gas deposits, but is that normal?
Check the shelves at the box store or NAPA for a flush to use to rinse the block. Or my method is I drain, cool, refill and run to mix, drain, cool, refill and run several times using water. Then I put in pure DexCool. To get the right number of quarts in I have to fill the overflow tank with Dexcool 100% and work the air bubbles out.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Glad I could help. If you go with Optima, let us know your experience.
Ethylene glycol is not the problem, as it is the primary ingredient in both the green and orange/pink anti-freeze. It is the additives in the green stuff that somehow destroy the effectiveness of the additives in Dex-Cool. I, too, have never heard of a neutralizer. You have to flush it out by repeated attempts similar to what imidazol97 suggests.
Les
I think I have this firgured out. I live in the country. I have been staying in the city that bog is when that car wants to shift into overdrive. when I swicht to sport mode I don't get it. I have a lead foot anyway always have not a crazy I just like it brisk. and in this traffic that northstar doesn't like the shifting points. I saw that Henri had the same car as me. I wrote him no response yet. I have pictures of my car at http://www.carspace.com/phil95
Phil
What I ran across on one GM was a black sludge or slime. I was told that it came from mixing green with dexcool and that stuff was extremely hard to remove. I probably never got it all from the radiator as it took by trial and error, into the recovery bottle only, oven cleaner to break it down followed by brake clean solvent to finish the job. If you have that present and plan on keeping the car, I'd talk to a radiator shop for suggestions. In the old days some flushes had a lye base, but not good with aluminum. I've heard the expression, "boiling out a radiator" but don't know what it means or if it is still done. Might try contacting prestone technical department for suggestions, I hope I never see that stuff again, which was in a Buick.
Thanks,
Phil
Henri
77,000 miles and still a fun car to drive but I was ready to move on.
I'll miss this forum.
Thanks for the advice on the flickering headlights issue - that was the one thing that was maddening with the car.
Oh, that and the leakiy oil pan gasket that I did not get fixed as I thought $2,000 to hoist the engine was a litle ridiculous. Why they ever put the bolts for the oil pan through the top of the 1st Generation Northstar I'll never know.
Anyway, it's been great.
Later!
I just discovered these forums and did so at the perfect time.
Well, i have a 96 Aurora with 100K miles on it. I recently developed what the mechanics are calling a rod knock and basically they recommend a new engine because a rebuild will be too expensive. Well a new engine costs almost $2000 and i cant afford that especially not with labor.
Here's what i need help with, i found a 1995 Aurora with a 4.0L V8 Northstar Engine basically the same as mine. The car was rear ended by an SUV and is totalled. I was wondering - if i pull the engine out of this one and put it in mine, is it compatible? Has anyone ever tried that. Any issues? Im a newbie and would really appreciate some info.
Thanks a lot.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Phil
Thanks Phil
Hi Les, Hi Henri
Phil
Phil
get a test light
then go to your car under the stearing wheel
locate the data link connector under lh side of i/p is behind little sliding door.
attach one of your test light ends to a ground.
in the data link connector locate the little holes in the one #15 or 16 attach the other end of the test light you will see the test light turn on and the with the light on start pushing the lock ort unlock in your remote and you will hear when they start working if this do not work check the remote batteries
My husband is looking it over, fixing a few small things, but he cannot find the switch to turn off the air suspension to jack it up to put on the ramps (too low to drive it on). I know from our lincoln that you are supposed to turn it off before jacking or towing.
Can anyone help me? no owners manual, have bought one on ebay but isn't here yet.
Thanks,
Susan
Welcome to the wonderful and sometimes scary world of Auroras!
There is no such switch in Auroras. I guess you could pull the fuse, but you would have to wait for the air to leak out which will take days or longer if the system is in good shape. Besides that the air suspension exists only in the rear, not front.
I suggest using small blocks of wood in front of the ramps to make a more gradual angle to get the nose high enough to clear the ramps. Or use a hydraulic floor jack to raise the car.
Hope this helps.
Les
I assume you are saying the compressor kicks on because you hear a click. Feel lines at several locations for temperature change, careful can be hot. Try to make sure the center portion of the clutch is rotating when it engages, visible from the end. Clutch may be bad. Does the clutch try to cycle? If there is a blockage in the system, you may get a click, clutch on and shortly a click, clutch off, with it staying off for an exteneded period to allow bleed down. Manually set fan to high as well. If it is cycling rapidly, likely needs more freon. Did he have the system on while trying to charge?
I haven't studied A/C in a long time, but two big killers of performance are air and moisture in the system. It takes a very small amount of either to weaken the system when it is performing at extreme situations, such as 100 degree days. If I remember correctly, the air drastically changes the superheat and or supercooling properties. The accumulator with its dessicant will take care of small amounts of moisture that get in over time. Avoid introducing any air by allowing the charge kit to bleed slowly and hold it in the proximity of the charge connector for a few seconds before snapping it tightly in place. They don't tell you that in the instructions because they would then be telling you to vent Freon. Once the latest revision on Freon use becomes fully effective, you won't be able to buy 134 without a recovery system either. Some shops have already adopted part of that law to 134. It has existed for R-12 for some time. That is, if you have a leaking system they are required to empty it prior to repairs. If you refuse the repair charge, you leave the shop with an empty system. Seems rather unethical.
Also, I have yet not seen the shop that leaves the vacuum pump on the required time stated in literature. Most leave it on only a few minutes after drawing it down. They may close valve and watch for leaks for a few more minutes, but in reality it is supposed to be run for several hours. I don't know the exact reason but suspect it is to scavenge any residual from dessicant and linings of hoses. That would fit with small amounts degrading overall system. But then, it would be impractical for a shop to have a hundred cars parked in its lot, all overnight, with expensive vacuum pumps hooked up and running.
So in the name of business they sacrifice, maybe, the top 10% of your system hoping you never notice.
Also I keep hearing that air and moisture get into the system with time too. Doesn't make much sense since the inside of the system has pressure. Maybe this isn't as bad with R134 because they had to use new hose materials to meet requirements. That is higher pressures and smaller molecules of Freon able to squeeze through even smaller pores. But the 134 molecules are still much bigger than O2 or H2O making me think this occurs like reverse osmosis.
Are there any Mercedes mechanics around that are familiar with the requirement to change brake fluid annually?
I removed the manifold again and went to work with more oven cleaner. I would guess that it is somewhere around 80-90% clean, just can not see up into the ports to verify. But I did notice on the head when looking into the ports, some were very clean compared to others. I can only guess that it is the spray pattern of the injector at this time. I also did the TB cleaning while I had it apart and finished with bolting to the 87 in-lb spec. Seemed like a tremendous amount of tightening on plastic and plan on resetting to no higher than 80, still within 10%. I have no information if that spec is for new gaskets only, maybe.
Has anyone used one of those intake cleaners? I did find one in liquid form that you suck in through a vacuum port. I have seen them use something are part of a tuneup that they start spraying in doses and a last dose that stalls engine. Then let it set for about a half hour. Fire it up and run some more through it. Not sure what all that crude was coming out the pipe but it smelled like weak tear gas (CS).
Anyway, I want to do something along those lines and then follow with a fantastic injector cleaner. My intent is to pull the manifold one more time to see if the head ports have cleaned up or show a better spray pattern. I need to at least change the TB gasket anyway which cracked and is RTV as a temporary fix till I get new one. Replacing it is half the job of pulling the manifold.
Maybe a lot of something)work) for nothing, but bothered that some were clean and others had near 1/16" of deposits. Makes me wish I had looked closer the first time because of the leaking backfire valve which may have disturbed the airflow and spray pattern. At this point I'm leaning against that as the clean areas were not in any particular pattern.
Looking at overall history since wife bought car, thermostat was missing and it remained in open cycle most of the time. FPR was bad, injecting fuel into the manifold. Someone replace hose on PCV and it kinked shut. All would affect the mix inside the manifold. Add that the EGR port is offset and so is the IAC. Top it with the leaking backfire valve at the opposite end of the manifold and it becomes a wild guess as to what is flowing into each head port.
If anyone has seen those irregular patterns at the point the injector sprays and has any related info I would appreciate a response.
It seems to get pretty good when it is punched but have a nagging feeling it isn't doing all it can. I would like to disable the abuse limiters if anyone knows how also.
What is "superheat and supercooling properties"?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
The greater the temperature difference between the environment and the high pressure Freon, the more efficiently it removes the heat. 1. If your system is low, it isn't able to deliver enough Freon to the pump to get adequate pressure for good cooling of the superheated Freon because the temperature difference will be lower. Often you will see a system that seems OK at 80-90 degrees, but when it hits a 100 degrees it just can't handle it. 2. The compression ratio of Freon vs. air to get the same heating and cooling effects is many times greater. So the effect would be similar to a worn out shock absorber where the fluid was lost. If Freon was the fluid, it would take a relatively small amount of pressure to turn it to liquid and produce heat. With air, it would take an extreme amount of movement of the piston to accomplish the same thing. Introducing just a small amount of air, you would have to get enough movement to compress the air to liquid before the Freon would become effective. This is why a very small amount of air will degrade a system.
3. Added information: Air is used as the refrigerant in aircraft. An aircraft such as a Gulfstream or one of those fifty passenger jets has a heat exchanger near each engine and they are roughly 1 foot square by 7 feet long. The compressed air (bleed air) is taken from the front turbines of the engine. That is a big compressor and makes it rather impractical to use such a system in a car.
The high temp sensor appears to have multiple location possibilities. Behind the right headlamp as in mine or in the line coming out the bottom of the accumulator.
The temp sensors were shown as a variable resistor on the diagram and the low pressure sensor as a switch that opens below 10 psi.
Unless I find more info, it is time for guages or maybe a trip to autozone to have PCM read.
I saw TSB's concerning what PAG oil to use and about adding a screen. I think that is loose term for filter to keep debris from circulating and ruining compressor.
By the way, this is our third Aurora. We had a 95, still have the 97 and a 2001.I'd really like to hang on to this car but the "wait 3 minutes" issue is becoming hard to deal with.