LBZ: Unloaded LBZ Overheat and No-Start Condition

SSchmi5519

SSchmi5519

LLY Cult Leader
Oct 19, 2008
3,387
1
36
Arizona
Come along with me! :hug:

I will be taking pictures of the damage, as I'm sure some of you would like to see.

Story is: An unloaded LBZ lost coolant coming down from the mountains (hilly terrain, so ups and downs). If you add water to the tank it just blows out. Truck turns over and I can feel & smell exhaust coming out of the coolant tank :eek: (thats bad).

So first step is running a little diagnostics, and try to figure out why it wont fire up, after first pulling the glows to make sure no water made its way into the cylinders. Even if rough or with a bad cyl it should at least try to fire. Will also do a quick compression check beforehand.

Then I will be digging into it to pull the heads off and will post pictures of what I find in there. I suspect a blasted out gasket, badly warped or even cracked head(s), or a combination of the above.

You dont hear about gasket issues very often on the LBZ trucks, so I am personally interested to see what went wrong. :thumb:
 
ikeG

ikeG

Oughta Know Better
Apr 19, 2011
2,472
152
63
Western PA
www.facebook.com
We just had an all stock LBZ that had apparently been driven for years with a blown headgasket. Similar symptoms to yours, water ran straight out of it, exhaust coming out overflow bottle, etc. It actually ate down into the deck of the block. Block had to be surfaced to fix it.

Good luck!
 
SSchmi5519

SSchmi5519

LLY Cult Leader
Oct 19, 2008
3,387
1
36
Arizona
Well I found the coolant leak. A previous owner made a half-assed "repair", if you could even call it that.

The lower radiator hose was rubbing on one of the metal line holds on the frame. Instead of adjusting the hose length or doing something different with the hold, he cut another heater hose and wrapped it around the rad hose as a band-aid fix. Well that hose section rotated away, probably from engine vibration and movement, and the lower rad hose cut into that frame clamp. Under pressure, as soon as the hose was ruptured, im sure the water exited very quickly. Goodbye coolant.

Such a shame that what was a simple (likely free) repair will now cost so much more. :(
 
c20elephant

c20elephant

C20ELEPHANT
Apr 25, 2013
2,065
0
0
Phoenix, Arizona
Is that the clamp that holds the battery cable, if it is that is the only reason I had to replace mine last year.
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Chevy1925

Chevy1925

don't know sh!t about IFS
Staff member
Oct 21, 2009
21,761
5,933
113
Phoenix Az
who woulda thought the ex-tuna can still hold a wrench too :rofl:

[YOUTUBE]_yB4PEWbbck[/YOUTUBE]
 
c20elephant

c20elephant

C20ELEPHANT
Apr 25, 2013
2,065
0
0
Phoenix, Arizona
Chevy1925 said:
who woulda thought the ex-tuna can still hold a wrench too :rofl:

[YOUTUBE]_yB4PEWbbck[/YOUTUBE]
Click to expand...

SSchmi5519 said:
LOL leave it to James to run the camera when absolutely no work is going on.
Click to expand...

Need a LMM block and heads, I'll deliver and make a deal on all of it and deliver it to your garage door. If you want to look at it I live just south of Deer Valley Airport..
 
SSchmi5519

SSchmi5519

LLY Cult Leader
Oct 19, 2008
3,387
1
36
Arizona
As an update, I had to get a whole new block, pistons, rods, and wrist pins. New heads, new valve guides, valve seals, and recut the valve seats. Only good thing from the old block was the crank and the cam. Reason truck wouldn't try to fire was a sheared pin on the gear that holds the reluctor wheel. As some of you who have built engines may know that gear is pressed on there pretty dang tight, and this one would spin free!! Keyed that. Assembly starts today. It's been a rocky road but things are looking up for this ol LBZ.
 
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