cant get satrun to start

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carriedi
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Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:42 pm

Re: cant get satrun to start

Unread post by carriedi » Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:42 am

water in the cylinder after an overheat is usually a head gasket problem. But you could have something cracked also. A blown head gasket or a cracked head or cylinder block could reduce the compression build up also making it harder to start.

Overheating a modern engine that has a cast iron block and an aluminum head can cause damage to the head gasket sealing properties. Aluminum and cast iron expand differently when they get hot. When the temperature of the engine is withing normal specs they don't expand that much. But, when you exceed the normal limits the aluminum will expand more than the cast iron which will break the seal on the head gasket. After that seal is disturbed you could have compression lost between two connecting cylinders. You could have coolant leaking into a cylinder. You could have coolant and oil mixing. It might not show up right away after the overheat happened. It could show up months after the engine overheated.

When a vehicle comes in with a blown head gasket the first thing a shop should ask is "Did the engine overheat?" and "When did it overheat?" Because they will need to figure out if the engine overheated and what caused it to overheat or after doing the head gasket you could overheat the engine again. They won't know if the engine overheated and blew the head gasket or the head gasket blew and overheated the engine.

Normally, a shop will remove the head and send it out to pressure test for leaks or cracks and have it machined to be flat. They will inspect the cylinders for cracks but usually the damaged will be in the head if there is any damage. (but there are always exceptions)

So, the most important thing is to seal the engine back up (head gasket replacement) but the next thing is why did the engine overheat?
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