[DML] re: Check your engines!

["Dave Swingle" <dswingle@xxxx>]

"Michael Babb" wrote
> If you look at the top of the engine block, there are 4 "holes" that can
> accumulate a bunch of liquid and gunk. This stuff can erode the metal
that
> the engine block is made out of. Sometime during the life of my car, this
> happened>
> e-mail me if you have any questions or comments.

Boy do your photos look familar. I just tonight finished the water pump job
on my car. Luckily I also noticed those junk-collecting holes, and at 30000
miles mine were full of road dirt mixed with old antifreeze (from the failed
cooling hoses.) I could not believe how deep those holes were when I got to
the bottom. I spent quite a while digging the crud out of there - and now
I'm even more glad that I did. What a strange design - and I never would
have expected it to rot thru the aluminum like yours did. I've never heard
of this happening.

Unfortunately your advice to get it checked will be difficult unless you are
in there for another reason (water pump, typically) - you have to remove the
intake manifold to see anything.

dave