[bhill86]

Well for any that happened to have followed my oil pressure thread, my woes continue. I decided to start sending my oil for analysis out of curiosity so I did that for the first time this season. What itheu said was the following:

Your Pontiac has a coolant leak - we can see the antifreeze contamination in the high levels of potassium and sodium. The coolant is causing poor wear in the lower end - the high levels of lead, copper,
ar his may ustbe hariess sealer since th engine is elativel Iow mieage), Suggest inspecing thesent
cooling system and monitor for signs of bearing trouble, including low oil pressure/unusual noises. Keep runs short (<500 miles) to monitor.

I’ll post the whole report with the numbers below.

So I’m seeking advice. I replaced the bearings last June after having concerns I found in an oil filter. Those bearings old were worn prematurely though I don’t know why. I did have loss of coolant prior to the engine pull last year but attributed that to a loose hose and the issue stopped. I have noticed coolant level dropping in the reservoir a little this season and hoped it was either air or something else. Think I know what the “something else” is. My oil didn’t look suspect when I drained it.

I’m not sure where to go from here. I suppose at one extreme, pull the engine, find the leak (hopefully timing cover which I did have off when I replaced the bearings) check the bearings at least. I don’t have a ton of money to sink into this thing. Last year the bearing swap was prior to my first kid being born. Surprise! My wife is due with our second in July lol.

I guess what I’m asking is what can I reasonably get away with?

Somewhat unrelated, I have a 73 400 that I got with a parts lot I was going to sell. I decide to keep it and inspected the bottom end a bit this summer. Lots of sludge in the pan but the couple main and rod bearings I checked looked good. The worst I saw was a little bit of surface rust spots on the cam. This may be a stupid question but is that cam shot because of it? Would it eat itself or a HFT lifter or could it be ok? Part of me wants to see if the engine would run as-is after cleaning out the sludge. If so, I could drop that one in while I tend to my engine. My other plan was to slowly build the spare engine while leaving the current engine but child #2 combined with this coolant leak makes that seem unlikely.