cetheri Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 I have resolved this problem and wish to pass on the solution, however temporary it may ultimately turn out to be. In my original post I remarked that the engine only ran rough after having been shut off for a period of time (a few hours or even all night). Last week I noticed an unusually heavy amount of steamy condensation exiting the exhaust. I'd been experiencing a mysterious loss of coolant and at that moment I began thinking that a head gasket may be failing, thereby allowing coolant into a combustion chamber or exhaust port. After doing a tremendous amount of research on coolant loss issues on this board I decided that 3 tubes of Bar's Leaks Golden Seal may help. I installed it in the upper radiator hose, drove the car about 40 miles to get it circulated well, and now the problem seems to be gone. The rough running when cold condition is gone, exhaust condensation has returned to normal levels. I can only wonder what it was exactly that the Bar's Leaks Golden Seal fixed. Might it be a faulty head gasket that will eventually open up again, porosity in the block, or perhaps even a crack? Bar's Leaks Golden Seal, or GM Coolant supplement, appears to be absolutely essential in the life of a Northstar. Bbobynski provided the clue from a previous post regarding the correction of a crack in the lifter valley discovered in a disassembled engine. My STS has 109K miles. Anyone have any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetheri Posted January 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Bbobynski, thanks-a-million for a very informative reply. I should also point out that, the engine has never overheated, just an occasional low coolant condition, and that, except for a miss that lasted 30-45 seconds after startup, it always ran beautifully - I guess that's how much time it took for the spark to overcome the presence of coolant in the chamber. Very interesting mystery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetheri Posted January 10, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 And to think that I was almost completely convinced that my cold miss condition was a faulty fuel injector. If it hadn't been for the extra steam I would never have known. You do good work - even by remote control. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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