Fel-Pro or Evergreen gaskets kit?
#1
06-27-2018, 06:40 PM
Fel-Pro or Evergreen gaskets kit?
Hello everybody,
Just got another "project", 2009 Journey SXT 3.5 FWD 140kmiles with overheating issues, planning to fix it and give it to my wife to replace the 2001 Grand Caravan 3.8 FWD.
The car was not taken care of at all, it was firm for at least six months, missing radiator cap, gas cap, spare wheel jack and wrench and additionally I pulled out two bags of trash from the car. The lady I bought it from said it had overheating issues like it could idle fine but going for a drive will overheat in about 10 to 15 minutes.
First thing to do to drive it to my place about 15 miles away I poured in about two gallons of distilled water, new rad (pressurized tank) cap, heater on max and drove it home without any issues despite 90 degrees weather. At home I tried to rev the engine several times and sometimes it would overheat and emptied the coolant tank, sometimes it didn't. If I took out the rad cap the water/ coolant was boiling and sputtering out the tank. Performed pressure test on the cooling system that went fine- no pressure drop, no leaks. Made it once more on hot engine- left the tester hooked to the tank and idled/ revved the engine for about 15 minutes until it reached 20PSi (rad cap is 18 PSi on this engine), shut it down, no leaks.
Next, I drained the system, filled with distilled water and poured in one of those Prestone radiator flush bottles, run for 15 mins, drained, filled distilled water, run 15 mins, drained, replaced thermostat (195 degrees), filled with coolant/ distilled water mix and went to drive it for a couple of hours in hot weather city cycle. So far so good, the temp gauge went to 3/4 only once then the fan kicked in at full speed and it dropped to 1/2 after few mins (traffic) and no more missing coolant. Hopefully I found the coolant bleeding valve on back side of the metal thermostat housing, hooked up my brake bleeding transparent hose with a plastic bottle and was able to fill the system "correctly" until the coolant started to bleed from the valve, also raised a couple of times the coolant tank.
Spark plugs looked ugly, three were ATK i guess and the three under the plenum were Champion ( I guess the original ones), ordered at Oreilly's all six NGK Platinum plugs.
Intake plenum is oily, already got a gallon of Purple Power to wash it. Thinking to replace the MAP sensor too, it was built up with carbon. Cleaned it up, the car would react better at the gas pedal.
Got few times the P0325 code for knock sensor, ordered it on Amazon, but I think that the old used spark plugs would create that issue too. Also, the car feels lean to accelerate from stop.
Battery was dead, had to jump start the car most of the times (got on Amazon $139 16000 mA Li jump starter), just got a new battery at Walmart.
As far as I'm planning to give this car to my wife I was thinking to replace all the sensitive parts as water pump, timing kit, driving belt kit, valve cover/ spark plug and plenum gaskets; and to tear it down to the engine block to check for warped heads, maybe valve grinding/ lapping.
Finally, the main question is: Which gaskets brand is better? Felpro or Evergreen? Felpro are a bit more expensive and will have to purchase few gaskets sets to replace them all, but I found on Amazon a complete kit from Evergreen that already includes the head bolts for $145.
Ready for critics and comments, thanks!
Just got another "project", 2009 Journey SXT 3.5 FWD 140kmiles with overheating issues, planning to fix it and give it to my wife to replace the 2001 Grand Caravan 3.8 FWD.
The car was not taken care of at all, it was firm for at least six months, missing radiator cap, gas cap, spare wheel jack and wrench and additionally I pulled out two bags of trash from the car. The lady I bought it from said it had overheating issues like it could idle fine but going for a drive will overheat in about 10 to 15 minutes.
First thing to do to drive it to my place about 15 miles away I poured in about two gallons of distilled water, new rad (pressurized tank) cap, heater on max and drove it home without any issues despite 90 degrees weather. At home I tried to rev the engine several times and sometimes it would overheat and emptied the coolant tank, sometimes it didn't. If I took out the rad cap the water/ coolant was boiling and sputtering out the tank. Performed pressure test on the cooling system that went fine- no pressure drop, no leaks. Made it once more on hot engine- left the tester hooked to the tank and idled/ revved the engine for about 15 minutes until it reached 20PSi (rad cap is 18 PSi on this engine), shut it down, no leaks.
Next, I drained the system, filled with distilled water and poured in one of those Prestone radiator flush bottles, run for 15 mins, drained, filled distilled water, run 15 mins, drained, replaced thermostat (195 degrees), filled with coolant/ distilled water mix and went to drive it for a couple of hours in hot weather city cycle. So far so good, the temp gauge went to 3/4 only once then the fan kicked in at full speed and it dropped to 1/2 after few mins (traffic) and no more missing coolant. Hopefully I found the coolant bleeding valve on back side of the metal thermostat housing, hooked up my brake bleeding transparent hose with a plastic bottle and was able to fill the system "correctly" until the coolant started to bleed from the valve, also raised a couple of times the coolant tank.
Spark plugs looked ugly, three were ATK i guess and the three under the plenum were Champion ( I guess the original ones), ordered at Oreilly's all six NGK Platinum plugs.
Intake plenum is oily, already got a gallon of Purple Power to wash it. Thinking to replace the MAP sensor too, it was built up with carbon. Cleaned it up, the car would react better at the gas pedal.
Got few times the P0325 code for knock sensor, ordered it on Amazon, but I think that the old used spark plugs would create that issue too. Also, the car feels lean to accelerate from stop.
Battery was dead, had to jump start the car most of the times (got on Amazon $139 16000 mA Li jump starter), just got a new battery at Walmart.
As far as I'm planning to give this car to my wife I was thinking to replace all the sensitive parts as water pump, timing kit, driving belt kit, valve cover/ spark plug and plenum gaskets; and to tear it down to the engine block to check for warped heads, maybe valve grinding/ lapping.
Finally, the main question is: Which gaskets brand is better? Felpro or Evergreen? Felpro are a bit more expensive and will have to purchase few gaskets sets to replace them all, but I found on Amazon a complete kit from Evergreen that already includes the head bolts for $145.
Ready for critics and comments, thanks!
