So my wife caused the car to fault

at traffic lights, while not moving at all :/

no cornering, nothing :(

Well, I got everything back together, and it looks like I'm losing coolant somewhere. Not out of the exhaust, no leaks that I can see. I used an airlift vacuum tool, and the coolant system is holding vacuum. I also used that to refill the system. I suppose it's possible there's still air in the system somewhere?

Next step is to drain the oil again and see if there's anything in it.

I had the head resurfaced, new gasket, everything is torqued properly. I didn't have the block resurfaced, but I checked it with a machinist's straight edge and a feeler gauge, and couldn't git the 0.004" under the edge anywhere.

Guess I'll do a compression test before I drain the oil. Mobil 1 is expensive.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Any ideas on the above?

Also, is the vacuum test sufficient? If it's holding vacuum, surely a pressure test would provide the same result. I think...

Did a compression test. 150, 130, 140, 150. I think #2 has worn rings. I looked in the cylinders (as best I could without a bore scope) and didn't see coolant seeping in or anything. Guess I'll have to drain the oil and have a look. I think I'll buy the cheap stuff this time.

@DavidLively - What is happening for you to say you're losing coolant? Is it you've had to add too much to the system on fill-up or does it continually want more?

@Zaid - WRT your answer, piston dwell time has an effect on pre-ignition/detonation. I don't have it in front of me, but if you increase the dwell time of your piston at TDC (would affect BDC as well), you can increase your compression ratio while still running lower octane fuel. I'll see if I can find the article for you. I'm sure there's a practical limit, but there is it does have an effect.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I agree. Reducing the rate of change of compression (slowing down the piston stroke) will help mitigate pre-det

It was really interesting the first time I read about it.

Anyway, I'm off to class or ... something ... I'll try to catch up later on.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 I've had to add a lot to it. But, then again, the system was completely empty before. The big thing is that it started to overheat again. Although, I didn't have the heater on when I filled it with the airlift. (I didn't notice that part in the instructions until later.)

After thinking on this for awhile and chatting on the Solstice forum, I'm going to use the airlift - cause it's fun - to drain the system, measure what I get out and compare it to what I put in. Of course, I only have a rough idea of how much I've put in, which is a bad place from which to start.

@Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 So, second idea: drain it, refill to capacity, run it and see what happens. If it goes down, re-drain it and compare to the amount I put in, to see if it's getting burned / repurposed, or just moved within the system.