As i'm walking toward my car with hopes of finnaly getting those ugly rock gaurds off, I cant help but wonder, why has the cooling system been under so much pressure lately? Let me explain.

Me and my dad finished the front seals. we pumped water in with a cooling system pressurisor. And all was fine.
It started and idled flawlessly. But...when the exhaust was off, we had noticed oil in the headers at cylinders 2 and 3. first sign.

second sign. System gets overpressurised. WAY overpressurised.
when I got to the car at the curb to bring it down to the driveway and tried to start it and it wouldnt start. I noticed (upon opening of hood) that coolant was coming out of 1.) the overflow tank cap. 2.) the bolt on the head that lets air bubbles escape when you fill the system!!!!! THE BOLT!!

plus the hose that goes to that bolt has so much pressure you can hardly squeeze it. this is a day after the car has been on!

My dad comes outside and tries his luck. What happenes is the car backfires.....kinda.
A normal backfire travels through the exhaust. this one traveled through the intake!! It blew off the J-tube from the AFM. And smoke tendrils started coming out.

We then took off the cap and clened the contact points and and took out a spark plug. ( four prong ) smoke tendrils also came out of the hole.(normal?) well the spark plug was tottally sooty!!
so we cleaned that off and the car started.
and white smoke pours out of the exhaust. It had done this before.
But when it didnt stop we ruled out that it could be condensation in the exhaust.

So here Is the official daignosis.
The headgasket is blown. This is why we saw oil in exhaust. This is also why the car seemed to run on only 3 pistons before smoothing out 30 sec later on start ups. Coolant is getting into the cumbustion chamber causing the white smoke. This is also letting compression get into the cooling sytem with the up-down motion of the piston. Which in turn overpressurises the system to the point of coolant coming out of even the tightest spots.

so now its time to dig back into that engine and change that pesky headgasket.


P.S. this dang car's engine is going to be tottally rebuilt before I even have the chance to rebuild it!!

Ashton

P.P.S. sorry for the book

 

wow.. you have me worried now... my car runs rough for the first 30 seconds to a minute...

And if i open the coolant cap after running it for a few minutes. there is pressure (not after an hour or so though).

does anyoen kenow if i have hte same probelm jsut because of those things?

you got no luck with your car campeck! sorry to hear that.

 

Devon- Try a compression test

tester only 15$ at any autozone...dumbass me paid $50 at sears for the same thing

If the PSI is 15-20psi different on a cylinder or there is 20% difference in them...check the other thnigs for a blow hg

 

well a blown head gasket is better than a cracked head anyday

 

Our cars just happen to run rough when cold. Im sure its not rough when you start it up once the engine has been to normal operating temperature earlier....

Also notice how we have no throttle response or power on a cold engine?

 

Devon,

The cooling system is supposed to pressurize. The cap on the tank will tell you how much pressure it will hold before it opens and dumps coolant to the overflow tube.

 

Yea....if the cooling system didnt pressurize, your coolant wouldnt circulate well and your car would overheat.

As for the headgasket...its that season again! I think Dano will agree with me..

 

mannnn ashton sorry to hear that

 

oh but ya like adam said...at least its not cracked...

 

wow he seriously isnt having any luck with this car. how long did it take you to do the front seals/belts? yeah i thought all cars with efi ran better in the warmth.....it seems like it to me.

 

Oh man.... sorry to hear that. Be sure you take a look in the cylinders when you get in there for any other damages. Also try to find out what happned: head gaskets tend to blow for a reason.

 

yup.
but.............now I can polish my cam housing!!!!

 

I just had to do mine last week... you have my sympathy.

The big thing is to figure out why it went, otherwise you could blow the new one out as well. (I had a bad fuel pressure regulator, just enough to lean the car out)

 

You also need to chuck those Bosch +4 plugs in the trash, that is where they belong.

Marc - WAY easier on an NA than a Turbo.
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What he said! They'll cost you a few ponies, switch to single electrode plugs. Copper performs better than platinum (better conductor) but copper needs to be changed more often.