Thanks for the offer John. Dennis is going to bring me the cheery picker and engine stand from Big Dave's place, so I think I'm good. I'll definitely talk to the guys at Thompson should it become necessary. Good guys are tough to find.

Glen, I plan on pulling the plugs probably tonight and cranking the engine. Should be interesting.

 

Andrew let me know when you want help. Absent any seized bolts (knock on wood), we should be able to get it out in an afternoon.

If you decide to pull the engine rather than just the head, you ought to drain the coolant/oil/steering ATF before folks arrive. It's messy.


P.S. I've also got the bolts you'll need to secure the engine to the stand.

 

Thanks Dave. I'm going to target the 27th for the pull party. I'll have as much disconnected/drained ahead of time. Will provide beer, pop and pizza for the crew.

 

Andrew,

My condolences. That really stinks. From what I've read of the people who have pulled engines from these cars, it's definitely not as intimidating as it sounds.

From my standpoint I'm actually a little excited because although this will be a major PITA for you, from what I know of you there will be a very detailed pictorial available once you're done. So lots of people will benefit from this.

Sorry it happened, but I think pulling the engine and dealing with it is the right way to handle it. Then you'll know exactly what you've got in there and feel better stomping on it when spring comes around.

 

Sorry to hear this but at least it happened at the end of the driving season. I’m in the same boat as you. Mine failed cause one of the injectors was slowly failing and made one of the cylinders run lean under boost. Similar symptoms as yours, sweet smelling exhaust, and by the time I got home the low coolant light came on. Just like yours, otherwise the engine rand fine. Once I pulled the plug to the cylinder that I just replaced the injector, it was clear that the coolant was leaking into it. The spark plug looked brand new.

As Brendan suggested, pull the plugs and the clean, brand new looking one, will have the leak. I’m think that your head gasket was probably on it’s way out and with the cool morning air, adding more boost, probably finished it off.

As suggested, do both gaskets or else soon you’ll be back for the other.

 

Ah yes - forgot about that. Send in your injectors to have the flow matched.

Todd took two batches of injectors, had them all tested. Out of the box new some of them were not even close (racing injectors, not 928 OEM)

What the hell, have the piston tops ceramic coated.

 

Just one other random thought....and it may have already been covered in a previous post...but did you indicate that the coolant was low? I've always been concerned about a leak developing in the intercooler itself and leaking into the intake/cylinders. So be sure to check the level of your intercooler reservoir as well.

Ken

 

That's just an ill-planned form of water injection

 

Sorry to hear of the troubles.

Same thing happened to me last year on my AMG. Finally got it running really good, and while it was still on the lift, all hell broke loose. White smoke out the back, coolant down the front... it was a mess. I finally got around to pulling the motor on it this spring, What i though would be headgaskets turned out to be pin-holes under most of the valve seats. Plus there was a lot of other gasket/o-ring failure - it is a 22 year old motor. I know its a completely diffferent situation, but I feel the pain of rebuilding a 32v motor. At least you have the advantage of off the shelf parts and knowledgeable vendors. I have had to fabricate ever piece going back into mine. Best of luck, and hoping for a gasket.

 

The thought never crossed my mind... but warrants investigation. The sweet smell, however, is a DEAD givaway for it to be coolant.

Coolant level looked fine when I parked it... hot. I'll report later tonight after I look at in greater detail.

 

I dont think the boost is the issue either, it pales by comparison of the explosive expansion of the intake charge. (we are talking 14.7psi for 1bar compared to 1000+psi for ignition) the pressures are related to the mass flow and HP. getting 400rwhp is probably not that big of a deal for head gaskets on our cars, anderson and Fan have run this for years. sure, the intake charge heat would be a little bit more, but your problem could be due to detonation for a cylinder with a near stoich mixture.

that is really a bummer. I think im having the same kind of issue, on a lesser scale with the holbert machine. im loosing a pint of coolant every so often, and i do have a hint of the smell of coolant occasionally, but rigth now its minor and not getting any worse. all plugs look fine.

so, best of luck, get it fixed over the dark season!

MK

 

Have Erik speak to Todd about him surfacing your heads properly to work with the cometic gaskets. You won't be probably disassembling the block, so you will need to be very careful for that surface - or go through with complete disassembly. Its more than just razor blades and brake clean.

And again, most people are using hylomar blue when they put on the steel gaskets.

 

Sorry to hear about it Andrew. My car did the same thing on a very cool morning 3 years ago almost to the day. Don't worry though, replacing head gaskets are easy.

It is entirely possible to remove S4+ heads with the engine still in the car no problem. I'd recommend doing it this way unless you want to tear further into the engine.

When removing the engine, it's not necessary to remove the ATF fluid if you leave the power steering rack intact. Just drop the cross-member and pull the rack down out of the way.

When you get the heads off, have somebody measure the cylinders at the top of the bore to see if they've ballooned or not. IF you were detonating like a **** (.. ), they may be ballooned. You'll want to check that you don't have any cracked compression rings too.

 

Kibort...nothing that you posted makes any sense at all..... Boost makes a BIGGER BANG it is as simple as that !! The bigger the bang the higher the cylinder pressures, add detonation pre-ignition and the bang goes off BEFORE the piston hits TDC and the piston rings rod bearing have to compress the bang to get to TDC before the power stroke...That is when the pressures go to the moon . Same thing as making a diesel engine from what was designed as a gasoline engine since diesels "fire" the cylinder by detonation/compression the internal pressures are so much higher it beats the motor to death. Simply stated boost increases the effective compression ratio of an engine. You stuff more air and fuel into the same space and blow it up...

 

Sorry to hear about this Andrew. I'd also suggest doing as much of a diagnosis as you can before you start taking things apart. The more information you can get ahead of time, the better it'll help you to make decisions on things like whether to pull the engine or just the head or heads. I'd definitely do at least a leakdown test. Keep in mind that the more you take apart, the more "while you're in there" stuff will come up for you to think about. It can be a pretty slippery slope once you start down that path.

With the different manifold and in intake configuration, it's more than likely going to be a different cylinder or cylinders than the stock manifold and intake configuration.