mikebarton

Hey guys,
I am having a burning coolant smell/ exhaust smell only under heavy acceleration. when the turbo kicks in or over 3000 rpms and accel fast/full accel. NO smoke, no mixing of coolant and oil, dipstick fine, coolant fine. not losing coolant.car runs great, no messy idle when starting. WHAT IS THIS SMELL coming from? ANY ideas? heater core? heater control valve(not even sure where those two things are)? I need ideas. I am praying its not a head gasket going.......thanks for any advice on what to look at...I am new to 944 turbo's so not real sure where to start looking. 1986 944 turbo. comp stock(for now)
Mike

Bill N

For me, it was head gasket. Hope you have better luck!

mikebarton

bill N , were your symtoms the exact same as mine? any differences?

eclou

headgasket is on the way out. Trust us

lart951

I had the same symptoms and indeed was my head gasket. At first it was the smell until one day coolant Poured out of my tail pipe, the next day I tried to turn the engine on but the # 4 cylinder was Hydro locked.

lart951

Btw, how many miles on the car and where are you located?

Tom M'Guinn

Mike, welcome to rennlist by the way! How long has it been doing this? If it is indeed coolant, then eventually the car will start running hot and/or the coolant level will go down. If the smell persists for a long time, with no cooling system issues, then it must be something else. Having said that, coolant overflow during heavy acceleration is a symptom of a bad HG. There are a few easy things to check. Pull the plugs and look to see if one looks unusually clean compared to the others -- that is a sign the HG is leaking into that cylinder and steam-cleaning the plug. Also, look for the skinny black overflow hose just under the coolant tank cap. Pull that up and route it into a clear plastic soda bottle. If you can drive around gently with no overflow spitting out, but get overflow as soon as you floor it, that suggests the HG is leaking under boost and pressurizing the cooling system (which pushes coolant out the overflow). See the head gasket R&R write up at my link below for more tips. Hope it something much simpler.

Bill N

Those are exactly the symptoms I was getting. Smell of coolant, and a drop in coolant level after "spirited" driving as the combustion forced coolant out of the system. I was getting no symptoms to suggest oil in the coolant, or vice versa.

mikebarton

Evertything is ok,,,,,,,,,,,it was my hatch not being closed all the way and when i accel hard the fumes where coming into the car through the hatch, thank god, thanks for all your input though guys,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,headgasket $ money going towards wheels now

eclou

Now you have done it. Jinxed yourself.

Tom M'Guinn

Your exhaust smells like coolant?

lart951

LOL, i was thinking the same thing. if your exhaust fumes smell like coolant, you Definitively have a blown head gasket.

mikebarton

no it doesnt smell like coolant, just the concentrated exhaust gases under accel were coming into my hatch and IT was so strong that it just made me instantly think coolant out of worry. I had a porsche mech stand behind the exhaust while i gave full throttle and he said it was just normal exhaust smell. not coolant burning. Am i nuts? lol

Tom M'Guinn

No, that's par for the course. I once had a piece of furniture in my rear hatch area, and had to drive 15 miles with the hatch half open. The car was running rich -- by the time I got home my dash gauges had turn into the faces of Moe, Larry, and Curly, and were arguing politics with Italian accents. Gotta watch those exhaust fumes...