Tom M'Guinn

Agreed. External coolant leaks are not normally the head gasket.

90s2

Well i am nowhere being qualified to tell you to not trust the shop BUT.

IF the coolant was leaking into the cylinder and fouling the plugs..you would have white smoke all the time out of the tailpipe.

White smoke in the a.m. first start is normal.

If the coolant leaks into the cylinders then you would have bad compression.

What tests have been done? is your oil ok? or has it mixed with the coolant turning into the infamous milkshake?

if the coolant to cylinder gasket is bad you can test this by putting a special strip under the overflow's tank cap that detects co2 indicating that the combustion gases are leaking into the coolant area.

well i guess find out what tests have lead them to assume a bad headgasket and go from there.

which cyl are leaking?

how much coolant are you loosing?

I am only questioning this because so far i have not heard anything that indicates a bad headgasket..to the contrary everything seems to indicate it is good..and plus i have been burned by miss diagnosing of similar "big jobs" taking the head off only to find out it was ok....
I.e. busted teeth on a S2's cams...head was fine only needed new cams

Tom M'Guinn

All good advice. Start by fixing the external leak.

35thSLP

I don't think your compression would be that good if you had a blown head gasket. does your oil look like chocolate milkshake? does the overflow tank belch out water when you shut the car off? I guess it is possible that it only blew between cylinders and did not breech the oil passages but I wouldn't think that would be very likely.

BlacknRedGT

hmm points all taken. I'm going to go over to the shop in the morning and see whats up. What is sure fire way for me to find out when I'm there?? What should I ask, etc etc,

-I just changed the oil and it looked fine (no milkshake)
-White smoke in the morning
-Coolant is leaking but from where? I have no clue
-Compression is good.

I guess the HG could be fine, I would hate to say that the shop is trying to screw me over or just cut corners but you never know.

BlacknRedGT

ohh would anyone that would be avail early tomorrow for me to call in case I really need some crunch time help.. lol

sharky47

Hey, I tried to return your call the other night - but got someone working late at your office.......

To answer your question, I think a well done renegade conversion is freaking aweseom - but only if it's done correctly. PM me or text message me a number I can get a hold of you after hours on, my cell doesn't work where I work, my only chance to catch up with people who call me during the day is at night.......

86951Turbo

pressurize the cooling system and observe the pressure. check to see if it is indeed loosing pressure. while the system is pressurized carefully look at all joints, clamps, hoses and thoroughly. long term leaks will leave evidence by coolant "snot" at source of leak. blown head gasket can be checked by analyzing the coolant with a tester to see if exhaust gas is entering the cooling system. snap-on offered this kit when i was a tech...maybe autozone carries something you could rent....dunno.

BlacknRedGT

Well I went by the shop to make 100% sure that the head gasket was the problem. Sure enough, there is coolant on the spark plug in one cylinder that you can visibly see. Im just going to have them do the the head gasket/front cam seal(I think thats what was leaking oil)/timing belt and rollers/and they are going to install my wideband A/F guage so I can see whats going on with that.

Now the questions is, why would my head gasket blow?? Im pretty sure I wasnt running anything over 16-17psi. Could I have been leaning out on hard runs towards the top end?

Tom M'Guinn

Yes, that's possible. How were you managing fuel for the extra boost?

lart951

in my 2nd 951, i managed to blow 4 head gaskets in one year period, after that I learned my lesson, I ran my 3rd 951 for 3 1/2 years @ 21psi and sometimes I ran up to 23psi with only 10% xylene added to 91 octane pump gas with no problems whatsoever.This is what I learned:

1) Never increase boost unless you are able to monitor your a/f ratio accurately
2) Never run over 11:7-11:9 under full boost.
3) don't let a chip maker tell you it is safe to increase your boost without a wb monitor or a dyno session, many things can make your car go lean , injectors, low voltage etc.

danny951

I'm curious when you say low voltage can make you go lean. Can you explain?

LFA951

At German Performance they told me $1K too, and the head job was $595 and the rest was $2,374, so don't believe everything they tell you just to get your car in their shop...

lart951

$ 2374.00 for a blown head gasket and a head job?

lart951

this is how i found out, after I dyno and tuned my car to a almost perfect air fuel ratio. I drove the car the next night and to my surprised the car was running lean. I went ahead and adjust the air fuel ratio with my power perfect, the day after in the morning I turned my car on and when I drove it the car and it was extremely rich. After diagnosing the maf and all it's components the problem was a faulty voltage regulator at first I thought it was bad ground but I added some extra grounds and the problem continue until I replaced the voltage regulator. I guess at night with the lights on the voltage decreased to a level below normal.