dizzyj

Long story short. rebuilt my head, installed it, and now I get water in my tailpipe after the car sits and it smokes when it initially warms up.

if you drive it, get it under boots etc, the car runs fine and stops smoking and no more water comes out of the tail pipe, but after it sits, cools down etc, then the symptoms return.

oil looks good, coolant looks good. I'm not loosing any noticeable amount of coolant. Doesnt seem like a blown head gasket.

I pressurized my coolant tank to 15psi (after engine was warm) and after an hour or so, it had dropped down to 12. I could not see any noticeable amount of water in the cylinders, but its really hard to see, even with a boroscope.

we bypassed the water to the turbo to rule that out.

my theory is that I have a very very slight leak. when the car is under load, its not noticable, and the water just vapors. but after it sits, the water then pools. When I start it the next time, I now have a pool of water in my exhaust to burn off.

the only place water can get into my exhaust is from the head/head gasket, correct?

What would you do at this point? put on a new head gasket? re-torque the head? looking for ideas. I have a DE at cota in 3 weeks and really want to take this car vs my street car.

Rogue_Ant

Water out of the tailpipe is completely normal.
In-fact, water is a normal by-product of combustion. When the exhaust is cold, the water condenses and is noticeable. After the exhaust gets warm, the water stays vaporized and is not as noticeable.

dizzyj

this seems excessive tho, and does not go away by idleing.

slivel

Before starting the cold engine, pull your spark plugs and crank the engine over a few revolutions with an observer. If you see coolant shoot out of any of the spark plug holes, you have a head gasket leak or cracked head. Did you use an MLS gasket or traditional? MLS are sensitive to surface prep and can seep. Most likely though, just a symptom of cold running as Joshua described.
With just a few revolutions probably not a problem, but for additional safety, you can pull your injector connectors off to prevent any raw fuel from being introduced into the cylinders.
If you do have a leak, you don't want enough coolant to collect and cause a hydrolock condition so you definitely should determine what you have going on.

dizzyj

I have an o ringed head and used a widefire gasket. followed the torque specs on clarks garage.

Tom M'Guinn

Where are you located and what's the weather like? I've seen brand new cars make impressive steam clouds in the right weather. If you drive 30 miles or so on the freeway, then let it idle, will it still steam at idle? Have you checked for froth in the oil filler? Is the coolant tank getting pressurized when you drive the car and/or is the coolant in the tank all frothy/sudsy looking? Why did you take the head off in the first place and did you change the oil seals at the same time? If drops of water are coming out tailpipe, catch them on a white paper towel and see if they have a coolant smell or coloring. If it is coolant, eventually the coolant level will go down or you'll notice the need to vent out air pockets. The cooling system should hold 15psi for an hour really, but the pressure drop you saw is as likely to be the seal of the tester itself as it is an actual leak. Is the oil level remaining constant? Everybody likes videos -- might be worth posting one....

dizzyj

Im in Texas. It was 65 and sunny yesterday.

Oil is clean, water does not have oil In it. Does not seem like a traditional blown head gasket
Coolant does not get pressurized over 15 psi
No noticable coolent loss from reservoir.
I cannot take it out on the freeway due to it not being street legal, but after trolling in my neighborhood with big hills the smoke went away (after gassing out the neighborhood) and did not come back at idle. Only after the engine cooled down did it come back

If it was not for the fact that an hour of ideling did not clear it out and how bad the smoke is I would not think I have a problem

My concern is getting black flagged on grid as the car is ideling

I'll try to get some video

Tom M'Guinn

If it's coolant, you'll notice it missing eventually. And coolant vaporizes -- sure it isn't oil? Let's see the video.

mahoney944

Do you happen to have your cat removed to a straight pipe? When I had my head work done including a full machine of the head and a commetic gasket, new lindsey 4in exhaust and a super 65 turbo, I noticed a very similiar situation to what you are saying. After my car had been sitting over night and when I start it up, I get some water that comes out the tail pipe and it invertantly picks up some carbon from the inside of the pipe and spits it out until the car warms up (kind of like flinging water at someone with your fingers). Im running a dry turbo and all my seals are new or like new, and Im not loosing fluids or mixing any. One of my conclusions is that the natural water vapor in exhaust, that were mentioned earlier, cool and pools up in the crossover due to its "U" shape it traps it in place. Then when you start it after sitting, the exhaust flow pushes this out of the exhaust, normally a cat would cause a slight restriction for the water vapor to catch on and evaporate due to the heat in the pipe, with no cat it freely flows out before it has time to evaporate. To make a point here this should only be a minor thing if you are experiencing excessive smoking or a stream of water flowing you may have a bigger issue. Some things I did, that seemed to reduce this even more was typical tune up things wires, plugs, dis cap / rotor, a big one on the list "fuel injectors" (incorrect mixtures make incorrect exhaust), and checking all the vac lines. I also found that by doing a venturri delete and removing the charcol canister and respective vac line system really helped clean up the idle and simplified the vac lines for easy simple management. if your not losing fluids those are some other things to look at to help the car run smoother and therefore make more pure exhaust.

dizzyj

definitely not oil or gas. got confirmation from someone very knowledgeable. Since it didnt seem like a head gasket, we figured water to the turbo, so we bypassed that.

btw, I dont run coolant, just water and water wetter.

the vid doesnt really convey yhe amount of smoke

kev951

I'm sure you are aware that with and oringed head , the factory torque spec is no longer used....??

dizzyj

I did 15ft 90 90

what should it be?

Carlsbergas

Mine does the same thing in summer. But when it gets cold in winter, I get a wall of steam untill car warms up

dizzyj

ok, now THAT looks like what my car is doing. thats normal? how long till it warms up? at idle? or do you have to drive it?

rlm328

Mine was blowing a fine mist about 10-ft out the back until it warmed up yesterday. We have had a lot of humidity the last couple of weeks. I am in Houston and it definitely does not the climate change.