Coolant in engine bay, perfect compression..andmore

[turboglenn]

Well, tonight i took a friend for a spirited 1st, 2nd,3rd through mid 4th pull..

when we got to my house there was no smoke (never was) never even was a smell of coolant. BUT there was coolant around my overflow (-6 fitting was hand tight though???) but also itwas behind that area on the trans,battery and IC pipes. There wasn't a ton, just sprinkling.

During investigation we found the "bypass"line for coolant since the holset doesn't run any to be lightly "bubbling" and tightened it to now real solution (bad fitting i guess)..

We pulled the plugs and #4 piston was a little wet on top but the plug was fine.. I idled it for a second and still wet.. so i went for a cruise around the block in "closed loop" and there was just a touch of remining dampness in a FEW spots.

I did a compresion test and that cylinder was 185, and the rest were all above 180 and below 186.

The car doesn't run bad but i can't figure out if it was the loose overflow line to the aluminum -6 fitted overflow can, was it the "bubbling bypass line", or was my head gasket leaking some under boost?

Ihave normal ARPs' torqued normal and cannot afford even a 32 dollar HG right now (i've got a few weeks of work but the time i spent out of town for my grnadmotthers death killed me financially)

I was thinking to retighten the head bolts in the morning just to see, but other than tightening the other lines and hoping i don't see any more i still wonder why that piston could be wet..it didn't smell or taste like coolant fromwhat i could dip a piece of hose into and pull out (light film) and itdid burn off..we never hit over 30psi and 16* timing on E85 so i feel iwas on a safe tune but that doesn't mean enything

Anyone who's HAD THIS PROBLEM or dealt with it please help. i can think od all the normal "bad HG. bla bla bla on my own "

also,the car NEVER got hot, never smoked or smelled like coolant even at the exhaust tested by a few of us that are "car guys" thisone has mestumped@!!

on another note: say i got some L19's or whatever, and repolaced themone at a time like putting ARPs in place of stock.. and thing about that which would be different froing to OEMto plain ARP's

update, water in oil.blownj head gasket time for L19's) but what gasket should i get.. I can't get the block surfaced as i need the car, nor the head really ((was surfaced this summer0


did the head just lift maybe and i can just do l19's and a composite gasket? I dont' think i have the surface for an MLS

 

[talondave]

Im sure you'll be fine to just do the l19 and felpro composite swap, I've done it a few times with success. I would at least check the surface on the head before installing, if its more then 0.003 out, i wouldn't put it on, i would have it surfaced. The tolerance for a felpro composite is around 0.003 that you can get away with.

 

[turboglenn]

Well it was the head gasket and pretty bad too. (read thread about choosing gasket below this one)

Being in an extreme amount of pain it's taken most of the day to get the head and block checked out, get a gasket and other things like oil and get toputting it bacl together.

So far i have the head on with the Cyclone dual runner intake, the manifold is held on by one bolt and the head studs are only torqued to about 30 ft/lbs (had to rest my bones)

I still need to do the timing, finish torqueing the head, and install the easy stuff like IC pipes and stuff but those are easy compared to timing the engine

BogusSVO gave me some good tips and i hope it was just a fluke being i had one head stud that was looser than the rest where the "lift" happened.

I can't wait to try out the cycling though (i'm stoked for that)

I won't be able to fill it with coolant till tomorrow but i'm in too much pain to drive anyway and i still need to flush the block and coolant system after it's all assembled

I took the time to tuck a few more wires during the fix and am gonna have to move my AFPR because of the added length of the cyclone but that's no big deal (what sucks is it put me behind on work )

I re-used the same ARP's and went with a fail-pro permatorque composite gasket (again) Timing one of these engines has to be my least favorite thing, I can R&R a head faster than getting to all those pulleys and taking them off,setting timing and putting them back on. I also TIG'ed up the holes where the turbo coolant lines use to be since the holset doesn't use them (clean things up)

I'malso gonna finish the polish on my other VC with -8 vents and use that this go too. I had hoped to re-install an EGR for the mile per gallon increase but the cyclone has no provision, but oh well!

When this is finally done i think imay turn the timing down a bit and see what it behaves like,but i still want to believe it wasthe loose stud... But the info fromBogus SVO has me worried, I used his "block and paper" trick to "lap" the surfaces and there didn't seem to be any low spots which was good, so hopefully i just lifted it (the car was pulling harder than it EVER had last night when the coolant sprayed)

I guess tuning for the dual runner manifold will take sometime but that's no biggies, i'll just log and adjust while out doing errands this week. (anyone wanna come timethe engine for me PLEASE?)

Istill may order some H11's and see if they helphold the head better even on the fail=pro gasket just for added insurance. but timeand money will tell. I'd really like to get the block and head surfaced for an MLS but in my pain and low budget that will probably be after the mayan calender runs out

I did decide one thing though, ALL friends are now PAYING customers, no more "helping a buddy" because i run to them when they need help and it took 7 hours to get ONE guy to answer and come help both (most answer then stop answering- assholes!!!!!)

well, i'll update more later