i replaced my head gasket on my car and now it blows just as much white and blue smoke and it barely runs at all and usually when i come to a stop it shuts off and i cant get it past 5000 rpm. is it a possibility that my head is warped? ...... i thought for sure i had it in time but could that be why it runs so bad. thanks for any help

First why would you think your head is warped. Do a compression test.

You might have it off a tooth or two. If the timing was was off you would have alredy bent your valves. Your rings could be gone and oil is getting past them and thats why your seeing smoke or your valve stem seals could be bad as well. We are going to need more info if you want some help.

beihl304 said:

i replaced my head gasket on my car and now it blows just as much white and blue smoke and it barley runs at all and usually when i come to a stop it shuts off and i cant get it past 5000 rpm. is it a possibity that my head is warped? ...... i thought for sure i had it in time but could that be why it runs so bad. thanks for any help

Click to expand...

blueish smoke is sometimes due to a valve seal leak. and did you place your head gasket on correctly?

What happens at 5000rpm? Does it stutter? Bog down? Do you have a CEL?

Also, check your coolant. Look in the overflow bottle. If it's got brown, slimy shit floating in it, then it's either residual from when the gasket went before or it's flipped right now, allowing oil and coolant to mix.

Definitely do a compression test.

it dont do anything unusuall at 5000 rpm it just wont go any higher when i am just reving it. but when i drive it, it pops and backfires. once i get the tools needed i am going to do a compression test and see whats up with that.

the car also overheats and when i look in the overflow bottle the coolant is still inside it which i think my thermostat may possibly be bad. i check the sensors and wires going to it and they seemed to be hooked up right. a

their is no check engine light either.

beihl304 said:

it dont do anything unusuall at 5000 rpm it just wont go any higher when i am just reving it. but when i drive it, it pops and backfires.

Click to expand...

That's text book plug wires. How old are your plug wires? I'll assume you installed new plugs when you did the head gasket. Seem like the popping and all that nonsense is worse under load? Can you gently accelerate and make the problem kinda go away at all?

beihl304 said:

once i get the tools needed i am going to do a compression test and see whats up with that.

Click to expand...

Compression tester is about $25 at Autozone.

beihl304 said:

the car also overheats and when i look in the overflow bottle the coolant is still inside it which i think my thermostat may possibly be bad.

Click to expand...

Next time the car is overheating like this, turn the heater on full blast and make sure you're getting hot air from the vents. If it comes and goes (or isn't hot at all), you could be low on coolant.

When the car is cooled off completely, have a jug of coolant mix ready, take off the radiator cap and start the car. Turn the heater on full blast and let the car run. If the coolant is low, add to it while the car is running. Just let the car continue to idle while you do this.

If your thermostat is working, you will eventually see the coolant flowing when it opens. There should always be coolant in the overflow bottle. When the car is hot, it pushes extra coolant into the bottle, but pulls it back into the radiator as things cool.

i did replace the spark plugs but not the wires. i set the gap to the size it said on alldata, but i was not sure if it should be a different gap since the car is now turboed. i checked if it had heat when my car was overheating and it had no heat at all. i cant take the radiator cap off and watch to see if it flows becuase the car will not stay running unless i am hitting the gas.
thanks for giving me info.

beihl304 said:

i did replace the spark plugs but not the wires. i set the gap to the size it said on alldata, but i was not sure if it should be a different gap since the car is now turboed.

Click to expand...

You running the one range cooler NGKs? The gap shouldn't make that much difference.

beihl304 said:

i checked if it had heat when my car was overheating and it had no heat at all.

Click to expand...

Do you have the heater core hooked up? Follow the coolant pipes running along the driver's side of the head, under the EGR tube. They lead to the two hoses that supply the heater core with hot coolant once the thermostat is open.

If you're not getting any heat through the heater core and those hoses are connected, then you're missing something somewhere or you are dangerously low on coolant.

beihl304 said:

i cant take the radiator cap off and watch to see if it flows becuase the car will not stay running unless i am hitting the gas.

Click to expand...

Good point. Considering a new thermostat is less than $7 at Autozone, you should just go pick one up and install it.

Also worth considering, and I'm surprised I didn't think of this sooner for the not running part of things, is the coolant temp sensor (CLT). Under the radiator cap are two sensors. One of them is just one wire. That one feeds your temp gauge in the instrument panel (IP). The other one - the one with multiple wires - is the one the ECU uses to determine engine temps. It uses this info to adjust fuel trims and shit. When it goes, and it goes a lot, people have all kinds of random, mystery problems.

So your shopping list for pay day is now:
$7 - thermostat
$25 - compression tester
$25 - CLT (maybe)

Be sure to pick up one of those Autozone cards. Once you've made five $20 trips in, you get $20 back on the card. I'll make three trips - one for each rotor and one for the pads. .

i got a compression tester today and did the test
each cylinder went to about 210psi and showed no signs of leaking.
could someone tell me what the compression tester eleminated that could have been a problem.
it is also clear that coolant is mixing in with my oil.
thanks

my check engine light also came on now.

dsmmatt28 said:

You might have it off a tooth or two. If the timing was was off you would have alredy bent your valves. Your rings could be gone and oil is getting past them and thats why your seeing smoke or your valve stem seals could be bad as well. We are going to need more info if you want some help.

Click to expand...

Not true! I drove my eclipse 11 miles before with timing off 2 teeth. If your losing power power under acceleration its an easy way to tell your timing is off.

Another thing that will limit your revs/RPMS' is a faulty MAP sensor.

Regardless though, if youre car is puffing blue and white smoke your are burning oil and coolant. I sure hope you didnt put your headgasket on backwards. Beleive me its been done .