Car Wash vs. 4g63

[324vr4]

I went to the car wash the other day on the GVR4 and washed the engine bay to rid it from an old oil leak that caused everything to be coated...anyways, I drove it for about 20 min prior to washing it and the temps outside were fair at 55 and a beautiful sunny day. I parked inside the wash bay and opened the hood and started rinsing off the motor without pressing the nozzle for just it's low pressure spray...I cleaned the VC area and head and the firewall and k-member without thinking the water might infiltrate the motor...I let it dry for about 10 min and hopped back in and went for another quick drive about 5 miles to "dry" the outside of the car and whatnot...as I started to slow and turn off I noticed an abundance of white smoke billowing out of the tail pipe.. At first I thought it was only dust but noticed it more once driving home. So I assumed I sucked in some water in the turbo inlet and would let it dry before I drove much more...

Yesterday I went back to see if everything was okay (car washed a week before) and started it up and after about a minute I saw more white smoke and held my hand at the exhaust exit and saw water all over my hand...so my buddy and I took off the turbo intake pipe and saw that it was fine and spun freely and was clean so I knew that wasn't the problem. We took the VC off and instantly noticed water on the head all over...looking like it was infiltrated from the crusty VC gasket. We drained a little oil out of the oil pan and also notice a little bit of water in that too and will be draining that ASAP so the bearings retain their strength and cleanliness but my question is how that hell did the water infiltrate the combustion chamber?! On a side note we had a couple rubber blockers cracked off the IM and that may have been another spot where the water got in but besides draining the contaminated oil and putting new thicker stuff in to coat everything again, is there anything else besides a leak down test we can try to help determine where this water is coming from?! The radiator is still full and so that's why I'm HOPING its not the head gasket but this is on a new motor with less than 600 miles on it. We have a MLS head gasket and will look to make sure its all torqued within spec but this would be our 2nd time re-torquing and checking the ARP head bolts.

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know what my options are and what to look for...thanks in advance!

-Lieb-

 

[knochgoon24]

So you rebuilt the engine 600 miles ago and the VC gasket is already "crusty"? And what "rubber blockers" are you talking about?

 

[324vr4]

The motor was rebuilt a couple years ago and we have about 600 miles on the new build. The VC gasket was never replaced thus being crusty and the rubber blockers...needs to be rephrased to rubber stoppers...rubber covers that are zip tied over the intake manifold vacuum ports...those are now fixed and the idle is MUCH smoother but still trying to figure our the reason for the water being in the head...

 

[romeen]

Do a boost leak test. If water can get into the intake or combustion chamber then certainly air will be getting out. Injector seals, IC coupler, TB gasket, etc.

If the VC gasket was crusty then it sounds like you already figured out where the water that was sitting on top of the head came from.

Needless to say, do a compression test.

 

[rich3389]

You are supposed to make sure the engine is cool before you spray cool water on it.
I have bets that the head is warped from spraying it down hot with cold water.

 

[324vr4]

I hope the head deck isn't warped...the motor was NOT operating temp when the water was used to rinse off the motor; the water was also warm so hope that isn't the case...needless to say I think I'm in need of a boost leak test along with a leak down test. I did notice at lunch that the injector seals are all sorts of cracked but not much fuel seems to have leaked out...needless to say, once those and the other boost leaks are remedied we should have a better understanding of what's going on...thanks for your advice.

Went and worked on the car last night. We did a leak down test and our head-gasket is definitely not the issue with why water is exiting the exhaust upon start-up/idling...water was getting in thru the spark plug reservoirs and the plugs were not as tight as they needed to be so we re-tightened everything and started it up with our fingers crossed. No smoke at start up but after 2 min of running it started pouring out the rear end. Checked the radiator levels and noticed it had dropped about 1/4" from the top of the core so we're going to do two things. Replace the oil return hose from the turbo to the oil pan (its beginning to pinch and not sure if the size used is enough to allow proper flow), and I believe the turbo has a cracked housing thus the reason for water exiting the exhaust. So that's what was found out...not too happy but not as mad as I thought knowing the head-gasket is intact for the time being.

I didn't think to look to see if the plugs were tight or not but certainly there was some water on the threads and the fact that water entered the combustion chamber from there makes sense now after the spirited driving prior to this problem; along with a car wash. If anyone has a used "good" condition 16g or even a 14b available we are now in pursuit of one. Thanks for the help...

 

[rEclipserGST]

You are supposed to make sure the engine is cool before you spray cool water on it.
I have bets that the head is warped from spraying it down hot with cold water.

I'm going to say no. As much heat that is produced in the engine bay alone, I doubt it would warp by adding water to it. Its not that flimsy, nor is there an imense cooling process to rapidly cool down the head or motor with normal water anyway.

If your going to spray down your engine, your suppose to make sure the engine is on. That way the water evaporates almost instantly. Not to mention, water boils at 112 degrees. The motor is in the 200 range for degrees

I'm going to guess you never owned yourself by spraying down your "cooled down" engine before.

 

[97gst_spyder]

What? Water does not boil at 112*F...

The boiling point of water is 100 °C (212 °F) at standard pressure. On top of Mount Everest the pressure is about 260 mbar (26.39 kPa) so the boiling point of water is 69 °C. (156.2 °F).

 

[Mrdrd_Laser]

You are supposed to make sure the engine is cool before you spray cool water on it.
I have bets that the head is warped from spraying it down hot with cold water.

X2, i've seen people warp heads from adding cold water into the radiator of a hot motor, so I can imagine spraying the whole thing down with cold water wouldnt help any

 

[rEclipserGST]

What? Water does not boil at 112*F...

Okay. No one stated the operating temperature of our motors... Even if it is 212 degrees... my statement still stands with the water evaporating. Car wash water is NOT COLD. So I still do not get why people are talking about warping the head. I'm going to need a video for me to believe this... unless of course a Chemist comes in and backs someones statement.