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Headgasket Help!

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mnetwork

15+ Year Contributor
1,017
2
Feb 25, 2006
New Milford, New_Jersey
I just finished my headgasket and I'm having three weird issues...

1.) Vibration (SOLVED) - The engine seems to transfer more vibration than ever before. It isn't the craziest vibration, but it is more than before

2.) Exhaust Steam (ENDED ON IT'S OWN) - There seems to be a bit of steam coming out of the exhaust. When the headgasket first blew, you could see A LOT of whitish steam/smoke and you could see drips of water/coolant coming out of the exhaust. It isn't shooting drops at all, but it is a bit humid.

3.) Idle (ENDED ON IT'S OWN) - The first two starts of the car, it idled perfectly. When I was driving it before it was idling weird, it was idling at around 1500. This is by far the least of my concerns, but just wanted to put it out there to see if it could be related.

Shoot me some ideas, where should I go from here?
 
Most likely it is a major boost leak. Just do a boost leak, compression and leak down test. And make sure you have the coil-pack, spark plug wire to spark plug setup in the right order.
 
Most likely it is a major boost leak. Just do a boost leak, compression and leak down test. And make sure you have the coil-pack, spark plug wire to spark plug setup in the right order.

Just checked a few more things.. pulled all the plugs. All plugs were dry, no water/oil. I also checked the oil. There aren't any signs of water in the oil. I still have to do a boost leak test, but that would only really affect the idle issue. The idle issue is the least of my concerns...
 
How much is 'more' vibration? I wouldn't concern myself with 2 & 3 since it's probably just a mechanical issue (ie boost leaks, etc.). To be 100%, I would suggest taking the covers off and making sure your timing is still in spec.
 
It's a good amount more... The car was always rough due to poly mounts of course, but my friend and I noticed that there was definitely more. Unlike before when vibrations would be most at a certain RPM, this seems to go up with RPMs to an extent.
 
And I posted up the smoke because I was scared the headgasket wasn't sealing... I'm going to try to drive it around a lot today. Continue to post ideas and I will post back with what I do/find...


...And just out of curiosity how would it feel if the balance shaft was out of timing?
 
Update!

Ok, I re-torqued the head while it was cold because it had already had a few heat cycles. Nothing was loose, a few turned only a hair. Started up the car, there is no more white smoke/steam. It was very humid and cool out last night so I'm sure that amplifed it plus there was probably a lot of crap left in the exhaust. The idle issue is random, I still have to do boost leak tests so I'm not worried about that.

The vibration issue still remains. I actually took the car for a bunch of pulls on the highway with lower boost (16-17psi). The car pulls nice and you don't feel the vibration as much at high rpms as you do low. Any ideas on this?
 
I just read through everything again.. I don't think I timed the oil sprocket right... I know for a fact the timing mark lined up, but I think the balance shaft is out of phase like MIdsm said... I'm going to try to re-time the motor right now, I'll post up my results...
 
Yes, even though the sprocket is 'in time' it does not mean it is necessarily 'in phase'. When you have it off, spin the arrow on the sprocket to the 12 o'clock position and let the sprocket go. If it falls CW it is out of phase (spin it 360 and try again), if it falls CCW, it's in phase.
 
Yes, even though the sprocket is 'in time' it does not mean it is necessarily 'in phase'. When you have it off, spin the arrow on the sprocket to the 12 o'clock position and let the sprocket go. If it falls CW it is out of phase (spin it 360 and try again), if it falls CCW, it's in phase.

Just redid the timing belt and that was exactly the case, motor revs smooth like it always did... but now there is a new last problem. I keep getting a puddle on my valve cover mostly on the left side (although I think the side is caused by gravity) and it seems to sling up on my hood a little bit during hard pulls. I don't know where it is coming from, at first I thought it was the valve cover gasket so I torqued it down even more and it still did it... Any ideas?
 
Well I had two large cracks in my valve cover close to the cam gears... replaced it with one I had laying around... all is well...
 
Just had another update... I totally fixed the idle issue today. The throttle cable was off adjustment by a HAIR. Re-adjusted it and all is well. :thumb:
 
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