Popped Head Gasket???

[Wicked96GS-T]

First some background: My built GSX has been running 26-ish psi for about 9 months now with no problems, an I spent 2 hours last week completely fine tuning the car and re-tuned it on 23 psi. Everything was great, the car picked up more power than it had on 26 psi, and it felt great. I had an odd issue when driving, in that when I would turn my heat on, it would not be very hot, then it would be normal, then back to not hot again off and on. I figured the heater core was slightly clogged and I would flush it out when I had time. Fast forward to today.

Okay, I was on my way back to college at Virginia Tech in my GSX, and about an hour into the trip, I started having some problems. I was on the highway and looked down to see my temp gauge jumping up to about 3/4 of the way to hot, so I immediately shut down the car, and by the grace of God, rolled off the road to a gas station. I spent 30 minutes trying to figure out what the hell was going wrong, and when I turned my key to the run position, the fans didn't come on. I was about to pull the thermostat out thinking it had become stuck, and pulled it out to realize...oh shit...there was not much coolant. None even ran out of the thermostat housing. I figured, well, I haven't checked the antifreeze level in a while, and maybe it had a slow leak. But it also did not pull fluid from the overflow tank, it was nearly full to the top.

A kind man gave me some 50/50 antifreeze mix, and the car took nearly a gallon to get back to full. I figured I would be fine, and started the car to see it back to normal, steady temps. So I drive about 2.5 hours more and yup, the gauge is climbing again even with the heat on full blast as I notice it getting a little hotter than normal. Then I get a check engine light for random misfire and had to pull the car over on a dangerous stretch of intersection to let it cool off. Once it did, I had to add maybe 3/4 of a gallon of water to the car yet again. I made it home to my apartment, and never noticed any hint of white smoke behind me, and am a little perplexed. Could it be that my head gasket has blown into one of the coolant passages? I did a compression check for the hell of it a few days ago, and the numbers were 160 psi (1st gen n/a 7-bolt block, 2g head) across the board with the cylinder closest to the timing belt maybe 5 psi low, if that.

So my question is, where to go from here. I looked under the car, and there is no leak. While idling, there is no smoke at all out of the tail pipe. Where is all this coolant going? Please give me some insight on where to go from here. sorry for the long post, but I think details help to diagnose the problem more accurately.


-Devin

 

[Wicked96GS-T]

Update: I just drained a little oil out, and it is not milky.

 

[JUANPSI]

I would have a leak down test done on the motor and the coolant system pressure tested.

Juan

 

[Wicked96GS-T]

Well, the car puts out white smoke under boost according to my girlfriend who I had watch my car go down the road.

 

[chrisfullwood]

is it possible to be leaking coolant through the turbo(kind of a question/suggestion as ive never heard of it happening, but im sure its possible)?

i would imagine if your headgasket had gone you would see a drop in compression.

i would definately do a cooling system pressure test. Is there any sign of leakage from the waterpump? an old car of mine had a leaking waterpump for the longest time, but i never found a leak until it finally went out, and poured coolant over the driveway.

silly suggestion for some, but how old is your radiator cap? its possible for some to boil off that way. i know its silly, but you'd be suprised how many people (including myself) forget these little items.