Using too much coolant and smoking.

[El_Wood]

Okay My car has been using a ton of coolant. If I drive it i need to always add coolant and the whole system gets crazy pressure and overflows the overflow tank. I'm also getting alot of smoke on WOT pulls and some times at idle. I'm leaning towards a head gasket which I ordered and should be here Tuesday. So does anybody think it could be something else or would changing the HG be my best bet at solving this issue.
Thanks

 

[blktalon3]

If it's white smoke it's a pretty sure bet it's the head gasket.

 

[KING4ADAY]

sounds like head gasket, maybe think about getting metal head gasket this time??

 

[El_Wood]

I'm just getting a felpro HG unless everyone strongly suggest a mls or cometic. Should I also get arp head studs or would my stock ones do just fine?

 

[KING4ADAY]

stock will be fine

 

[El_Wood]

Well I got Arp head studs on ebay last night and hopefully everything will be shipped and here by friday so I can start pulling the head. Thanks for all the input.

 

[blueboost68]

check the surface of the head to make sure its flat

 

[Black95awd]

check the surface of the head to make sure its flat

I would check this however it probably is fine unless it has been severely overheated.


My vote is for head gasket, I would stick with a composite one unless you are going to have the head surfaced.

 

[El_Wood]

I am planning on having the head surfaced and milled if it needs it. I want a nice clean seal so I don't end up doing this again in the near future. Will this keep my car from overheating and pressurizing if the HG is the problem or am I going to need to upgrade my coolant system?

 

[ckrummy]

The overflow tank problem is probably a cut line on the overflow tube because the cooling system sucks coolant back in when it cools down and if there is no vacuum to draw it back in to the radiator. i would change the line. hope it helps

 

[El_Wood]

I got the head removed and sure enough the my HG was trashed. I had three spots where I was leaking compression into the water holes and my number 2 and 3 cylinders where blowing into each other. It took 12 thousandths to get the head flat. I did however find out that my cylinders were bored .50 over though. But besides the HG everything else looked great.

 

[El_Wood]

Well my timing belt tensioner broke so I spent most of the day in a salvage looking for one, got home finished everything up started the car and it had a rough idle. I took it around the block and it was sputtering and vibrating horribly with no power so I pulled it back in the garage and checked the compression. 110,100,125,30 WTF!?!?!. So now I am guessing that when it blew the HG and overheated I fried rings too. So now what?! Is there any trick to restoring compression so i can drive the car for two weeks so I can get paid and tear it down to replace the rings?

 

[toofast82]

Well my timing belt tensioner broke I took it around the block and it was sputtering and vibrating horribly with no power so I pulled it back in the garage and checked the compression. 110,100,125,30 WTF!?!?!.

If the tensioner broke while it was running, there's a good chance you bent some valves.
Did you add oil after you did the test and retest to see if the numbers went up? This would point to an issue with the rings if they go up.

 

[El_Wood]

If the tensioner broke while it was running, there's a good chance you bent some valves.
Did you add oil after you did the test and retest to see if the numbers went up? This would point to an issue with the rings if they go up.

No the tensioner was just worn out it broke before I re-installed it. and yeah I did a cap full of oil in each and compression went up. So fml I guess I will be back at it again shortly.

 

[Calan]

BTW - Do you really want to bet your engine's life on a timing belt tensioner that you pulled from a junkyard? Yours failed...why shouldn't one that's been sitting out in the crap for who knows how long?

Buy only NEW OEM Mitsu timing components, and replace all of them when you tear into it. Hopefully you didn't damage a cylinder, because you are right at the limit of the bore size. (You could probably get to .060, but that is pushing it IMO.

Good luck!