wschmidt

I have a 93 LT1 that has a bit of a popping sound coming from the passenger side tail pipe. My exhuast is stock from the cats back, the cats are removed and I have long tube headers. Does the exhaust gas from each head mix in the resonator on the stock system? Can I diagnose the passenger side of the engine with the passenger side of the exhaust? When I first start it up, there is a lot of visible vapor coming from the passenger side, and not so much on the drivers side. It smells like normal exhaust on start up, not oil or antifreeze. There is about double the amount of exhuast flowing from the passenger side if I put my hands on each tail pipe. At cold, the popping sound is not present, it only becomes present after it is warmed up. The visible vapor goes away after it is warmed up.

In the engine bay, I can smell coolant and I think it looks like there is some leaking from the head gasket between the head and block. I did a leak down on the coolant system and it held pressure, but I do lose some coolant, I drove it all Summer and ended up adding about a quart or so of coolant to the overflow container (The reservoir has never gotten low) about a month ago, so it isnt leaking that much. I did a compression test in the Spring and everything was 185 psi +/-1-2psi.

My question is, what is up with my exhaust, why more pressure out of the passenger pipe than the drivers? What would cause the exhaust to pop at idle? It is a pop every 1-2 seconds, kind of sounds like there is water trapped in there somewhere. Is it indicative of something in the engine? How can I better diagnose my head gasket? It really isnt worth tearing the whole thing apart (and resisting the temptation to spend lots of money on upgrades)if I only have a slight leak from one of my water journals to the outside and it isnt affecting my cylinder pressure at all.

383vett

I would start by changing the plugs and wires. The exhaust gasses are mixed in the resonator so it would be hard to diagnose a problem comparing exhaust side to side. If you are concerned about a possible head gasket, a leakdown test will help. A bad injector or burnt valve can also cause a popping exhaust. A bad head gasket will usually leak inside the motor, cylinder to cylinder or cylinder to coolant passenger, not outside the block. Good luck.

leesvet

With the mono-middle exhaust there is no way that you can say the engine has issues on one side or the other....how? all the exhaust comes from a single pipe. It does not stay to its own side.

You can have rot inside a muffler thats exaggerating some minor engine sound. A qt of coolant in a summer of driving? When its a qt of coolant everyday, worry. Not before. Caps leak, coolant levels are somewhat lower than we THINK because when the coolant COOLS is contracts...so there MUST be sdome room for expansion. This takes place long before any exchange between the rad & recovery bottle.

Pull the plugs and look at each and catalog where they came from. Thats how you ID a cyl with a possible issue...

Beyond that, you have a muffler broken or rotted inside. One one side.