Kris_K

I took the 454 out for a drive this afternoon. First I noticed a little hesitation upon acceleration. I didn't think much of it because the engine was cold. I pull off the highway after about 45 minutes of driving and at the first red light I notice my temp gauge at 210 when it never goes over 180. I also notice the oil pressure gauge is pegged at 70, it's usually around 35-40. I pull over, lift the hood and see milky oil seeping out of the pcv valve opening and the oil cap. I pull the dipstick and of course it's milky too.

Obviously coolant has made it's way onto the oil but at least I don't have any white smoke from the tailpipes as I thought I would have.

I had it towed home and now I need help. Based on the above do you think I have a blown head gasket, cracked blocked, or something else?

I don't know much about the engine other than it was advertised as a NOM and has Edelbrock heads.

stumpshot

Don't know nothin' 'bout 'nothin, especially big blocks but my money would be on a head gasket. Possibly a blown intake gasket. Either way, you will need to pull the intake to get to the heads. Sounds like a lot of coolant went into the oil if that's what jacked the pressure up. Probably time to start dragging out the wrenches!
Let us know what you find.
I'm crossing my fingers for you.
Stump

Big2Bird

If you got enough coolant in the sump to change oil pressure, that mud was pumped all over the place. Since mud does not lubricate well, and you need to clear it all out and solve the issue, I would take it out and have it rebuilt. The bearings turn to crap real quick. The sooner, the better chance of saving what you have. My 2 cents.

ddawson

Sounds like a head gasket to me too.

Pull the heads to verify. Hopefully it didn't over heat and crack anything.

stumpshot

Back in the late 60's I had a 305 that was notorious for blowing head gaskets and dumping water in the pan. I first re torqued the heads, hoping to get lucky, but never did. After checking the bolts I drained all the oil and coolant and changed the gaskets. By that time a day had gone by with water in the oil. With the new gaskets in, I put the cheapest 30 wt oil in I could find, put in coolant and ran the engine up to almost overheat with cardboard over the radiator to try and boil the water out of the internals. That rig ran another 10 years without any bottom end damage after having water in the pan at least 3 times.
just my experiences with small blocks.
Stump

THE 383 admiral

Woow sorry to hear. About. yet, another shady sales deal.

kossuth

First things first pull your oil filter and if you dont have a filter cutting tool either get one or see if the local speed shop/machine shop has one that they would cut open the filter for you. See if you have any bearing material in the filter. If you do there is no sense in even digging into it, the motor would have to come out.

If the filter is clean pull your plugs and see if coolant is in the combustion chambers. Look at your plugs. Are they steam cleaned? Also do a quick compression test with the plugs out. If everything checks out ok then I’d bet on it being an intake leak and not a head gasket. Still could be a head but now you can be reasonably certain. If there is a head gasket issue there is obviously alittle more work involved but as long as the motor didnt start munching itself, and you can get the slurry mostly out it shouldn't need to totally come out.

speedreed8

5 years ago. 😣

derekderek

this looks like related threads strikes again. 383 admiral wasn't saying anything about this 454 issue. was talking about 94 opti-soark LT1's.