OK, 4 years ago or so I put on a set of aluminum Edelbrock heads...and had an Edel aluminum L98 DPFI intake manifold on the setup also before and since then.....well, the car has been using some water recently...I tightened up hoses and put in some stop leak just for assurance....
well it's not that easy....doing a small errand today the engine blew a head gasket??? not sure....even yet, but heads are coming off tmrw if not tonight...

anyway, the question is....the OIL in the sump is clean and clear....and right level....

the valve covers....BOTH of them are lined with a chocolate vanille mousse looking cream crap.....oily water mess....

the intake manifold gaskets are complete clean and showing NO problems...
the intake manifold itself was covered underneath with the same mousse as the valve covers....and that windage plate attached under the manifold was full of the same water/oil mousse.....

I finally pumped pressure into the #8 cylinder with valves closed....and it leaked one hell of a lot of air back up the intake passage.....OK, that fit the pattern of my struggle getting it back home....#8 header tube was boiling out water!!! go figger.....

thing that's got ME is.....OK,....head??? block??? gasket????
or possibly the Edel intake manifold has leakage from water into the inducton passages....it's a complicated casting, but I can't find anything....

I just thought it weird the TOP end of the engine would be lined with this mousse crap, and the sump would look clear oil....makes nearly NO sense....

what do you all think???

last time I had a cat butt trophic problem it was just filling the sump with water, so the oil was very high and chocolte mousse foamy....but NOT this time......last time it was my '87 vette...aluminum heads and intake...NOW it's the same arrangement but Edel heads and intake....

best guess welcome!!!!

getting ready to pull heads anyway...but need wisdon here too....
most of my experiences are with iron headed V8's.....or aluminum 4 bangers...little with aluminum headed V8's....

GENE

 

Gene, this is one of those look and see things that you will just have to pull it down and check everything to see. I wouldn't attempt to guess from here.

What I wanted to remind you was that when you go to get gaskets remember to get an Aluminum Head Gasket like GM recommends to put it back together with. Did you use this type of gasket to put it together with when you built it?

Good luck, I hope it is only a gasket to replace and that is bad enough. JIM

 

Bum - errr !! :mad

All I can think of is that the 'leak' that you had may have been small enough
to just let a little steam into the crankcase, where it combined with the oil and
condensed on the top end of things (like steam can do).

The cause and source of the leak: I hope YOU can tell US soon.
Good luck, Gene. :seeya

 

Well, guys, I got the heads off this morning....and only thing I can see is a blown head gasket, number 8 right into the cylinder...and piston top clean as hell, rest are carboned up....as usual...nothing massive....
pisses me off, all that L98 crap to take apart....
frankly, I"m putting iron heads back on.... don't want to bother with the poor reliablility of aluminum anymore....
heads are for sale....

GENE

 

 

Gene, How much for the heads? JIM

 

I'm a little puzzled here... The headgasket failed so you will not use aluminum heads anymore? Why not use a better headgasket? My 96 Z28 has 66k miles of city driving, roadracing and over 100 dragstrip runs on it and the motor is fine. The vette is going on 3 years with alu heads and no problems. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with aluminum...

 

If aluminum heads were unreliable, why has G.M. put them on every vette made since 1987- Just my 2cents!

 

To use aluminum heads or any head for that matter. You need to insure that both the block and head surfaces are true. Aluminum is very criticle of correct TQ down. You also are supposed to retorque them once after a few heat cycles. Then they should be trouble free for the life of the motor.

The explaination of the milk only on top is simple. Motors that have a slow leak don't have enough heat in the oil pan to boil the water out of the hot oil The steam condences in the coolests spots.

Motors with high rates of leak turn everything into chocolate milk. It's a big problem on all alky injected and blown cars. Pure water blowing around the rings from methanol burning.


[Modified by gkull, 8:42 AM 2/5/2003]

 

OK, one big reason the iron went back on is also that I had gaskets for them, and I was using Fel Pro on the aluminum, Yeh GM uses aluminum heads on a lot of engines, and alot of failures too....one of the things an L98 is famous for besided the intakes leaking, is head gasket failure.....
I"m using ARP bolts/washers and did retorque the things in spite of them saying I didn't have to on the instructions somewhere....maybe with the gaskets.....one thing for sure, after last winter's tear down and rework for the steering and wiring, then last spring having that damn tranny blow the 3/4 clutch pak, now this,.....I"M damn sick and tired of doing major repairs on this car.....I don't think in all honesty it's anything I have screwed up...just running into unreliable junk parts.....like that 3/4 clutch problem..inherent failure I have to live with in order to have overdrive, apparently....so that much I have to accept....ok,.....but to accept another major problem....
no....I choose to eliminate it fron the git go.....thing is, the engine has abut 50k miles on it now, and I"m worried about oil consumption at this point, because it would not be the first time pulling heads may/tends to cause oil problems...as in rings....

GENE

 

I've felt your pain before. I blew a good motor and installed another one. That's when I tore up my 10 inch 3800 stall convertor. So I had my 700R$ completely beefed up and then the rearend went out. Two months later the second engine blew.

I just about said screw that Vette!

I also use the FelPro head gaskets for aluminum heads. I've never had a blown head gasket on a V-8