Arnold87

Hey. Heres the problem. The vette overheated on me a few days ago. I replaced the thermostat and it ran fine for a day or two and it started burning coolant and is still overheating. today it was running very roughly and started blowing white smoke out of the tail pipes. I made it to a friends house and let it cool down and upon trying to start it again it would not turn over. After repeated attemps it killed the battery. Please Help!!

hooked073

Head gasket?, Cracked head?. Cracked block?. Id pull the plugs see what cyl if full of cooleant

Arnold87

is that going to work even if the car is not starting? if i can do it and find out which cylinder is full of coolant then what do i do?

jaa1992

Bet you hydrolocked a cylinder.

Also you should have checked for a head gasket leak before just replacing the thermostat. Hope you didn't bend any hard parts.
Hope you didn't turn the oil into a water/oil milkshake.

This could go from a head gasket to a rebuild.

Arnold87

the oil is fine. Is thick and correct color....almost new oil. i did notice some smoke coming from behind the passenger side header

91kuhndog

Arnold.... it sounds like you may have blown the head gasket on the right head (at a minimum). Pull #8 plug, see what the plug looks like...then pull the rest of the plugs. Turn the motor over (have someone else turn it over while you watch) to see which plug hole coolant comes out of. It'll turn over wit hthe plugs out because it'll NO longer be hydro-locked. You'll more than likely (if you've blown the head gasket) need to pull the top end off the motor and have the heads checked for cracks and replace the head gaskets....

Arnold87

now if im not mistaken this car has aluminum heads right?

hooked073

yep

Arnold87

thats what i thought....same thing happened to my girlfriends 2005 nissan sentra last summer and ill tell that job a pain....at least the vette doesnt have dual overhead cams..... now if it is just a blown head gasket would i be better of replacing the heads with cast iron heads?....just an idea

hooked073

not really. see what you have and take it from there. If you were hydrolocked and you kept trying to crank you'll need to check cyl walls, and pistions real good for cracks. and hope the rods did not tweek unlikey though but take a look

c4cruiser

Once the heads are removed, take them to a reputable machine shop to have them pressure tested. If there is a crack, it will show up with that test. The machine shop should also check the head surface for any warping condition. Chances are the heads can be machined to get the surface true, but if there are any cracks from the excess heat, you may wind up looking for replacement heads.

If needed, go with another set of L98 heads or suitable aftermarket aluminum heads that will accept the L98 intake manifold.

Arnold87

ok....so im gonna go ahead and pull the heads.....ive got my haynes manual but any advice from you guys? what tools am i going to need?

Calderone

if you want to do things right get a 154 piece basic craftsman tool box
that will cover most of your needs to do the job. If you hydrolocked it
and tried a force start you maybe damaged it more,hopefully not.

Happened the same thing to me years ago and i put it on D and pushed it to rotate it
to find out that there were coolant in the oil when it finall turned.
It couldn't run more than 2 minutes without overheat.
It was the best thing ever,because thanks to that, i rebuild it !

HlhnEast

If your losing coolant internally I would definitely not try to crank it or you will cause more damage. If it does crank and you continue to let it run hot you will damage the aluminum heads beyond repair. They may be antiquated but I like my old iron heads for that reason.

You are pulling the plugs to see which one(s) is either wet or has rust on it. Its also the only way to release the hydro lock. When the plugs are out you turn the engine over to push out any remaining fluid. At least you will know which cylinder is bad so you can tell the machine shop.

Hope its just the gasket. Good luck!