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Pretty sure your head gasket problem is also the weak spot on my car and wondering if it would be a good idea to put in a set of ARP bolts in before hitting the dyno next week. Running stock OEM TTY yield bolts so can't re-torque, and not sure if replacing them one at a time with ARPs is a good idea or might make things worse by changing stress points without a new gasket.
On the other hand, I'd rather blow the gasket in case things get ugly
Yeah, I know what you mean. See if you can get some scotchbrite type pads that fit on a drill and use some WD40 and that will whisk it off pretty quick. It's messy, but it works.
Or just get Jody to send you some of his magical green duct tape and you can just paste that on the deck and then rip all that **** off!
Never ever do this to a head or block deck. Razor blade and scraper, taking your time. You use a wheel on it. You risk putting high and low spots in it and you'll have a head gasket issues.
Yeah, I know what you mean. See if you can get some scotchbrite type pads that fit on a drill and use some WD40 and that will whisk it off pretty quick. It's messy, but it works.
Or just get Jody to send you some of his magical green duct tape and you can just paste that on the deck and then rip all that **** off!
I've been doing the razor blade and brake cleaner method this afternoon, slow going but it's working. Got drivers side maybe 75% done, think I'm going to wait until it cools down before I do much else
Also scraped the pistons some with a plastic razor and what's left on there pretty well scraped right off
Originally Posted by CI GS
So you don't think it was pushing the coolant out the drivers side head gasket?
I don't see anything that looks like a leak on the drivers side, cyl 4 is the only obvious one I see. I've never even heard of #4 leaking, I've always heard 7 and 8 are the problems
Pretty sure your head gasket problem is also the weak spot on my car and wondering if it would be a good idea to put in a set of ARP bolts in before hitting the dyno next week. Running stock OEM TTY yield bolts so can't re-torque, and not sure if replacing them one at a time with ARPs is a good idea or might make things worse by changing stress points without a new gasket.
On the other hand, I'd rather blow the gasket in case things get ugly
I'd probably leave it and have at it, just don't go crazy on timing, starting to wonder if I went a little too far and started spiking cylinder pressures or something. Or just a fluke of a 200K motor
I know you didn't have the scanner going on that 1st run but looks like you didn't push the motor past 6500 so either pressure blew it out from too much timing or it was just tired.
Did you do a nice inspection of the bores? Look for cracks? Will want to move all the pistons to lowest point and carefully inspect the cylinder walls.
I know you didn't have the scanner going on that 1st run but looks like you didn't push the motor past 6500 so either pressure blew it out from too much timing or it was just tired.
EDIT: Restrictor still in?
Restrictor is long gone
Originally Posted by Unreal
Did you do a nice inspection of the bores? Look for cracks? Will want to move all the pistons to lowest point and carefully inspect the cylinder walls.
Not yet, but will. Had that happen on a BMW engine years ago. Thought I got lucky and was just head gasket and turned into needing a new block
Carson, I just looked again at the pics of the coolant all over the side of your car. Are you sure it's not something like the radiator or coolant reservoir leaking once the water pump builds sufficient pressure to cause it to leak at high RPM? The upper rad hose on mine did that just after I put the Dewitt's in. It didn't even drip at idle, but after a run I noticed a few drops of coolant on the drivers side pan on the rad. Turned out I hadn't seated the hose properly and couldn't see it from above. When I got under the car, I saw all sorts of "water spot" stains on the aluminum radiator that showed it had been doing that for a while. I would've thought once it heated up and pressure built in the system, it would leak anyhow, but I never saw even a drop of coolant under the car when I returned home and parked it in the garage. Made me wonder how much pressure the water pump generates at high RPM?
Maybe you should pressurize the system once you get the engine back together to check that?
BTW: I have the stock radiator I took out of my car sitting in the garage. It's like new and I would gladly donate it. But there's no point in me sending that to you, because we both know how that would end...
I was worried about that being the issue too so I did a couple of tests.. one was pressurizing the whole cooling system and it held steady up to around 16-17 psi, the cap starting bleeding off pressure at 18psi, which is what it says on the cap so that seemed about right. I was surprised the plastic expansion tank held up to that much pressure but I didn't see any cracks or anything like that leaking
Then I stuck an LED light and my GoPro near the over flow tube on the expansion tank.. top of 3rd gear it starts spewing coolant all over the place, 4th is even worse. I had noticed for a while that even when the car was totally cooled off there was still pressure in the cooling system, so I was worried cylinder pressure was somehow getting into the cooling system. I can only imagine how much coolant was coming out of that thing during long 1/2 mile 3/4/5th gear pulls
Yeah you might as well keep that radiator down there unless you want to pour some sugar in it first just to screw with the customs guys that are drill happy
I should've figured that you would've tested it thoroughly already.
So it must be the pass side gasket was leaking cylinder pressure into the cooling system then, where it was burned next to No. 4 Cylinder? There a water jacket right under where that tear is in the gasket, correct? I'm trying to remember.
In any event, I hope it's fixed and you don't have a small crack in the bore. I agree with Unreal that you should go over those carefully with a magnifying glass or camera before you clamp the heads back on it.
Good luck with it and keep us posted.
If the block is good, since the engine is nicely broken in at 200K now, maybe you should just throw some ported heads on it while you're at it...
If you go the LS3 route, I'll send you my manifold, packed with flour, just for ***** and giggles...
I thought about throwing some L92 truck heads on it but I can't bring myself to spend the money to do it, at 200K miles I think I'm just going to keep driving it until something breaks
At least I could JB weld the intake back up if they put too many holes in it If UPS weren't so expensive from down there I'd love to screw with the customs guys a little. God knows they've ruined enough stuff..
Yeah on cyl 4 right where that black spot is on the head gasket, underneath that is a water jacket, so I could see pressure getting into the cooling system from there pretty easy. I'm still surprised it's cylinder 4, everyone always has issues with 7 and 8, not 4. Oh well, I'll chalk it up to the 200K miles..
The time I accidentally had the flex fuel advance factored in twice probably didn't help the head gaskets any. My guess is it's been a small leak for a while and just went unnoticed until I was WOT long enough to really blow coolant everywhere
I brought timing down 2* or so after first run and lost MPH in the 1/2 so I dunno. I'd usually take that to mean it wasn't too over advanced but who knows. I'm not really a consistent enough driver to be sure.
Who knows. I'm going to try to actually get it on a dyno before another 1/2 mile event and go from there
Man, that thing looks like new! How does the finish look in the bores? Can you still see the cross hatch? It would be interesting to see a leakdown test on that thing. I bet you'll get another 100K out of that thing.
I can't really see any crosshatch left except at the very top, above where the rings would be at TDC
There's no lip at the top of the cylinder though so it can't have worn very much. We'll see how much longer it lasts!
I found my leakdown tester the other day so I may actually test it after I get the heads back on. I should have done that before I tore it apart but I didn't even think about it until it was too late
I've still got to spend some time looking at the cylinders closer to make sure nothing is cracked but I haven't noticed anything so far
GM's machining towards the rear of the block isn't very good, I thought I had scratched it all up but that's just how it is from the factory (more visible in the picture from this weekend).
It's at a point now where when I use a plastic scraper on it I can feel all the machining marks from the factory, so it's getting pretty clean. Still have a few more spots to clean off and have to find someone locally to resurface the heads
Won't be ready to go back together this weekend but probably next weekend I'll get it back together
05-29-2017, 07:02 AM
If UPS weren't so expensive from down there I'd love to screw with the customs guys a little. God knows they've ruined enough stuff..
