Hello, I drove my 67 427/435 BB to a show this morning and it was fine until I got to a stop sign, The water temp skyrocketed past 250, although the oil temp was fine ( I have one guage for each...) I noticed that the upper rad hose was spongy instead of hard and the radiator was cool on the cap side. I opened the oil cap and a white milky substance is all over both undersides of the valve covers.

I had it flat bedded home and when I pulled the radiator cap off the radiator was 1/2 full....and milky looking antifreeze...Pulled the plugs and they were not fouled......The car started when I got home, much waterery white stuff under the air cover lid from breather on driver side valve cover.

What caused this? Could this be a head gasket issue? I have aluminum, L88 heads on cast iron block for 5 years now...Used FelPro permatorque 1017-1 gaskets, made for aluminum heads... The pass side of my side exhaust is kinda dark and greasy, the drivers side is fine.....I am praying that the block is still ok, does this sound like headgasket or crack somewhere?

Also I had a 160 thermostat in it and it runs very cool in the morning, could the thermostat sticking shut cause this problem?
Is 160 not hot enough? If iys head gasket do I need to change both sides?

What do you suggest I do to find the problem and resolve it? Will I have to pull the pan (PIA) to clean out all of the white goo?

HELP!! Thank You!

 

I drained the oil today and it was 6 quarts, no additional fluid was in the crankcase. My engine on a cool morning only registers 1/2 way to the first line on the temp gauge. My oil temp does no reach 140 on my oil temp gauge,

A friend says with all of the aluminum components on my motor and radiator, that this is a case of mere condensation building up on the inside of the valve covers, this way happening way before today cause the engine was running way too cool. On a 90 degree day my temp would be 170, I used a temp gun.....to verify. I did a compression check and the cyls are all 150lbs...Plugs are clean and look normal. He sadi put a 180 thermostat in it.

If the was a head gasket issue why does everything thus far look normal? I also drained the block and what came out was not ,milky, go figure?

 

That sure sounds like coolant getting into the oil and vice versa. If there's milky looking stuff in the radiator you have a problem with oil getting into the system. There is something wrong! Start looking instead of hoping!

 

Think about what your friend said for a second. If condensation was in your valve covers, you'd expect to see your oil being milky. The condensation theory doesn't make any sense in your case as you're seeing it in your coolant.

I'd take some of the milky substance and give it the old sizzle test to see if there's really oil in the coolant.

Then again, how sure are you that oil wasn't mistakingly added to the radiator (mislabeled container, etc)?

 

Yesterday I checked all the intake manifold bolts and the ones holding the water passages in the front and back were not snug, I snugged them up and filled the whole system with fresh water from the thermostat opening, replaced the thermo housing. Then put the pressure tester on the radiator.

At around 10 lbs and higher I heard a loud pressure leak. The leak is on the front of intake manifold and water spraying down, either from the intake manifold gasket or there is a crack in the drivers side front of the intake manifold bottom (40 year old tri power manifold). I could see the water gushing down to the lifter valley from that area above. The first test I saw a spray, the more I tested it the worse the leak got, probably indicating intake manifold gasket.....

I suspect the intake manifold gasket. The good part is the the block and head gaskets are good.....I will pull the intake manifold off soon and take a look at the bottom side of the intake manifold to confirm, that there are no cracks......

 

That's awesome that you were able to pin it down so easily (well relatively anyway!). It does sound like the gasket is letting go so it should be ok. Coolant in the oil can hurt bearings so check those out good before you hit the road and R&R any that show signs of wear. Let me know how it looks in there! Pics are great too wink wink...

 

How dose one post a pic right on the reply, like many do? Without having to use a url web address?

 

I've never posted a pic myself.... I think that you have to have a website host the pic and then link it into the post but I am unsure on this...

 

Unless you're a supporting vendor, you don't. You simply get an account with Photobucket.com and then post the url in your thread with [IMG] before your url and [/IMG] after and it will come up. Just make sure you don't have any spaces in the url. You can instead use the underscore like this_ .