Crap... I think I blew a head gasket...

L

lightnin-boy

Well-known member
Started my car today and it was running a little rough. I started down the street and gave it a shot and when the turbo started to spool there was what I thought was smoke curling out from under the hood. I stopped and popped the hood, nothing. Get back in the car and get on the gas, smoke again but it doesn't smell like smoke. I pull the PCV and it's puffing white smoke. Get home and check the rad and there is a brown gunk floating on top of the coolant.

Is there a definitive way to determine that I have blown gasket? My club's carshow is this week... looks like I'll be sitting this year out... :(

Kirk
 
that sounds like a blown head gasket to me the only other thing i can tell you is check the dipstick for white froth. and the headgasket isnt that incredibly had to change if you have the right tools
 
Thanks for your input. The joys of turbo-charging.

What will be incredibly hard will be trying to find a head set in the backwater place that I live before Saturday... I have a head gasket, but I don't have a spare exhaust gasket....

Kirk
 
Then don't pull the exhaust. =) Just pull the donut and pipe down, carb, valve cover, pushrods, rocker arm, and head, change the gasket, and bam, all done. =)
 
Yeah, changing a headgasket aint all that hard- I managed to get proficient enough to do it in 3 hrs (1 hr pull apart, 2 hr put together)- in a parking lot. Just make sure you have all the tools ready and drain the coolant! Oh yeah, and a couple of buddies holding up the head as you scrape off the old headgasket and put the new one on helps too ;)
The easiest way I also found was to just pull the pipe from the manifold and leave the head / exhaust manifold all together.
Good luck with the fix!
 
Three Hours? Hell - I can literally yank the head off of mine in 15 minutes.

Super easy on these cars. The biggest problem is the weight of the head.
 
3 hrs for the whole thing- only 1 hr pull apart for me- including draining the coolant/oil mix. And thats under less than ideal conditions.
 
If you know you are going to get the exhaust bolts out and dont need any machining head gaskets tend to be easy on the inlines. If your exhaust bolts dont want to come out you could spend a couple of days buy the time you make a few trips to the store or shop.
 
Kelly and I have done it in about 1hr!
But I made a tool that bolts to the rocker arm hold down bolts. We can lift the entire top end (carb, intake, header, turbo, downpipe) at one time.

Fortunately we haven't had to do this in a while! (knocking on wood!)
Later,
Will
 
I think 3hrs is OK for a first timer. It gets faster the next time and so on.
Best bet is to remember to clean and scrape carefully. Use good gasket sealant and torque to spec. All the rest is just assembly.
 
I just finished reinstalling the head. I was, with the help of a friend, able to remove the head with the manifold and turbo installed. Cleaned up the surfaces changed the head gasket and dropped it right back on. I have cranked the bolts up to 65ft lbs and I'll go to 75 in the morning... and finish putting it back together.

Kirk
 
It took longer then three hours did'nt it.

As a young man in my tweenties it took me 9 hrs to remove the head of my 6 cyl chev swap the valves over to another head put it all back together and drive it home from the gas station I worked at durring the grave yard shift. It was quite a job as this six (235) was the old heavey wall constuction block and the head was quite heavy. A big job for one man. This engine looked to be twice as wide as a chevy 250.
 
hey man sorry about your luck. hows that thing treating you btw? I still miss it. my tranny would probably still be working... I still get a kick out of everytime I watch the videos of when I had it. ever get any times?

edit: woah I have 2,222 posts!
 
Sh!t happens. At least everything looked good once the head came off... I had nightmares of a cracked cylinder wall or something. It works well, detonation has been an issue... probably partly due to the incorrect install of the MarkP distributor curve mod. I had just installed the water injection kit when the latest problem started. I'll finish it up tonight and get back to tuning...

Kirk
 
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