Lifted head or blown head gasket on new motor??

[fbody83]

I just finished getting my car back together with a freshly rebuilt motor. After taking it on its second ride for the break in period, I got on it to load the motor a bit and suddenly saw a huge white puff of smoke behind the car. I popped the hood when I got home and coolant had spewed all over the passenger side header. I checked the oil dipstick and it looks fine along with the coolant itself. I started it back up with the cap off the reservoir and no bubbles came up. I also don't hear any signs up a blown head gasket.

What just happened with my new motor?? I don't understand and I'm extremely discouraged right now

 

[cobracide]

To be absolutely sure.. Dump your oil and coolant and you should find out. Examine the oil for coolant and coolant for oil. It could be that the coolant cap popped some pressure and coolant.. vaporizing it on the engine causing the steam or white puff you saw. Also you can read your plugs. Check it out and report back.

 

[1QUICK10TH]

make sure your intercooler pump is working, if its not and you are using an aftermarket i/c tank it will create pressure and blow past the cap. one time i forgot to turn mine on and when i got on it coolant blew through the cap, through the hood vent, and onto the pass side of the windshield. since your problem is on the pass side and the radiator tank is on the driver side i dont see how you could get engine coolant on the pass header unless its coming directly from the head gasket which would be pretty obvious.

 

[SlowSVT]

Nothing worse then a new engine giving you grief :cuss:

Did you check the head and deck for flatness at rebuild time? That or perhaps a head bolt assembly issue (improper torque or tightening sequence).

What I would do is clean the side that got sprayed and run the engine and see if you can isolate where the coolant is coming from. Sounds like a head gasket issue though if it did that only when you were into boost.

Side note: A "lifted head" is purely the domain of an engine boosted into the stratosphere running fuel. Somehow I don't think that's the case in a street car while breaking in a new engine.

 

[jrd699]

To be absolutely sure.. Dump your oil and coolant and you should find out. Examine the oil for coolant and coolant for oil. It could be that the coolant cap popped some pressure and coolant.. vaporizing it on the engine causing the steam or white puff you saw. Also you can read your plugs. Check it out and report back.

This

 

[STERLING351]

How much boost are you running? What type of head bolts or studs do you have. If your breaking it in and on low boost i doubt the bolts would have stretched enough you make you think you blew a gasket. But hey i guess i could be wrong.

 

[sisky wolf]

How much boost are you running? What type of head bolts or studs do you have. If your breaking it in and on low boost i doubt the bolts would have stretched enough you make you think you blew a gasket. But hey i guess i could be wrong.

Puff of white smoke...sounds like cracked or broken oil ring...I went thru 4 motors in 3 years

 

[SlowSVT]

Puff of white smoke...sounds like cracked or broken oil ring...I went thru 4 motors in 3 years

That wouldn't account for coolant spewing out the passenger side head.

 

[fbody83]

Here are the spark plugs from the passengers side, all dry:

Checked both the radiator and IC tank caps and they were tight. Both are also stock. I don't believe it was coming from here because there was no coolant in the front or top of the motor, only down by the headers and along side the inner wall. It definitely looks like it sprayed hard and only happened when I got into some boost, I think it was about 7 lbs if I recall correctly. I see no leak while the car is just idling or not under boost.

The motor was rebuilt by John with Modular Performance. ARP head studs were used with Felpro MLS head gaskets. I'll be reaching out to him soon but wanted to confirm the problem before going down that path.

 

[sisky wolf]

That wouldn't account for coolant spewing out the passenger side head.

Your right..missed that..

 

[fbody83]

also, I'll be changing the oil/coolant this week so we'll see how it looks. If both of these fluids look fine, what could that mean?

 

[Scotty B]

Can you do a compression test or leak down test?

 

[big dad]

The first thing that popped into my mind was an AC line let go along the frame rail, that would explain the smoke and evidence on the right side header. Also it has a green dye and can look like antifreeze.

 

[cobra=trouble]

Get on it 1more time like you did before and see if it does it again.
my old motor once did that had coolany out by the. IC cap.
Goodluck man hope its all good.

 

[My96z]

Did it overheat? My signs of a blown headgasket were overheating. The combustion gasses were leaking into the coolant passages. To confirm the headgasket, I tried a block tester kit but that didnt work too good because the coolant resivoir is so far removed from the leak. I wasnt getting any bubbles from the resivoir either.

I found mine by doing the coolant bleeding procedure on the cross over pipe. Once the motor heated up, I would get small bubbles during the bleeding process. I would also get lots of air (combustion gas)come out whenever I would run the car and barely crack the plug. If the cooling system was good, it would only be water coming out.

Meanwhile the car would not smoke. After awhile, when I took it in to get fixed the car slowly started to smoke more and more.

 

[fbody83]

The first thing that popped into my mind was an AC line let go along the frame rail, that would explain the smoke and evidence on the right side header. Also it has a green dye and can look like antifreeze.

I think you might be on to something!! While I was cleaning it up last night I noticed that it was more of a neon green and the coolant is a darker green. I'll check things again today and will see... I'm really hoping this is it.

 

[03cobra#694]

As mentioned above, is your IC pump working?

 

[fbody83]

As mentioned above, is your IC pump working?

I can see the coolant swirling in the IC tank so I'm assuming it is. Still gotta change the oil and coolant to verify everything but I think this might have been an AC line that let go... I'm praying it is.

 

[03cobra#694]

Hope so too. AC not blowing cold and the compressor not turning on?

 

[fbody83]

Hope so too. AC not blowing cold and the compressor not turning on?

Just turned on the AC and it doesn't seem to be working... blowing hot air. I also noticed that one of the lines runs right up against the header. It's covered in some heat shield wrap but I'm wondering if it got to hot and burst that one time I got on it. I'll go get the system pressure tested.