dartcivic

running a dart block at 84mm completly built, JE pro series head, GSR cams, took to elite for tuning and half way through, (which took 42 dyno pulls ) started to leak antifreeze out of the seal where the metal coolant pipe runs up behind the water pump inconsistantly ?? it would stop for 7 or 8 pulls and restart. finshed tuning (poor job ) when it was started cold it leaked bad and slowed as it got warmer, i run a compression check and here are the results (1) 140 psi (2) 125 psi (3) 100 psi (4) 130 psi
is this a head gasket problem or a ring problem ??? motor has 1800 miles on from build. THANKS for any help in advance

snailpoweredEK

are you using a factory honda head gasket? did you use any type of copper sealant? did you torque the head bolts down in the correct sequence and torque specs?

dartcivic

it was a golden eagle head gasket, i hired a friend of mine to put it together because he does that kind of work by trade, the rings were wiesco and hand filed, the pistons are rollerwave 9 to 1 comp

snailpoweredEK

golden eagle uses honda factory head gaskets modified to match the bore size of the block.

any blue smoke coming out your exhaust? I've never heard of rollerwave pistons.
It could very well be your rings. how much psi and on what size turbo?

dartcivic

i noticed a little blue smoke when it was on the dyno, running 12psi 0n a SC61 turbo. could this be a head gasket ?? i was wondering if that caused the coolant leak

snailpoweredEK

blue smoke = oil in one of your cylinders, it's most likely the rings, time for a rebuild. try to get your hands on some total seal piston rings, I've heard good things about them.

dartcivic

but the motor only has 1800 miles on it, still think it needs rings ??

snailpoweredEK

that would be my first opinion, you're losing compression in cylinder #3 so I'm assuming that's where your rings went bad. only way to really be for sure is to disassemble.

If anyone else has any other suggestions on what it might be, feel free to post

dartcivic

it dont make sense that the compression is different on all the cylinders ??

snailpoweredEK

ah yes I did just notice that, sorry the 100psi just caught my attention more than the others did.

did you tell your friend who assembled it for you? check with him, I understand he's been working on cars for a long time but that doesn't mean he'll never make a mistake.

dartcivic

how does the metal pipe behind the water pump seal ??

rtype11

an oring on either end and thermostat housing/heater hose to keep it in tight.

turboex

I built the motor for him. It was compression checked and leak down checked before he picked it up and ran great for the shitty base map that we had. NO smoke while in my hands. To me it seems like the rings were killed. I totally dont understand the 40pluss dyno pulls. I wish i had been able to go with you to see what the deal is. Very true on the last coment about we allmake mistakes. But that woould have showed up in the originals leak down and compression checks. Hey tod is Issac still working there? I heard he quite, so it makes me wonder who the tunner is now. I have heard bad things about there shop in the last few month, not so much bad things but more or less no good things. Thats just from the fargo guys. What air/full ratio were they hitting or shooting for, were they any other probs that they ran into? Its weird that you say it got worse the longer it was on the dyno. Also the rings you got were allmost perfect in size when we got them from larry. Only a few had to be even touched. Also is there oil in the coolant? or coolant on the dip stick?

dartcivic

the ratio was running in the 14"s , isiac did leave and shane is the tuner now. he ran 42 pulls at 8700 rpm but kept having problems with the boost running a wavy line instead of a smooth one and never did idle very well. always ran on the rich side and went through 3 sets of plugs, brought the car all the way home (6 hours one way) and once it cooled down it has never ran since, it dumps in so much gas that even with the fuel pressure turned down to 22 PSI it fouls out the plugs and will not run?? i went back down with out the car to write a different map (because they where out of chips ) and he sold me a S200 because in the old style hondata you can not udjust the duty cycle in the cold start mode, when i got back the new system throws a check engine light and wont connect to my car?? so my new engine is such a mess that i dont know where to start and i cant even get it to run ?? ANY SUGGESTIONS !!!!!!!!!!!

Jared

air/fuel in the 14s under boost? your pistons ring lands are probably melted

dartcivic

according to my last dyno sheet it stayed below 12 all the way to 8700 rpm

turboex

This jsut sounds fishy to me. I am tunning my car myself( via plx wideband), just street tunning at low boost 9-10psi and im keeping the air fuel in the low 12'-high 11's Any thing more than that and i would not feel comfortable. Now im not a tuner but 14 is way to lean in my book. If there are any tuners reading this please post up and add info. Also the hondata sale should not have happened. I have heard of people with your size and larger injectors that run just fine on the older style hondatas. Torr is running 8somethings on a base map and it runs great. I can ask him where he got his chip at ( I think it was rocket and you can get the same chip). It should be close enough to drive. The thing that i dont understand is that you are the guy that will pay the extra money to have it done right. I dont understand why they sent you out of there with anything less that good results. I do not know shane, that i can rembemer. I would call torr and just see if you can tow you car down there and plug his hondata with his chip into your ride and see if it runs. Im sure it will, unless the rings are cashed. If it starts then plan a trip to a good tunner like payne. Thats where his going.

boosted_dc2

wow dude i dont know where to start. your compression and the coolant leak have nothing to do with eachother. the leak is probably just an o-ring. the compression seems like you washed your rings. especially cause you said it was running so rich. and that only sounds like the begining of your problems

good luck

Landon