As some of you already know my stock ignition coils and AEM EMS haven't been getting along. Well I finally installed a MSD external coil and the car ran better than ever..........for 3 runs in 2nd gear anyway. The fun all came to a halt after I notice my car was idling really funny and the coolant reservoir was empty AGAIN after I filled up past MAX 3 days ago. Compression is still perfect at 175 across all cylinders but the pictures below tells another story. I'm hoping its just a blown headgasket because of loose headstuds. *crossing fingers*

Milkshake:


Head is almost off


Poor car






Modified by iiilgsrlll at 11:10 AM 2/18/2005

 

well that sucks, but how come you wernt filling the coolant bottle with coolant? and for the 4door

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C1CYA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">.....how come you wernt filling the coolant bottle with coolant? </TD></TR></TABLE>

That I'm not sure. For the past 2 weeks its been the case of disappearing coolant from my reservoir. Car doesn't smoke or anything. Didn't see any creamy stuff under my coil cap until Friday which leads me to think my hard runs testing out the coil finally forced enough coolant into the oil. I don't think my sleeves sank because they're step decked. I would have no compression in at least one of the cylinders if that was the case. Don't know what else it could be.

BTW, DB8's ...you know how its done.

 

i've been there....not fun

 

well let me know what you find cus i kinda have the same problem, btw what kinda sleeves do you have? cus i think we have the same ones

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C1CYA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well let me know what you find cus i kinda have the same problem, btw what kinda sleeves do you have? cus i think we have the same ones </TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm not going to jump to conclusions. But if it is indeed the cause of the problem then its fair game. I'll post up what I find. As long as it gets fixed, as they are guaranteed not to sink, there shouldn't be an issue. On the bright side, this is a learning experience. Just hoping this type of learning experience doesn't occur on a regular basis.

 

damn that sux...

But u do have one of the cleanest garage floors i've ever seen...

 

Your sleeves might be leaking coolant from the bottom into the oil pan. I have seen that happen, almost went through it my self, and there is no easy way of fixing it, if its severe you are done for. I'm not trying to scare you but, think about it, leaking sleeves would explain why you still have good compression, why you aren't blowing any smoke, and why you don't pressurize your cooling system and over fill the tank even though you are losing coolant. It must be going some were, if you had stock sleeves than I'd be puzzled, but with aftermarket sleeves, everything makes sense.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by leadfoot78 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your sleeves might be leaking coolant from the bottom into the oil pan. I have seen that happen, almost went through it my self, and there is no easy way of fixing it, if its severe you are done for. I'm not trying to scare you but, think about it, leaking sleeves would explain why you still have good compression, why you aren't blowing any smoke, and why you don't pressurize your cooling system and over fill the tank even though you are losing coolant.</TD></TR></TABLE>

He's got a point, this happened to me twice. But pull your head and check your headgasket and mating surfaces first before jumping to any conclusions! Good luck.

 

I like the play by play pics, good luck with this

 

I would pull that engine completely apart and replace rod/main bearings most definitely. I can only imagine the scoring that might have happened to them (idling funny).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by leadfoot78 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Your sleeves might be leaking coolant from the bottom into the oil pan. I have seen that happen, almost went through it my self, and there is no easy way of fixing it, if its severe you are done for. I'm not trying to scare you but, think about it, leaking sleeves would explain why you still have good compression, why you aren't blowing any smoke, and why you don't pressurize your cooling system and over fill the tank even though you are losing coolant. It must be going some were, if you had stock sleeves than I'd be puzzled, but with aftermarket sleeves, everything makes sense. </TD></TR></TABLE>

this is the same problem i have, but i dont want to jump to conlusions so we will just wait and see, but everything is pointing to this

 

Sir, you have chocolate milk I'm dealing with it too bro.

 

just because your overflow has coolant dissapearing from it doesn't mean you aren't pushing it out of the top. If it was already at the top when you filled it then i would bet that it would all spray out the top if you blew the headgasket. Thats what happened when i blew mine anyways. The coolant ended up all over my engine bay

 

Definately Check your deck for straightness...If it's straight, replace the gasket and use a couple bottles of bars leak.

 

i think i read something some where about goldeneagle telling people to use that stuff, but i could be wrong, is bars leak good for your motor? i thought it was just a tempary fix, and could you use the gm radiator pellets?

 

Thanks for the response guys. I'm trying to be optimistic that it's not the sleeves leaking but I guess we'll find out tonight. (Believe it or not, of all things, I do not have a 12pt 13mm deep socket for my headstuds ). It does make sense what Leadfoot is saying regarding compression though. *sigh*. This project is done for if it is in fact what he thinks it is. Let the H-T vultures swoop in for the parting out party. Haha ok j/k. Being a little pessimistic there. Anyway I'll keep you guys posted.

BTW if anyone else has any feedback please feel free to chime in.

 

I had a horrible oil coolant mix a while back. Mine went away when I installed a catch can.

 

what??????

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TeamCracka &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had a horrible oil coolant mix a while back. Mine went away when I installed a catch can.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Care to elaborate? I have a catch can right now but not hooked into the stock PCV system.

Another thing I forgot to mention was that there was a good amount of oil coming from the head gasket/oil galley area in front of the block near where the head meets the block on the tranny side.

 

well then that sounds more like its just the gasket now, well i hope thats all it is, o btw what did you tighten the bolts to?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B18C1CYA &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well then that sounds more like its just the gasket now, well i hope thats all it is, o btw what did you tighten the bolts to?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I requested that the headstuds be torqued to 70 ft-lbs at the time of installation. Whether that was done I'm not sure. I didn't do the install so I'm not sure what was really done. Which is why I'm doing this myself this time around.

 

So I finally get the head off. Nothing is too obvious as to what's wrong yet. I took a couple of pics of the HG and sleeves. Maybe someone can see something I don't. If the sleeves are leaking is there a test I can perform to verify?

The pictures are full sized to provide better detail. If there are any other shots that would help please feel free to let me know.

Bottom of HG


Top of HG

 

I had a simillar type of experience with ARP Studs- a constant HG leak. When I installed the studs, I was suprised to read (in the included instructions) that the proper touque of the studs was 114 ft-lbs (!). I did install them to this spec (had only a minor leak when the engine was warm), but I can't say I did it corrrectly (bad torque wrench?)

When the motor finally went, I pulled the head and saw the same thing you're seeing- absolutely nothing obvious...

My friends B18C we did with ARP studs did not have any issues.. he torqued to factory specs (67 ft-lbs I think).

Maybe it's in the head/block straightness? I don't have a large enough straight edge to check...

Try again with a new OEM HG, and use moly lube on the studs...??

Good luck

 

well any other thoughts???