I just put in pistons, valves, valve springs, retainers, cams, and cam gears on my b16. I put everything back together (new HG, IM, etc.) and fired the car up. Nothing on the cold start, but when it starts to warm up I notice a sweet smelling white smoke out my exhaust (coolant). So I figured a leak in the headgasket. I pulled everything off and checked measurements for a warped block and the head as well, within service spec. Put everything back on and put the stock HG back on this time. Still smoke. I took it out for a drive today and the smoke gets heavier at higher rpms. I read the archived stuff and got some ideas and went the cheapest route and replaced the thermostat and radiator cap. Everything is fine there, waterpump is working as well as the new thermo.

I just have no idea what is going on. No milky white substance in the head, just burning coolant. Is this a sign of a cracked block or is something maybe leaking from my water lines? I have checked everywhere around the engine and cannot find a leak.

 

hmm i hope u remember that a head gasket only works once. if you take the head off its not gonna work again. you'd need a new one. seems like somehow coolant is getting into your cylinders. only thing i can think of is the head gasket or you have a warped head. crack in the block maybe. but seems like you dont have any of that so it all points to the hg.

if i were you, i'd just fill it up again. until its full. run it for a week n keep refilling. if that problem keeps persisting then maybe take it to a shop n let them deal with it. some motors make lots of white smoke at high rpms. especially mines n i dont have any leaks. the smell from ur exhaust is kind of hard to diagnose because the co2 tricks ur brain n u get stupid seriously, ive never smelled an exhaust that wasnt sweet. but then again i dont go around sniffin exhaust.

 

well, did you torque the headbolts/studs correctly in sequence using the correct order??? if you didnt do everything right during that one step you could have easily warped the head. hope not for your sake, but thats all i can think of. are you actually losing coolant.

 

I just put the old one back on to just to test. I went exactly by the Helms manual with sequence and torque. Head bolts and cam bolts. Anyone recommend a good head gasket? I had the Mugen 2-piece, but that seemed to fail miserably.

 

OEM

 

Can't go wrong with them. Thanks for the advice. I will do the week thing and see how it goes. I guess in that extra I can prep my other block if necessary