i was helping a friend break in a his fresh ls/vtec build today, and we started to see some signs of a blown head gasket. we first noticed a fairly good sized cloud of whitish-grey smoke on decelleration. i didn't get a good look at it, but figured it was oil or maybe a rich spot in the fuel map since there was kind of a loud back fire. it was strange considering it seemed random, and didn't immediatly smoke again on accel or decell. after the initial puff, we didn't notice any smoking for a while. we took the car back to my garage and let it chill for a little while, and when we started it back up, there was a BIG puff of light colored smoke when we started. looked kinda steamy this time.

we took the car for a short drive again and it was smoking pretty much all the time at first, but gradually went away over a few miles. came home, shut it down.

all the plugs looked OK, but 3 and 4 had noticably cleaner threads if that means anything. the coolant overflow was also dry, but the radiator still look pretty full.

i spoke with a buddy of mine and i started to feel pretty good about the gasket being blown. the car had been running without the PCV valve, similar to my friends situation when he pop'd his gasket.

the coolant didn't look that low, but the overflow was dry. we drained the oil, and it didn't look all that bad, but i could defnitely see some seperation in the oil when i stired it around in the pan, kind of a swirly look, peppermint looking.

about this time we decided the head gasket was worth taking a look at, so we started tearing into it. we got the old gasket out and it really didn't look all that bad. the black coating on the gasket had a clear break in it between two cylinders, no noticable physical damage.

 

before anyone mentioned, i dont have leak down stuff, and happend to lose the correct compression tester fitting just in time for this to happen.

 

Was it overheating or anything before you decided to pull the head? You sure it wasn't a tuning issue?

 

well you might as well replace the head gasket now, but you can also look at the coolant to see if you see oil in it, or pressurize the radiator with a coolant system tester and see if the gauge has a quick rise in pressure or fluctuates a lot. I'm not sure if the fluctuating would indicate that or not... i would try to get a cylinder leak down tester and use that. Assuming like JDM-Ej says and its not a tuning issue.

 

changed the head gasket and installed a catch can, good to go