WHAT CAUSED MY HEADGASKET TO BLOW??

I installed my turbo this past weekend. I ran coolant lines to it connected to the TB and the engine (right behind valve cover).

Well since installing the turbo my coolant has been evaporating. I've refilled the radiator + bottle twice in 3 days.

Any suggestions?


Modified by T-RO at 4:41 PM 6/28/2004

 

its not evaporating , it might either be leaking, or the rad wasnt full to begin with.

 

It's either what itr206 said or your headgasket is leaking.

Check your oil and see what it looks like. Actually you probably can just look at the inside of the oil filler cap....should look like a light brown mud.

 

i looked in the oil filler cap and on the dip stick. dip stick oil looked normal. i didnt see too much down the filler hole (cars cooled down) but it looked decent.

I kno wits not a leak cause there are no puddles when i park the thing. It happens while i drive it cause i filled it today to run some errands, now its down again.

 

From what i've been researching on here it SOUNDS like i may have blown a headgasket. Do you more experienced people concur?

 

make sure your mixture of the coolant is half coolant and half water. too much water could evaporate, try that if not either your leaking coolant or its a head gasket are you runnig hot? if you are check your fan, the fuse might be blown or your fan is shot. if thats the case your coolant is spillin out your overfill

 

IF you have a blown headgasket you could be blowing thecoolant out under boost. Notice any smoke from the exhaust?

 

No, no smoke at all. Not at boost or idle. I will recheck tomorrow during the day.

 

I had the same prob. along with it wanting to overheat. I just put a new thermo and flushed the system asnd so far so good.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by T-RO &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">No, no smoke at all. Not at boost or idle. I will recheck tomorrow during the day.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Under boost it could blow out the overflow.

 

Sounds like head gasket. Coolant is escaping into the cylinder walls and is evaporating and coming out the exhaust. You will not necessarily blow smoke. Smell your exhaust and see if it has a somewhat sweet smell and there is a bit more condensation than usual. What sleeves are you running?

 

The motor is bone stock.
I had a new headgasket installed less than 6 months ago

 

so your turbo has a water cooled center section? if so maybe there is some thing wrong inside the turbo, if you where buring coolant there would be alot of white smoke, and not to mention that you would be pressurizing your overflow, and the underside of the valve cover would look milky white, try checking your heater core that could be leaking, i know mine is leaking some,

 

Update

Car shoots out white smoke at idle I checked today. It is also spitting liquid out the exhaust (saw it on the floor).

I pulled my plugs and they are black with carbon cause my map is running rich (didnt get a chance to tune since install).

So its pretty much a yes as fas as me having a blown headgasket right? What causes this to happen so it doesnt happen again after i replace it?

Car is:
Stock d16z6 boosting 10psi (not fine tuned yet) on a t25 turbo

 

have your head and block surfaced.

 

how much smoke , it could just be some condensation from the exhaust heating up,

 

I would say head gasket. It's sucking coolant into the combustion chamber and burning it off. It could be uneven surfaces on the head and block, head lifting, or just a small blown place in the gasket.

 

There is quite a bit of smoke coming out and it is continuous.

So what may have caused this as far as the turbo goes? I didnt have this problem until i installed my turbo this past weekend.

 

?

 

Try bypassing the coolant lines to the turbo. They are additional and not neccesarily mandatory. Just let your car idle after boosting and let the oil do the cooling.

It is a cheap way to diagnose a problem, without pulling the head. If this doesn't fix anything, then you can continue to look at a headgasket.

-PHiZ

 

how bout the feed lines? did you hook up the oil and coolant lines correctly? maybe you got those mixed up. also, sounds like you might be leaking into the cylinders. to be sure, try a compression check and get a headgasket tester. it's a thing where it looks for exhaust gas inside your radiator. if the liquid inside the tester goes from blue to yellow, it's definetely the head/headgasket. if not, you're leaking from someone else

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PHiZ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Try bypassing the coolant lines to the turbo. They are additional and not neccesarily mandatory. Just let your car idle after boosting and let the oil do the cooling.

It is a cheap way to diagnose a problem, without pulling the head. If this doesn't fix anything, then you can continue to look at a headgasket.

-PHiZ</TD></TR></TABLE>

You think it will fix itself if I pull the water lines off? Or is the damage already done?

 

If it's a headgasket, pulling the lines off won't help. If it's a junkyard turbo (you're from the uberdata forum, so it will be ) then it could just have issues inside the turbo. Take off the lines, see if that helps.

Water lines to the turbo are not mandatory.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mad Cow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> If it's a junkyard turbo (you're from the uberdata forum, so it will be ) </TD></TR></TABLE>

lol You know it!
The turbo is in great shape though. I got this from a buddy of mine.