Lately HKxGroggy (red eg coupe, '95 ls motor) has been having faulty head gasket symptoms such as frequent overheating, white smoke, and a minor power loss. After inspection of the plugs, I saw that they were white, which made me believe that we actually did have to replace the head gasket. Greg and I removed his head and now by looking at the head and pistons we are not sure if the head gasket is the solution to our problem. The head gasket looked pretty good. There weren't any areas where it was torn or damaged. I noticed that the intake valves are white, but everything else is black. The pistons have a layer of black on them as well. Looking for some insight on this fellas. What else can this be? Thanks u guys!

http://www.geocities.com/hkxjaybee/ls_head.htm

 

I looked at the pictures from the URL you provided. Your exhaust valves are relatively lighter colored to everything else....pretty much normal. They are also smaller than the intake valves.

I replaced my headgasket on my car and wasn't sure it was the problem. But after I replaced it I had no more bubbles, which was the problem, comming out of my coolant overflowtank. Just make sure the block and head mating surfaces aren't warped. Also, make sure you clean/scrape gently any gasket and/or carbon material from the mating surfaces. Some carbon build up on the piston is ok. Adjust all your valve clearances when your done...looks like one of your intake valves is not closing fully.

 

weord question did you ever get water in the motor my friend got some water in his motor andf it had turn every spark componet was all white. also were your spark plug wires unusually damp?? All he did is chage his wire and plugs and it ran fine.

 

I could be wrong about this, but white plugs generally means that you are running lean, not that your headgasket is blown.

 

yeah thats what i always thought

 

no he got a good amount of water in it while it started raining with his hood up. and i know he was not running rich.

 

white=running lean

 

∙ white plugs/valves

∙ flucuating temps (possibly air pockets in passages, radiator never boils when temps are at H for enough time to induce boiling)

∙ ONE TIME there was a big loss of power at wot
- accompanied by BIG 20 foot x 20 foot plume of smoke out of tailpipe (color undetermined since at late night) and car fell flat on face, but ran perfectky fine right after and car has run fine since (happened about a week ago)

anything?

 

I believe its a headgasket from the symptoms you listed. Gasket problem could have been caused by the overheating which can warp the head. Could also have been caused by a not rich enough condition which would cause a lot of detonation unless the car has a knock sensor. Or it could have been a combo of overheating and relatively lean mixture. After you get everything fixed up...you should make sure the ignition timing is not advanced all the way(which my car had at the time i blew a headgasket....not sure that was the cause though) unless you have enough fuel....and adjust the valve clearance.

 

lol, the timing was advance to the max.. I handled all of that after I put everything back together.. The car runs great and in our opinion is stronger now, possibly from removing all of the oil buildup (pcv) in the tb and intake manifold.. Thanks for all the help u guys..

 

put timing back to stock, your car is burning up...advancing timing makes more heat. more prone to detonate too.

time for some preventive maintenece

 

Looks just like my H22a1 motor's head.. All exhaust valves are white, several cracked and all arn't seating right.. Im thinking, it because the timming was way too advanced.. Pistons look great though..

 

Here

 

Change octane and company. I only use Chevron and Texaco. BTW, don't ever add gas into your engine when the gas truck is filling the station, a lot of water is surfaced from bottom of gas station tanks when they do this. Just a good caution...