Head gasket going?

[bhazard]

Few nights back I was driving home, nice open road. Decided to see how far I could take the shadow up... well I ended up pretty much maxing out the speedo. Roughly 125 in an auto t1. 10-12 lbs non intercooled on premium gas. Well the car seemed fine until a couple days later. At idle its chugging (consistant miss) and blowing a decent amount of white sweet smoke out the back.... No oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil though. Sound like its blowing between a coolant passage and the combustion chamber? Havent had time to take a closer look. Just going by symptoms at the moment.

It runs absolutely fine going down the road. Just at idle it starts having problems. Even then it wont stall or anything. Revs fine and all. I would really hate to take on the job of replacing a hg right now... too much other crap to work on and winter closing in VERY quickly.

[rob the plumber]

Start it with the radiator cap off. If you see bubbles coming up through the coolant, you have a blown head gasket.

[turbokid]

Ouch.
Thats what boost+ high rpm+ no intercooler+ old car = blowing the head gasket.
Now its time to make it faster right =)

[bhazard]

Yea I hear that. Topped off at around 5000 rpms in top gear...

Man whos idea was it to have the turbo and exhaust on the backside of the motor up against the firewall....

Wish it was rwd, haha. I am NOT looking forward to working on this thing. Any easy way to get a hg changed? Im thinking of just leaving the turbo and manifolds all on the head and just lifting everything out as a whole, lol.

[mrjoecanadian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhazard Im thinking of just leaving the turbo and manifolds all on the head and just lifting everything out as a whole, lol.

That is what I did, and was told to do from this form and it worked out good.

[86LaserXE-XT]

Yep just leave the manifolds and turbo on the head.
carefull though it is HEAVY, a friend or an engine hoist would make it tons easier to set back down on the engine.

I'm pretty sure replacing a HG on these things is an Official Turbo Dodge Initiation Ritual.
It's the right of passage so you can move on to replacing your HG a 2nd time.

something with crappy gas and high boost that doesn't mix
but I'll Take the HG as a weak point anyday over it Blowing my pistons apart.
a couple hour fix compared to an engine rebuild.

And to make things easier on yourself, make sure you spray the exhaust bolts for the downpipe with WD-40 or PB blaster in advance. I haven't broke a single one that way
I've seen both my brother and my friend break the bolts because they didnt spray em first, saves on the swearing and bloody knuckles

[moparfwdsleeper]

Get some ARP studs, better investment... If you don't have a set of FSMs, get a Chilton or Haynes and follow their instructions(insures proper installation, less likely to fail as soon).

I use the copper spray adhesive(in a can) on both sides of the head gasket to insure a much better seal, not saying its a requirement but another added measure to insure longer life.

[bhazard]

Well on the exhaust bolts, that was actually the last work I did on the car, new spring bolts, and I used GENEROUS amounts of antisieze on them.

Head studs will be a worthy investment I bet, and the haynes was in the trunk when we bought the car, so score.

Ive heard people say to use copper and to not use copper, but I dont see how it can hurt, so Ill do it anyway. Anything to make it stronger, eh?

Im not even gonna start on the job though, until I can get the car in the garage.

[crazymadbastard]

The job is not that bad, leave all the manifolds on and there is not much more to remove. My least favorite part ins getting under and dealing with the back of the engine stuff.
My best time removing the head is about 1hr with air tools. Do get organized first with all the tools needed and you will have a better time doing it.

I would not use the copper spray, the mopar hasket has stuff on it already. It is recommended you leave it sealed in the package until ready to use.

[turbokid]

I found the a huge wrench and a breaker bar help the head pulling process.
Took me about an hour to get the head off (used a cordless impact on the exhaust which was the hardest part to get off using hand tools the first time I did a head gasket), engine hoist, and ripping all the vac lines out of it (replaced them all anyways)
Bad news was that my head was cracked beyond using but it was a quick process!

[moparfreak3]

I just set a new record on mine yesterday when pulling the head for turbokid. I should have video taped it b/c I was flying 34 minutes from opening the hood to the head sitting out of the car.

[waterbird808]

I was getting ready to change my head gasket when it overheated on me and saw bubbles coming out from my radiator and no water in oil.

What i did was buy a block seal and follow the direction. 6mo later it is still running cool. After putting the block seal it felt like i ended up with more power. I did not even bother to check or retorque the heads. I think it would be best to check head bolt torque and then use block seal.

James

[thinkofhairy]

I hope you're planning to replace the engine once you used block seal in it.

[crazymadbastard]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moparfreak3 I just set a new record on mine yesterday when pulling the head for turbokid. I should have video taped it b/c I was flying 34 minutes from opening the hood to the head sitting out of the car.

yeah, but I bet some things were already off.

[bhazard]

Well I aint no moparfreak but I got the head pulled last night finally. The gasket was in bad shape all over but I think the main cause of the problem was at the #1 cyl. Maybe Ill get a pic up soon.

The cam also looks a bit worn, kind of strange for a 90,000 mile roller.

The head also has those cracks between the valves, in each chamber. I think I read this is perfectly normal though?

Anyway, I gotta continue to disassemble the head/turbo/manifolds. I wanna use every gasket that came with the set...