Engine Just finished upper motor, now smoking? Help!

mchalejj · Jul 8, 2019

Hi all, just finished installing upgraded stock heads on my 90 LX. They were milled and have new Trickflow valvetrain components/3 angle valve job. Installed new Felpro head gaskets after thoroughly cleaning the block surface. Also installed new SVO radiator, new water pump, new 195* thermostat and gasket, GT40 Explorer upper/lower intake as well as a V3 Vortech supercharger. Car had 100k on it and ran great when upgrades were done over the last month.
Ran the car for 2 quick trips, for a total of about 10 miles, and l stayed under 4k RPMs. The stock temp gauge never went but a bit over half way.
Started it 2 days ago in the garage and it is blowing white smoke out both pipes. Didn't smoke upon initial start up.
Radiator was filled but it is blowing out rad fill cap when warming up.
Is the new head gasket smoked, or maybe lower intake bolts in need of retorque? I have not re-
Torqued them yet.
First start l had coolant leaking from pass side rear onto exhaust, but this was due to clamp on heater tube on firewall not being tightened up.
I also didn't have my EGR hooked up correctly on the first run. Got it hooked up correctly then this has happened... car felt strong until l noticed it smoking and shut it down. Dipstick is golden oil.
If I spend any more more time on this car my wife will kill me!
Thoughts???

General karthief · Jul 8, 2019

You say your oil is golden like that is the color of your oil?

Steel1 · Jul 8, 2019

How did you seal the front/back of the lower intake to the block ?
Is the thermostat in correctly ?

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

Sealed the front/rear of lower with cork gaskets and red permatex.
Oil color on dipstick looks as it should.

General karthief · Jul 9, 2019

You said coolant was leaking into the exhaust at some point (?) It could be burning off the liquid in the exhaust pipes.
you also describe coolant 'blowing ' out the radiator cap, are we talking about a violent spewing of coolant and air or a gush of liquid like a water fall?
Description of an event means a lot when we are not witnessing it first hand.
You may not have expelled all the air from the system.

RaggedGT · Jul 9, 2019

Head gasket upside down?

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

Yes, coolant was leaking from the heater tube on the firewall onto the pass side header/h-pipe joint area.
I was filling up the radiator with a cut off 2 liter bottle with tape on the end for a secure fit. The coolant would go in the radiator, then after a minute or two it would start coming back out into the 2 liter bottle.

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

This was gasket set up before lower intake was out on...everything look ok? I did put some red permatex on top.of the cork end gaskets.

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

Head gasket was labeled and installed correctly.

fredfifty · Jul 9, 2019

maybe the gasket shifted during install? I had new bolts for the lower intake, so i used the old bolts to properly mount the lower by cutting the bolt head off and slotting the head for a flathead screwdriver. worked like a charm and no leaks (and it was my first time doing it)

General karthief · Jul 9, 2019

Does it have a miss?
overflow when filling the radiator as the engine temp rises would not be unusual, have you run it anymore since the smoking started? Any overheating?

Steel1 · Jul 9, 2019

Personally I use a thick bead RTV (right stuff) instead of cork but a lot of people use the cork with no issues.
You may need to start investigating with some disassembly.
The coolant should rise when filling as engine warms up then it should burp when the stat opens and start going down.

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

I have not run it anymore since it started smoking. I think l will need to start by taking off the upper and checking the lower bolts. Maybe l have coolant seepage under lower intake if the bolts are loose??? They have not yet been retorqued. Or should l just plan on taking off the lower as well and doing new intake gaskets?

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

General karthief said:
Does it have a miss?
overflow when filling the radiator as the engine temp rises would not be unusual, have you run it anymore since the smoking started? Any overheating?

It might have missed once on my second drive, but was just a slight hesitation when l.first got on the gas. I wasn't concerned about it.
I'm also wondering if the new thermostat I put in might be bad.

Steel1 · Jul 9, 2019

I would start by remove upper/lower and look for issues.

Steel1 · Jul 9, 2019

Just re-read your initial post, you mentioned heads have been milled.
Depending on how much this could be causing some lower intake alignment issues,
if so it could be solved with different thickness intake gaskets.

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

Thats an interesting thought l had not considered. Any recommendations on thicker intake gaskets?

mchalejj · Jul 9, 2019

mchalejj said:
Thats an interesting thought l had not considered. Any recommendations on thicker intake gaskets?

Guy l bought head from said they were only milled/shaved 5-6 thousandths, so they shouldnt impact gasket alignment

Steel1 · Jul 10, 2019

mchalejj said:
Guy l bought head from said they were only milled/shaved 5-6 thousandths, so they shouldnt impact gasket alignment

Probably not, when you pull the upper you can look down the runners at port alignment.

mchalejj · Jul 12, 2019

So l finally had a chance to pull the upper this evening and the upper gasket looked great (no surprise here).
I put my torque wrench on the lower bolts and man were they loose. I was able to turn all 12 bolts when set at 16 ft/lb. I then moved up to 25 and they obviously tightened alot more.
So my questions are:
1. Could these very loose bolts (front and rear most were the loosest) cause coolant to be getting into the exhaust?
And
2. Is there any chance that tightening these up to spec will be okay, or should l remove the lower intake and use new gaskets??

Engine Just finished upper motor, now smoking? Help!

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