more problems with engine, please help

[mob]

Hey guys, latley my car has been a SLUG, I just got done putting on the gt40p heads a few weeks ago. I think I still have a vacuum leak between the upper and lower because of the broken bolt but I havent had time or money to take off the lower and get the bolt out from a machine shop. Sometimes I lose my power brakes and it bogs when cruising. Hoping thatll fix it and its not some kind of internal vacuum leak with the valve train.

Now last few days my car has seemed slow, like it has no torque, when I shift to second from like 5500 the rpms DROP and its a slug to get them back up. And now my car has started puffing out white smoke, I have no tailpipes and I can see the smoke coming out the sides. Usuaully does that one start up a day, not always the first start up either. And RIGHT when you start the car, like the car goes VROOm you get this burnt smell in your nose, not sure what it is, dosent smell like coolant. And today I turned off my car looked at the engine and I heard a boiling sound, looked in my resivour and it was full boiling coolant, but it smelled BAD, honestly smelled like alcohol, not sure what that is, its also VERy brown but i just thought maybe thats because all the rust inside the heads when I put them on.

Theres no visual coolant or oil leaks, nothing on the floor, nothing around the heads or valve covers. Can you guys give me an idea of what to look for? I really want to get my 12 second run tomorrow but idk If I can with my car running like this. What else can cause white smoke besides burning coolant? Its not overheating, i honestly dont think its a head gasket. Any help would be, great, im lost here.

 

[Hickfied]

Maybe the lower intake isn't sealing correctly, that would explain the smoke and the vacuum leak, but I don't know if that can explain the preassure on the coolant system. Maybe a headgasket?

 

[mob]

You mean the lower intake isnt sealing correctly to the heads? That could be a possiblity, I never retorqued it so maybe over time its been loosening up. I didnt retorque it because i figured in a month im going to have to rip it off to take out the broken bolt. The broken bolt is where the upper goes to the lower, not the lower to the head. Im probably going to get that fixed this weekend.

Im not sure about the pressure in the coolant either, im trying to figure out what that horrible smell was, it was STRONG reminded me of alcohol, maybe fuel and coolant mixed? idk that cant be good either way.

Oh and when I looked at my engine it looked like my dipstick was touching the headers, maybe thats the smell when I start it up? Im not sure though because its not even that it takes a few seconds to start to smell it, its RIGHT when the car starts up the smell is in your nose.

 

[1Bad88notch]

spray some carb cleaner around the intake while you have the car running that would give you a starting point to see if it is the intake. did you put new head gaskets on when you swaped out heads. could be a head gasket. I blew a head gasket on my car and i didnt see no leaks around the heads. i found out when i changed my oil. about 2 quarts of coolant in pan. check your oil too it will look milky if theres water in it

 

[DMAN302]

Intake leak or possible headgasket..either way no big deal to repair, but it sounds like coolant is getting into the cylinders. At this point it really sounds like you need to stop driving, find the issue and when fixed dump that oil ASAP and get some fresh stuff in there.

 

[jrichker]

1.) Check the oil for water - milky brown sluge on the dipstick. If you find water in the oil, find & fix the leak before you do any more driving. The water and oil mix doesn't lubricate, and you could do some damage to the bearings and rods.

2.) Remove the upper manifold and retorque all the lower intake bolts. Look for loose or missing hoses or other vacuuum leak sources.

3.) While you are tightening things, go over all the exhaust header bolts.

If you don't find any evidence of coolant in the oil, you might want to plan a time to stop by for a leakdown test. That would elminate the possiblity of any head gasket problems.

 

[Modular2v]

Have you done a compression test? It sounds like to me there is a headgasket problem

 

[mob]

ill change the oil tomorrow, see what i get.

 

[mob]

I checked my dipstick today, and the color of the oil was kinda light. You know when you put brand new oil in and it has that kinda clear orangish brown color, thats what it looked like, brand new oil, it was kind of wet, not too thick, but still oily, not sure if theres coolant in there or not. Im going to change the oil tomorrrow and see.

My question is how could I have blwon a headgasket? Jrichker helped me put it on so I doubt we installed them wrong. I got the high performance 302 headgaskets. I dont wanna tear the engine apart just to have it blow another headgasket in a week.

Any way to check for sure its a head gasket? Anyway to see if its just one so I dont have to rip them both off? Thanks.

 

[TomCat]

Have you done a compression test? It sounds like to me there is a headgasket problem

Do what he said. Some funky numbers just might show up.

 

[mob]

yea, im going to do a compression check tomorrow, and see if theirs coolant in the oil. Only thing about it is my car isnt having an cooling problems, its not overheating at all.

Im thinking maybe if the lower intake isnt seated correctly, maybe over time its been leaking coolant causing white smoke, and pressure in the system? Also cauing a vacuum leak and loss of power. We'll see what I get tomorrow, really sucks as I was planning on going to the track tomorrow.

 

[795.0pacecar]

A compression test. Do it.

Don't rule out the head gaskets because they are new, sometimes they will leak and not actually blow. Did you have the heads resurfaced? There could have been some warpage there. You broke off a bolt in the lower intake? Why not just drill it out yourself and put in a heli-coil?

 

[mob]

A compression test. Do it.

Don't rule out the head gaskets because they are new, sometimes they will leak and not actually blow. Did you have the heads resurfaced? There could have been some warpage there. You broke off a bolt in the lower intake? Why not just drill it out yourself and put in a heli-coil?

I dont know how to drill it out and whats a helicoil? Should have had the heads resurfaced

But how would I go about drilling it out? A bit would just spin on it....

How much does it usually cost to resurface heads? This may be my problem.

 

[795.0pacecar]

Im having trouble visualizing your problem. Is there any way you can post a pic or describe it better?

To do a heli-coil, you drill the hole a little bigger than the intended bolt size, you tap it, you thread the heli-coil into the threads, it is now the correct size for the intended bolt and is actually stronger than just regular threads cut into part.

 

[mob]

Yea, first pic shows where the bolt is broken into. When I was tightning the upper intake the bolt was too long and snapped. Had this happen to me before, had a machine shop get the bolt out. Im not exactly sure what they did, but its the same size as before.

Second picture is a see through view of the lower intake, side view, the bolt is snapped inside the hole so vice grips are not an option to get it out.

Only reason ive been delaying getting it done is because i dont have time to take off the lower intake and wait a few days to get it done, and I dont have money for gaskets yet.

Dark grey is whats left of the bolt

 

[TomCat]

Use a metal drilling bit to get a small hole in the center of the bolt and then use an EZout.

 

[mob]

whats an EZout look like

If I could get the top of the bolt in the shape of a screwdriver i could turn it out.

 

[TomCat]

That's the idea really... an easy out has like... reverse threads on it. So you thread it into the hole you drilled counter clockwise... it bites and you back the bolt out.

 

[795.0pacecar]

EZouts were created by satan to make life harder on people who buy into the gimick. 90% of the total amount of EZouts I or people I know have used, break off in the broken bolt. It might work because the bolt didn't bind up in the hole, but if the EZout does break you'll have bigger problems.

A sharp drill bit and a little bit of pressure will get that bolt right out of there, you'll just have to tap and heli-coil it, which is all the machine shop is going to do anyway if they cant get it out without destroying the threads.

 

[TomCat]

Since you were putting it in and no head = no pressure, it'll take it out no problem.
It's when you break a bolt getting it out that sucks.