Water From Exhaust - Intake Or Head Gasket?

[oz]

Greetings,
Long story short (...small object fell down intake into #1 cylinder) - I had to replace my right side head gasket and the intake gasket on my '91 and when I started it up the first time, quite a bit of water is coming out of the right side exhaust. I'd guess I'm getting a cup of water every couple minutes or so... I did not see any air bubbles in the coolant when the engine was running.

I figure it's got to be the intake or head gasket (or bolts) that are leaking but how do I tell which?

I'd like to figure it out before I tear it apart (again)? Is there anything I can do instead of taking it all apart again - like reseal the lower intake bolts, etc?

I have a compression tester, a leak down tester and an infrared thermometer if those might be helpful in the diagnosis.

THANKS!

 

[a91what]

I remember your post with the tool falling apart on you. You could try re tq the lower intake bolts but chances are it will have to come apart.
First try a compression test on the cylinder maybe it will tell you if the head gasket is leaking.

 

[oz]

yea, stupid mistake forced me to take the head off and now this. It's been a rough couple of weeks..

I'll try to do a compression and leak down test tomorrow and post what I get. I'm really hoping it's the intake gasket and not the head gasket.

I also noticed that there was some coolant dripping out of the little hole on the firewall that drains the HVAC inside the car... probably a blown out heater core. I changed it about 10 years ago - I guess it's time again.

 

[Tropic03GT]

U sure it's just not condensation? Do u smell antifreeze burning by the exhaust tips? It's a very distinct smell. Try putting a coolant system pressure tester on the radiator to see if it drops pressure.

 

[oz]

I know that when I took the head off that the water ran out the rear end and right down the outside of the exhaust pipe and undoubtedly got inside since the headers were loose from the H-pipe - so there could be some water in the RH pipe. That said, when I started it up the first time, it only ran long enough for me to set the rough timing and make sure the fuel pressure was right. I had a small puddle behind the right pipe. The second time I ran it, I put a drip tray under the pipe and I had to soak up the water a couple of times. After several minutes, there was a decent amount of steam coming from the right pipe as well as the liquid.

I did take all the plugs out and they all looked fine. They did not smell like coolant nor were they wet.

I then put a white towel next to the head and turned the engine over a several times. I didn't see any water splatters on the towel.

I checked compression and it varied from 158 down to 146 on the right side with the numbers being highest in the back (#4) and going down toward the front (#1).

I hooked up a leak down tester and the front held the least pressure by far - less than 50%. I thought I had found my problem but there were no bubbles in the coolant.

So, based on all this, I'm still stumped.... if there was water going through the combustion chambers, I would think that I could see it on the plugs. If there was a head gasket issue, there should be bubbles in the coolant when I pressurize the cylinder.. neither of these happened.

How do I do a coolant system leak down test and/or where can I get a (cheap) tester?

THANKS!

 

[a91what]

discount auto. you can probably borrow one, it just attaches to where your coolant cap goes and pressurizes the cooling system if you have a leak it will leak down.

 

[stykthyn]

how does your coolant smell? I would try running your car long enough for it to come up to temp and see what the gauge says.

 

[Tropic03GT]

There is also a coolant "sniffer" that I use at work for closed coolant systems that will sniff for exhaust fumes in a coolant system which could tell you if its a head gasket. I would let the car run a bit bc coolant in the exhaust can take a little while to burn off. If it doesn't try pressurizing the system if it drops pressure and u don't see any external leaks start the car and see if it misses. If it does try to pull the wires individually off the dist cap to find the culprit. If its a head gasket it'd leak it into the cylinder causing the miss. Hope this helps.

 

[oz]

I went ahead and got a radiator pressure tester at Harbor Freight. I pressurized it to 18 psi and it looked for a few minutes like it was going to hold so I went away for an hour and it was 15 psi when I came back. I didn't think it should drop this much in an hour but wasn't convinced yet.

I still thought it might just be residual coolant in the pipe but after running it for 10 minutes and seeing how the steam out the back hadn't slowed down at all, I figure I do have a leak. It did run like crap too at low rpm's... It straight up died a couple of times and wouldn't restart for a long while. I did just change the MAF and fuel injectors so I'm not blaming the stalling on the coolant issue.

I didn't pull the plug wires to see which cylinder is leaking but based on the compression and leakdown tests, #1 is most likely. I'll try to read the plugs when I get the head off. Also I would bet that the piston in the bad cylinder will be 'steam cleaned' too.

I just used head gaskets from the Ford Motorsports (Fel-Pro) set. They are a little different than the ones I used last time (even though they were the same Ford part number) - the old set had stainless steel 'ears' where the intake gaskets engage, these had nothing special. I wonder if I should/can get something better.

One mistake I know I made is that I didn't chase the head bolt holes and I noticed a couple didn't go in smoothly so maybe the torque was off/too low.

Thanks for the help!