What to do?

[Drews93fox]

Hey guys please let me know what you think I should do. Well i just had a hell of a day with my car. It's a 1993 lx First off I ended up putting one my mechanical fan back on because I couldn't get my electric fan to work. I also now have a huge coolant leak somewhere in my engine. I mean lots of white smoke out of my exhaust. So, I'm going to have to do something with it and i want your advice. My options are take the engine apart in the car and find the problem, or take the engine out and completely go through everything, take the block down to my machine shop and have it honed and make sure everything is ok, or buy a new block and everything but I don't really have the money for that now, or get a crate engine. I dont want to stroke my block because it has 110,000 miles and only rated for 500hp. Also should I keep the turbos?( I bought a ebay twin kit) Are they worth all of the problems that i have had? I really want to keep the turbos but I want to drive my car too. I guess my question is, if this was your engine what would you do with it?

Thanks for the options Andrew

 

[2000xp8]

First thing find out where the coolant is going and how it's getting there.
Check compression, see if there is oil in your coolant and vice versa.

If you haven't done a h/c/i swap yet, sell off the turbo stuff.
IMO, turbo's are not the starting place for building up an engine.
You think you have headaches now, just waiting until you have an ebay turbo setup on your car.

 

[Mustang5L5]

So you have twin turbos on this 5.0?? An eBay twin turbo kit is the last thing I would want on my car. Are you intercooled? Did you get a tune done?

Sounds like you popped a head gasket. Do a compression test and locate it. I'd just get new Head gaskets and replace.


Btw...stock block is good to about 400hp, not 500. Past 400 and you are in block splitting territory.

 

[Drews93fox]

The only thing that bothers me is that i just replaced my head gaskets and put in arp head studs. maybe i did something wrong but i used felpro gaskets all around. As for the turbo kit I have already went through the headaches of modifying the headers...twice. I wanted to run the turbos until i had enough money saved up for a new engine and then dump them. Yes it is intercooled yes I had a tune made for the car. But am going to get the motes quarter horse hopefully this winter. I will have to find a compression tester and get it tested and see what happens. Thanks for the info guys

 

[2000xp8]

Sounds like you did blow a head gasket.

Think about this, selling the turbo kit, buy a good heads/cam/intake setup (since you probably have to change the head gaskets anyway) and i bet your car is just as much fun except 10 times more reliable.

The quarter horse isn't going to cure any of your issues and wouldn't have prevented the issues you are having now.

Unless your pockets are extremely deep, i'd stop planning so far into the future, and plan for now.
By the time you buy a race block, build it, then head and cam it, you are at $7500 and up.

Simplicity can sometimes be the key to enjoying your car.

 

[Drews93fox]

Ya you make a really good point. The main reason i grabbed the turbo kit is my girlfriends dad has a 72 camaro with a crate 350 and i just can't stand to get beat. Would you say to get new or port my stock heads and intake. ( not trying to boast about myself but i am very anal about things not being right so I've thought about porting them myself ?)

I understand that the quarter horse is not going to solve problems but i need to do it I don't like having a chip that someone else made.

Thanks for the help

 

[2000xp8]

Ya you make a really good point. The main reason i grabbed the turbo kit is my girlfriends dad has a 72 camaro with a crate 350 and i just can't stand to get beat. Would you say to get new or port my stock heads and intake. ( not trying to boast about myself but i am very anal about things not being right so I've thought about porting them myself ?)

I understand that the quarter horse is not going to solve problems but i need to do it I don't like having a chip that someone else made.

Thanks for the help

Porting stock parts gets you minimal power gains compared to good aftermarket parts. I wouldn't dream of doing it,
Good aluminum heads with proper intake and cam will get you around 320rwhp if done right.
Same with stock parts, 250rwhp.

You don't need a chip at all if your car is assembled right, the stock computer easily handles the hp numbers you are talking about.
People think there is gains to be had, but there really isn't.

As far as beating the 350, remember foxes are light and quick.
300 NA rwhp is good for mid 12's, and some guys even get high 11's h/c/i setups on stock shortblocks.

 

[Drews93fox]

ok thanks for all the help

On that note I think its time to start looking for some heads. What do you think about used cams would it be smart to buy one? Or is that something that need to be new. So with my turbo set up i put 30 lb injectors with a 75mm mass air meter. Can I still run these with n/a engine or is it too big.

Thanks for all of the help I really appriciate it

 

[2000xp8]

The meter is fine, but you probably should get 24's to go with it and since it's a 75mm i assume it's a pro m, you will have to have it recalibrated for 24's.

I'm all about custom cams, cost more but you get more.

 

[knarf]

anotherway to confirm a head gasket leaking into the water jacket is use a home CO detector I got one at home depot for like $30 its battery operated and has a dig readout for the amount of CO. Anyway put the detector into a medium sized plastic bag, take off the rad cap and take out about three inches of coolant, now use a rubber band and seal the bag with the unit inside around the rad opening let it run for a while ands see if you get any reading on the CO detector. the only way you'll get CO in the coolant is from a combustion leak into the water jacket, be it a head gasket or craked head/block

 

[Drews93fox]

Thanks for all of the info I will start researching everything

Thanks for your time

Andrew

 

[Boostedpimp]

i've daily driven my gt for the last three years with a turbo and haven't had problems with it at all... I don't drive like a retard but it gets raced allot and driven allot.

I'd say your issue is most likely a head gasket but also the cheap ebay turbo junk.. sell that crap if you can and either go with a good turbo kit (even the good ones require some massaging to fit up right) or do like what was suggested and pop in some good heads like tfs with matching cam but you have to decide what the purpose of the car is. I'd say the turbo route would net you more gains then the h/c route if your not going to go too radical with the combo for drive-ability purposes.

 

[Drews93fox]

In all honesty why are the ebay turbo kits bad? Is it the turbos themselves, do they not last like a ball bearing?

Just thought id ask. Thanks

 

[2000xp8]

In all honesty why are the ebay turbo kits bad? Is it the turbos themselves, do they not last like a ball bearing?

Just thought id ask. Thanks

Poor fitment, cheap turbo's and usually they are base kits without a quality intercooler.
By the time you make an ebay kit into a good kit, you have spent as much as it would have cost in the first place to buy something high quality.