GPowrie

My 98 C5 has a stage2 head and cam setup that I did my self and have been driving the car for a few months. Recently I have started to smell coolant under the hood. I change the oil and pulled the valve covers to check for colant mixed with oil and there is no sign of any. I then noticed that colant is coming out around the recovery bottle cap. I have no idea what is going on please help.

CHRISPY

Sounds like you pressurized the cooling system. Probably a headgasket or incorrectly machined head. With the car cold, rad cap off and car idling do you get a lot of bubbling through the coolant system?

GPowrie

I just went out and took off the rad. cap engine temp colder than the gauge will register, and the coolant was absoulty still.

GPowrie

Is it possible that I have a bad cap on the recovery bottle. I would think there would be some sign of head gasket like coolant in the oil, white smoke out the exhaust, or a drop in performance. I also checked all of the plugs and they all appear normal, none of them are clean like I would think they would be if a head gasket was leaking. Any idea would be big help.

Ron@Vengeance

iTrader: (51)

My vote goes to the blown head gasket. I had the same issue as you. I would smell coolant after a good blast down the road. I strapped the car down and was making 40rwhp less than normal. PUlled the heads, I had three cylinders with blown head gaskets. Oil and coolant were clean. Doa compression test to see.

BlackWS6LS1

iTrader: (5)

Well here is another good test. It requires two people. Pull the radiator cap, then start the car and let it warm up a little, this works best if you have an automatic though but if you have a M6 then the ebrake comes in handy. Put the car in gear and hold the brake and give it gas enought to stall it up, don't burnout out though <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" /> . The load should bring up good cylinder pressure to verify if the coolant has bubbles therefore a head gasket problem. Then have the other person check for bubbles. Soemtime idling won't create enough load to cause any bubbles.

Tom

TA_2001

I recently had a bad radiator cap on a 2001 ls1
transam.. it was replaced under warranty,
I had the coolant smell.. it was dripping only
under high heat down the back of radiator,
found it when I detailed car for judged car show.

GPowrie

I took the car out last night and when in traffic for a long time the engine temp went up to 230. I am now allmost positive that it is a head gasket. How can I figure out witch side it is for sure, I don't want to change a head gasket that I do not have to. This realy sucks if I did blow a head gasket. If this is true will I need machining work done.

Ron@Vengeance

iTrader: (51)

I would suggest replacing both head gaskets at the same time. Machine work shouldnt be much at all. Just gotta get the heads resurfaced. As for isolating the bad gasket, just run a compression/leakdown. It will tell ya where shes blown.