Pushing Water=hp Loss?
Pushing Water=hp Loss? So a quick run down, what happened we sprayed our combo on to lean of a tune, coolant temp sky rocketed, now it pukes water out the overflow on just the motor. We threw it on the dyno and made one run to do some diagnostic evaluation and we were down 100hp. We pulled the heads off and the gasket was "cut" around the cylinders which indicates to me some serious detonation. Also you could see some leakage between cylinders. However, luckily there was no coolant in the oil, nor was there any coolant being burned, at least the best we could tell. So my question is if there is pressuring of the coolant system, is there that much hp loss? Thanks for any replies, just want to put my mind at ease!
well exactly, I wish we would have done a compression test before pulling the heads. But it did not have any issues under normal driving, just at high rpms under a load. When first dynoed it made 475rwhp n/a, after the lean tune spray and water pukage, it only made 375rwhp n/a. Not to mention our e.t.'s fell almost a full second in the 1/4. Just curious if anyone else has seen similar horsepower loss. 
So a quick run down, what happened we sprayed our combo on to lean of a tune, coolant temp sky rocketed, now it pukes water out the overflow on just the motor. We threw it on the dyno and made one run to do some diagnostic evaluation and we were down 100hp. We pulled the heads off and the gasket was "cut" around the cylinders which indicates to me some serious detonation. Also you could see some leakage between cylinders. However, luckily there was no coolant in the oil, nor was there any coolant being burned, at least the best we could tell. So my question is if there is pressuring of the coolant system, is there that much hp loss? Thanks for any replies, just want to put my mind at ease!
Make sure to check both the head and block mating surfaces before you put it back together.
the block and head surfaces looked fine. Like I said it was only pushing water during a high rpm intervals so there really wasnt enough time to errode the surfaces of either the heads or the block. We have reassembled it with new gaskets and a stud kit and torqued them to 80ft lbs., so hopefully this will take of the problem for good. It just amazes me that It caused it to be down 100hp but then again, if there was leakage between the cylinders it was probably causing the engine to fight itself as well as losing compression. 
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ha yes, that can only be one of two things, head gasket or cracked block, I had mine pushing coolant on the dyno, the light would come on and everything, Wish i did mine with 12pt studs though. But yes thats a PITA
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TECH Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2002
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From: Dallas, North Mexico
you can probably figure out how much power your water pump wastes by looking at at what an electrical water pump uses.
Figure out the power (current * voltage = watts) there and it should be within the same ballpark
Figure out the power (current * voltage = watts) there and it should be within the same ballpark
Teching In
Joined: Feb 2008
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i would do a compressing test (cranking and running test) and a cylinder leak test to pin point where your compression loss is exactly but if it has to do with your cooling system usually its your head gasket, or a head or cylinder wall is cracked....
