I wish there was something positive I could post here, but the only thing positive is I was able to drive 100 miles back home On the whole way down there, it was running a little hot (220ish) but it didn't really overheat. Strange, so I checked the coolant and it was low. I think (or thought I should say) that the head may have been barely leaking, but just coming out of the side, and was not getting into the combustion chamber. So anyways, fill the coolant back up to put it on the dyno. Go to start it up and the fuel pressure wont go above 30~40psi. So I took the pump assembly out and switched the wires around and made the primary pump the secondary and vise versa. That worked and we were able to get full pressure back. Then I decided to just jumper the wires at the boost switch and run both pumps together anyways. Glen (my tuner) turned the timing way down so we could get the AFR where it needs to be before we start making horsepower. Well, first run it went WAAYYYYY lean, hesitated climbing up thru the RPMs- it was definitely running out of fuel. So the one pump was completely dead by this time I imagine. And on top of that, it was spewing coolant out from below!

One of the guys that worked there offered to look at it from below while I drove the car on the dyno and see if he could spot where the leak was coming from. So he did and what he found was that pretty much all the coolant was coming from behind the drivers side motor mount. It was just gushing out from there. I got up under there and looked while he drove it and sure enough, it was like a small faucet just pouring out. It is hard to tell if the leak was coming from the block itself or from the head gasket since there is hardly any room to look around under there with the alternator and the blower blocking most of the view...

So with the fuel pump dying or dead and the leak, it was obviously not going to happen tonight. We put a can of stop leak in for good measure and topped the coolant back off and filled the overflow tank and I drove home. I stopped at a mcD's half way to refill, but it had not lost any coolant when I checked it. Or if it had, it must have taken some from the overflow tank because when I removed the cap, it was at the top. The temp never even got to 200 though the whole way back it was around 190.

But now the bad news is that I may have a cracked block (worse case scenario) Can't really tell right now until the engine comes out, but the engine does need to come out at the very least for a thorough inspection. This whole situation absolutely sucks. I've about had it with this crap. I'm to the point right now I don't even want to think about the car. It will most likely sit now for a while until I am motivated again to screw around with it. I am so mad because this shortblock has about 4000 miles on it if that from the whole year I have had it, and half the time it has been leaking coolant. I thought it was the head gaskets, but now that I've been through 2 sets of heads (first set was stock 6.0L heads that were brand new, and second set was the AFR's which I had milled to make sure they were perfectly flat) and also been thru 3 sets of gaskets, I'm starting to lean away from the head gasket theory. I'm really hoping it is something very simple like a freeze plug or something, but I'm never that lucky

 

Wow, Bummer. Sorry to hear about this. Sometimes you have to take a step back and walk away from the car for a while. It clears your head and often lead to a new found motivation to get the car running again.

Good luck!
Glenn

 

Yup, take off a bit of time, you've spent too much money and time into this. Once its running good and all over with you will be happy as a pig in ****. Making allot more ponies than your last setup too!

 

Hang in there and don't give up. Luckily today is Friday! Bob

 

Sounds like my luck, sorry to hear it.

 

Shitty Chad. I posted in your thread on the local baord. I'm free Sunday morning if you need help pullin the motor.

 

Thanks for the offer, but it will be a while Mike. I gotta pull all the accessories first. Or maybe I'll attempt the pulling from the bottom method this time... hmmmm

 

Alright man. Well if your workin on it on Sundays & would like some company, give me a call & I'll shoot over there.

 

the top was kind of a pain. with all the maneuvering i had to do to get it over the steering rack, it seems the bottom would have been easier. good luck bro sucks to hear about your problems, i have a feeling i will have problems too once i get the car running

 

Sorry to hear about that man.

I love your car BTW the P1SC numbers were awesome with F1 The car will fly

Good luck.

 

That sucks, though fuel pumps are not a big deal, but the engine problem might be.

Honestly I would come up with a list of possible culprits and make sure it's not something simple like a leak in a line/hose or a messed up freeze plug. When you say pouring out I tend to think freeze plug, unless the head is bigtime lifted. If the head gasket was bigtime messed up the car be burning coolant, have that licorice smell, and some cyl's might be running crappy and the car might have some bigtime misfires.

 

these are the things that I hate about our hobby. I'd take your friend up on his offer of help and pull the engine out right away.
J

 

sorry to hear that, the whole f/i thing can be a real pain sometimes

 

See thats just the thing that makes me think its NOT a head gasket. There is no coolant in the oil, no smell of exhaust in the coolant, and no misfiring or rough idling or driving at all. Plus, when I took the gaskets off both times to replace them, they looked in tip top shape and there were no signs of where coolant could be leaking from. I too thought it may be a freeze plug, but honestly, I don't think there is a freeze plug in the vicinity there behind the d/s motor mount. My stock block does not have one in that location at least. But my current one is a newer LS6 block (2004+ version) so maybe it is different?

 

take the help from your friend and pull it out the bottom my friend and I have it down to under 4 hours now to get these things out of the car thru the bottom with jacks and jackstands, you dont even have to pull the blower off.

 

I dont think theres any differance in the blocks, my stock motor did the same thing and it was the head gasket.

 

So did you at least get a mid rang tq number off of it?

Sorry to hear that man, I have had bad luck at the dyno myself so far.

 

That blows man. Good luck with it.

 

No, we turned the timing way down just so we could get a base AFR set first before we started adding power. Lucky I had the meth turned on and even as lean as it got, there was no KR...

 

sorry to hear that man.. all works out in the end tho..