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A second combustion check on the radiator yielded a negative result for exhaust gasses and remained blue.
I pressurized my system last night just to verify there were no issues with all the work I performed. This morning it had lost about 5psi with no visible puddles.
I did have a lot of smoke out of the exhaust this morning starting up, 60 degrees outside temp. Even after idling and checking for issues for about 20 min and a 20-30 minute drive, I was seeing puffs of smoke from the exhaust as well as quite a bit of moisture. I can't really tell if this was normal or not.
Smoke or steam??? Not being a dick. Sometimes hard to differentiate.
Smoke or steam??? Not being a dick. Sometimes hard to differentiate.
I honestly believe it was smoke but you're right. Tough to tell. Had a good breeze today and I was doing this all outside. My wife saw it and she agrees that it was thick white smoke and she claims she'd never seen my car have that much coming out of the exhaust before.
Just went for another cruise and it was 5" low yet again. I'm going to pull the stupid heads
I don't really see anything abnormal in the brief video, but of course that's not definitive. What worries me is that pressure loss seems to have drastically accelerated as of the most recent test.
Since you've buttoned up all other points of leaks (new water pump, etc.) there is probably more stress on whatever issue/weak point still remains within the system. Maybe that's why it's suddenly seeming to get worse.
I know the combustion test was negative, but I do wonder what an oil analysis would show. Hard to imagine you're dumping that much coolant into the cylinders without some amount of cross-contamination, but I guess anything is possible as there are multiple modes of failure in this regard.
Have you looked at the plugs? Wonder if your overnight pressure tests would be able to push enough coolant into a cylinder that you could see it with a scope (if you have one, or have access to one)? That would certainly answer the question.
Since you've buttoned up all other points of leaks (new water pump, etc.) there is probably more stress on whatever issue/weak point still remains within the system. Maybe that's why it's suddenly seeming to get worse.
^^^^^^^^This^^^^^
You eliminated a bunch of maybes, narrowing it down to one "maybe for sure" point, and that point is now THE focal point of the pressure pushing out coolant.
Just for the record, thick white smoke out the exhaust a typical indicator of coolant in a combustion chamber, so it seems clear that the scope should be the next diagnostic step.
Well boys and girls... I said screw it and I'm pulling the heads. I have a better gasket I wanted to put in before the Procharger anyway. Currently 1hr in to the process.
Well boys and girls... I said screw it and I'm pulling the heads. I have a better gasket I wanted to put in before the Procharger anyway. Currently 1hr in to the process.
Good call...this is where you were headed anyway.
Edit: (I'll bet you'll find one or two combustion chambers way cleaner than the rest...)
Well no true update yet as I need to drop part of the exhaust for the bottom row of head bolts. Haven't had a ton of time to work.
The larger head bolt on the far back driver's side was loose. I barely touched it and it came loose. The one next to it wasn't all that tight either. All others were extremely tight.
Definitely could be, I had to use a breaker bar on all other bolts and these 2 I barely touched with a small ratchet... very fortunate I found them at least. I used a snap-on torque wrench when i installed the heads too..
Well if coolant made its way in then the valves and piston should have a nice steam cleaning. Did you run back through the sequence again after each pass? It's unusual to have the end bolts be the looser ones after being torqued, I have seen where the 1 and 2 bolts needed to to be retorqued after the initial pass.
Well if coolant made its way in then the valves and piston should have a nice steam cleaning. Did you run back through the sequence again after each pass? It's unusual to have the end bolts be the looser ones after being torqued, I have seen where the 1 and 2 bolts needed to to be retorqued after the initial pass.
Yes I made all the passes in spec with the ARP guidelines for head bolts. Idk wtf happened but I'm sure the old *** Snap On torque wrench didn't help. Haven't pulled that head yet. Here's another pic. I don't really see any issues on this side.
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