Terry Burger

iTrader: (4)

Just a headgasket JS, I'm sure Jay and Joe blew plenty of them too. <img src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" border="0">

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

Props for your honesty. Let us know how it all shakes out.

Joe Prince

Five test cars now with an accumulative of over 30k miles and no Blown Head gaskets just for the record.

Joe P.

Terry Burger

iTrader: (4)

In my case I was idle testing a stat that had almost no hole in it, and I mostly blocked the coolant cross over pipe. Of course as soon as I thought it through I started seeing a bit of white smoke out the back. <img src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" border="0">

I believe pressure built up in the head/block and pushed through a gasket. The car isn't overheating, no water in oil, and isn't losing any water that I can tell, but there is definitely some white smoke coming out the exhaust at idle. When I get home from work today I'm going to open the exhaust cutouts and see if I can see smoke coming out one side or the other. On the plus side its running much better now. I drove 20 miles to work on the highway with 50 degree ambient temps and got plenty of hot air out of the heater.

To really make the setup work like OEM I think I need to get an inline thermostat and put it between the output side of the radiator and the inlet side of the water pump, to control the temperature at that point. Then I'd like to take the output side of the heater core and route it to the vacuum side of the water pump, after the thermostat.

With the stat closed, water will circulate through the block and heater core. As the thermostat opens it will let cool water in to the mix slowly to avoid shock. That is how the OEM setup work, which Ira reminded me of, and I think that is the only real way to make the EWP work. Does anyone know where I can buy an inline thermostat?

ChrisB

Inline thermostat - quick search turned up

GANM456 INLINE THERMOSTAT
Reference:
http://www.advanceforklift.bc.ca/adv...lpg/lpgind.htm


Also I think a honda NSR250 bike had an inline thermostat.


Chris

Terry Burger

iTrader: (4)

[quote]
Five test cars now with an accumulative of over 30k miles and no Blown Head gaskets just for the record.
<hr></blockquote>

I heard through the grapevine that Mark with the cartech 382 stroker blew a gasket with your EWP on it. It just goes to show when things are in the "development" stage anything can happen.

Back in '94/'95 when I bought your LT1 pump kit it took a gasket or two for me to get it working right. <img src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" border="0">

Joe Prince

Terry,
He was blowing head gaskets before the pump even went on, so whats your point? E-mail him and ask him for yourself. TEKTRANSAM is his name. And another thing, they figured out why it was popping gaskets even before my pump and after it blew another one was that the block deck was not perfectly flat, call Julio.

[ December 14, 2001: Message edited by: Joe Prince ]</p>

TA/30th 1002

Took me two <img src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" /> to get through reading this entire thread!

Terry: Reversing the flow of the LS1's cooling system is definitely going to raise some design conflicts between the two types of systems. I believe Jay refers to this as "Thermo Dynamics" ...

I think your flowing cooled water across your coolant regulator and its reacting to the coolant flowing across it and not what is coming out of the engine as it was originally designed.

I also think your not letting the steam be purged from heads by flowing the coolant down through the water jackets. This may be causing some inconsistant test results for you.

Increasing the flow through the engine will cool it more; by moving more coolant with the pump or the regulator, same diff. Also same diff for the rad as far as cooling goes.

In the late "70's" Ford/Mercury had a V-6. The coolant regulator was towards the bottom of the eng. (I think it was reversed cooled). It was a real pain in the *** to get coolant in and liked to blow head gaskets. Short lived "Better Idea"! ...

IMHO ... At this point I don't see the benefits. If you super cool the heads so you can run up the CR and/or timing; you increase parasitic eng load and decrease swept volume.

You are a try Hot Rodder ... <img src="gr_grin.gif" border="0">

This is now officialy a three <img src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" /> thread

I jellous that you've got a practice motor.

Ron

Terry Burger

iTrader: (4)

I might have spoken too soon about my head gasket being blown. Today as I was leaving work
sitting at a stoplight, thinking about what I want in the new motor, I looked up and noticed the Honda next to me was smoking like it had a bad headgasket. Then I looked to the right and noticed a 3rd gen Camaro was smoking bad too. Then I realize that its 50 degrees outside today with 95% humidity. Maybe its just condensation in the exhaust?!

My car smokes when I start it for a few minutes, then it goes away. If I stop and start the car quickly it doesn't smoke. If I leave it for 30 minutes or so, it smokes when I start it. It's not overheating, I don't think I'm loosing water, it isn't running rough. So who knows, it might be ok. <img src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" border="0">

If its ok then the question becomes, do I play with this motor more or just drop the car off? I made an appointment with MMS to have my 388 built/installed (busy with work and my girlfriend lately, no time for serious car work). Decisions decisions.

WS6 TransAm Girl

[quote]Originally posted by Terry Burger:
<strong>Just a headgasket JS, I'm sure Jay and Joe blew plenty of them too. <img src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" border="0"> </strong><hr></blockquote>
Actually, no they didn't <img src="graemlins/gr_angel.gif" border="0" alt="[angel]" />
You're a determined lil' bugger aren't you? But this *tad* of a setback gave you an excuse to throw a stroker motor in there, so there is your silver lining.

NYNJRacer

iTrader: (7)

HOLLLYYYYY SS******TTT!!!!.. All of these posts about your work and knowledge with these cars and how bad-*** you think you are, or at least want to be, and you can't tell the difference between condensation and combusted antifreeze?!?!?!?!?! I'm totally astounded!!!.. How the hell do you determine if your oil is low??? By waiting for the gauge to stop registering?!?!?! You determine that you do or don't have a blown head gasket by the cars sitting next to?!?!?!?! I can't believe what the hell I just read!!!!.. Gee, maybe you should step-it-up a few notches and determine your head gasket issues by how the exhaust smells? Antifreeze has a pretty particular smell. How about maybe checking the reservoir to see if the level is dropping?? Maybe go all-out and pressure test your coolant system???? You're doing all this testing on something as elaborate as an electric waterpump, but you can't even determine whether or not you have a blown head gasket.. I can only pray the people who read your posts do it for the sheer enjoyment of seeing what you screwed up next.
Good Luck.. Seems like you really need it.
Abe <img src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" border="0">

Terry Burger

iTrader: (4)

Please I've blown 10-12 sets of head gaskets in various quick Fbodies. When I see white smoke coming out I assume its blown. It only gets cold here about 5 days out of 365, so condensation was not on my mind. The fact that I had just overheated the car was. <img src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" border="0"> The car didn't have any antifreeze in it at the time, only water.

If I wanted to bother doing a compression or leak down check I would have, but those tests are almost as much work as swapping the gaskets. When there was no water in the oil, the level of water was not going down, and the car didn't overheat, I figured out it must be condensation. I figured it the next day, big deal.

Jim98WS6

Interesting reading. I don't understand what people are getting upset about. People are always going to try hacking stuff on their cars. There are homemade O2 sims, 160 degree thermostats, skip-shift eliminators, SFCs, etc. <img src="images/icons/confused.gif" border="0">
Jim

CHRISPY

Terry,
I popped a headgasket before and it had the same symptoms you are describing. It was the gasket but it was very slightly lifted. When the car heated up it was fine. I would pull the plugs and see if you can see coolant (white) on any of the plugs. Sounds like a warped head from overheating caused a gasket to lift. (Car was idling so detonation based headgasket failure isnt the case)
Cheers,
Chris

Terry Burger

iTrader: (4)

Hmm I'll have to check it out. I've been giving it lots of WOT to see if it will push through, and so far no addl problems.

Pro Stock John

iTrader: (34)

It doesn't have to be guessed at.

Pop off the radiator cap. Fill it with the car off. Now turn the car on and run it for a few minutes and top it up.

If you have to add coolant the next morning, or regularly, you are using it.

My Westech 346ci would pop a headgasket over and over, and the first sign that it was fucked up was me having to add a pint of coolant every other day.

My new ARE 422ci has NEVER used coolant since it was completed. I love those guys. <img src="gr_stretch.gif" border="0">