LT1-LT4 Modifications 1993-97 Gen II Small Block V8

Condensation or headgasket?

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Old 03-08-2009, 02:12 PM
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Default Condensation or headgasket?

The motor has less than 2k miles on it and has only been started for short periods of time over the last 4 months (less than 10-15mins). The intake did have a bad gasket leak causing the PCV system to not work... therefore there was not any crankcase ventilation. You could put your hand on the oil fill cap while it was running and not get an suction at all.

The oil was a little thinner than usual but did not apppear to have any water in it at all. I do distilled water with water wetter and I noticed that I have not lost a drop of water from my coolant system. The car does not over heat and is not down on power. What do yall think?

I will be putting the new intake on next week and making sure there are no leaks again. I guess all I can do it wait and see if that fixed the problem.

Here are some pics.







Old 03-08-2009, 02:19 PM
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That is an awful lot of moisture. I would suspect something a little worse than just ambient crankcase ventilation.
Old 03-08-2009, 02:29 PM
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Anyone ever had something like this happen to them?
Old 03-08-2009, 02:32 PM
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I would bet it's just condensation as we have seen it many times.

not a good idea to start and run the car for short periods of time and not drive them

this will happen + you can wash the oil with fuel and most likely the reason the oil seemed thinned out

if you still have the oil see if it smells like fuel and if it has antifreeze it would be seperated in the container
Old 03-08-2009, 02:39 PM
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that's just moisture....when cars sits water droplets build up in the oil and is normal. To prevent diluting the oil you should allow the engine to reach normal operating temps so the water can be burned off. If it was a headgasket you would know very quickly ...believe me ! So do a leakdown test to be sure. If it was the gaskets you would smell it in the exhaust ...see air bubbles in the coolant
engine temps be higher then normal ....low coolant light would be on..that's a sign coolant is leaking somewhere....all these things happened to me when I blew my gaskets
Old 03-08-2009, 02:40 PM
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Oil smells like fuel for sure, I noticed that once I started to drain it.
Old 03-08-2009, 06:08 PM
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99% sure you are fine

maybe do a second oil change to be certain it's flushed well

Then I suggest just letting it sit unless you plan to drive it next time.
Old 03-08-2009, 08:31 PM
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man. i for sure blew a hg, and as i took it apart this is what i found. my #1 cyl and # 7 pistons were hella clean.




Old 03-08-2009, 11:23 PM
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my valve covers looked exaclty like the OP's, but i had bubbling and frothing coming out of radiator fill. So i yanked the heads
Old 03-08-2009, 11:35 PM
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Hello everyone...
I am new here and i just bought a 1995 Pontiac Trans AM LT1...
i am looking to find out what the problem is with my car as well, i brought into Laredo, TX on Thursday and it ran pretty good, from the first time i turned it on to test the car, the Mass Air was messed up. I d/c it and brought straight to Laredo from Encinal(about 39 miles), once i got to Laredo it seemed to have heated up and turned off. i waited and turned it back on and parked it...
The next day I turned it on again and it worked OK until it heated up... there was some knocking going on in the engine...
I drained out the oil and did not see any coolant on the oil...BUT THEN i put oil into it again and found that the coolant was mixing with the oil NOW... WHAT COULD IT BE???

There was alot of pressue on the radiator cab once you would turn the car on... but it was spitting coolant out the exhaust... does anyone know what it could be???
Old 03-08-2009, 11:50 PM
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dont hijack this thread. Create a new thread for your questions.
Old 03-09-2009, 12:06 AM
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oh yea, mine was bubblin in the rad fill cap.

post #10 sounds like a blown hg, after mine hydrolocked trying to start once, it dumped water out the tail pipe.



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