[Newbiefox]

Hello,

Like my name suggests I’m very new to automotive. I purchased the car (stock, 88 ,200km GT) last year, knew it needed work and I wanted to learn so I was okay with doing the work. Drove it around a few times and had no issues with overheating.

The engine was covered in oil and grease so I knew I would have to redo a bunch of gaskets. So I pulled out the engine, dismantled it, removed old gasket surface and redid the gaskets based on a bunch of YouTube videos. Reassembled the engine and put it back into the car. Filled up all the coolant, gas and oil. Started the car up and it was running (shocked). At this point celebrated for about 10-15mins until I noticed coolant puddling above the timing chain cover. Started to look into this more and noticed that my oil had turned milky. Thought it could have been the lower intake gasket so I replaced the lower intake gasket + thermostat housing gasket. After hooking it all back up and replacing the fluid and filters noticed that the fluid was milky once again. Also noticed a bunch of water coming down the drain plug when loosening it. I’m not noticing it overheating when I have it running for 10-15 mins straight.

Trying to figure out where to start with troubleshooting the issue. Could it be the head gaskets? If so, what’s the best way to determine this? Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[Ilusivefox]

If you did all those gaskets like head gaskets and intake gaskets all at the same time and then put back together and didn't fill and refill the radiator and cooling system and burp the cooling system of air bubbles multiple times before driving it will blow the head gaskets if you drove it with air bubbles in the system. That OEM tools vacuum coolant fill tool system is amazing.

 

[Newbiefox]

If you did all those gaskets like head gaskets and intake gaskets all at the same time and then put back together and didn't fill and refill the radiator and cooling system and burp the cooling system of air bubbles multiple times before driving it will blow the head gaskets if you drove it with air bubbles in the system. That OEM tools vacuum coolant fill tool system is amazing.

Thank you for the feedback. I filled the cooling system and burped it but I could have done a poor job. The tool will help diagnose a head gasket issue? I’ve for white exhaust fumes and bubbles in the cooling system and nothing.

 

[Bestia]

When you added the coolant, did you simply fill the rad and overflow tank and start it up without sitting there continually adding? Like llusivefox indicated, by having the heads and lower intake off at the beginning, not to mention you removed the engine and probably drained some of the block while on the stand, you might have had a really low coolant condition when you started the engine. If you're low on coolant, your coolant temp sensor may not have any coolant circulating through it and even though your temp gauge is not registering an overtemp, you might have overheated.

Before jumping to conclusions on what is going, I would start by doing a compression test of the cylinders. A low compression cylinder could indicate a blown head gasket. If all the cylinders look good, pressure testing the cooling system would be my next step. A Mitivac pressure tester is not very expensive and is a pretty practical tool (might have paid $80 for mine a few years back). Most likely it will fail this test and now it's a matter of determining is it the head gasket or maybe the timing cover? Pull both drain plugs before performing this test and look to see where the coolant is coming out of and listen carefully for any noises around the engine. If you're lucky, a hissing noise might be apparent and lead you to the troubled area. If it leads you to the heads, when you take them off, run a straight edge on them to make sure they are still flat. Being cast iron, highly unlikely they are warped but better to be safe. Hopefully others with more experience jump in.

 

[Ilusivefox]

Thank you for the feedback. I filled the cooling system and burped it but I could have done a poor job. The tool will help diagnose a head gasket issue? I’ve for white exhaust fumes and bubbles in the cooling system and nothing.

When you put it all back together again after diagnosing and fixing the current issues you use the coolant system vacuum fill tool to add the coolant properly with no air bubbles. Like Bestia said do a compression test to start. And or a coolant system pressure test. The leak on the top side of the timing cover could be a couple different issues. Like did you use the correct water pump to timing cover gasket? Did you get all the timing bolts and water pump bolts tight enough? They take several times going over the bolts tightening and re-tightening to compress the new gaskets.

 

[Newbiefox]

When you added the coolant, did you simply fill the rad and overflow tank and start it up without sitting there continually adding? Like llusivefox indicated, by having the heads and lower intake off at the beginning, not to mention you removed the engine and probably drained some of the block while on the stand, you might have had a really low coolant condition when you started the engine. If you're low on coolant, your coolant temp sensor may not have any coolant circulating through it and even though your temp gauge is not registering an overtemp, you might have overheated.

Before jumping to conclusions on what is going, I would start by doing a compression test of the cylinders. A low compression cylinder could indicate a blown head gasket. If all the cylinders look good, pressure testing the cooling system would be my next step. A Mitivac pressure tester is not very expensive and is a pretty practical tool (might have paid $80 for mine a few years back). Most likely it will fail this test and now it's a matter of determining is it the head gasket or maybe the timing cover? Pull both drain plugs before performing this test and look to see where the coolant is coming out of and listen carefully for any noises around the engine. If you're lucky, a hissing noise might be apparent and lead you to the troubled area. If it leads you to the heads, when you take them off, run a straight edge on them to make sure they are still flat. Being cast iron, highly unlikely they are warped but better to be safe. Hopefully others with more experience jump in.

That could have been it, I didn’t keep adding coolant while it was running. I’ll start by doing the recommend tests to isolate the issue. Thanks

 

[Newbiefox]

Waiting on the testers to be received but in the meantime I pulled out the spark plugs to be assessed.
#1 looks normal but the rest look carbon fouled. Am I reading them correctly?

 

[Ilusivefox]

Yeah. #1 is probably the only cylinder that has correct compression.

 

[stangjumper]

1 looks bad also

 

[Newbiefox]

Oh no doesn’t seem like good news. Panic kicking in, don’t know where to go from here.

 

[Newbiefox]

Compression test results. Ran the car for about 10 minutes. All cylinders hit 125 psi except for 3 and 4 which were 120 psi.

 

[Ilusivefox]

Alright that's not too bad. Usually some of the cylinders vary. Either lower intake didn't seal properly and the lower intake gaskets are leaking coolant or something going on with water pump and timing cover and coolant is leaking into the oil pan.

 

[Ilusivefox]

What was the part number of the lower intake gaskets used? Did you retorque the lower intake after a few heat cycles?

 

[Newbiefox]

Alright that's not too bad. Usually some of the cylinders vary. Either lower intake didn't seal properly and the lower intake gaskets are leaking coolant or something going on with water pump and timing cover and coolant is leaking into the oil pan.

MS93334 Fel Pro gasket was used for the lower intake. I did go over and re-torque the lower intake. I did the block test and it does show up as a minor leak. Now could this still be either the lower intake and/or timing cover/water pump or because of the block test it’s a indicator that it’s the head gasket. Like should I redo the lower intake gasket or go all the way down to the head gasket is what I’m trying to figure out.
Thanks

 

[Ilusivefox]

Get a coolant uv dye kit to verify where the leak is and go from there.

 

[Ilusivefox]

May have to go all the way down to the head gaskets again to see what happened.

 

[Newbiefox]

May have to go all the way down to the head gaskets again to see what happened.

Yeah I’m edging towards that direction. Is there a point of doing all of the tests, they all seem to be pointing toward the head gaskets. Suggestions for head gasket and head bolts?
Thanks

 

[Ilusivefox]

Doing these diagnosing tests to confirm things for yourself yes. But there comes a point where you can't confirm completely until taking it all apart like head gaskets.
9333-PT1 head gaskets and Arp head bolts

 

[Newbiefox]

Thank you for assisting me with this issue. I think I’m going to start pulling it apart.

 

[Ilusivefox]

Compression test sometimes performed on some cylinders will still have compression with a blown head gasket but head gasket may still be leaking outside of combustion chamber.