Guest bastaad525 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 heh... I knew it... I knew SOMETHING... something just HAD to happen. Been too long since anything went wrong on my car. Figured I'd finally gotten everything taken care of. Having replaced just about every mechanical component on the car... hunted out most of the electrical gremlins... replacing hoses and seals and etc. etc... I really thought all I had left to do was bushings, a few more mods for safe power, and I was done. Then I'm up on the freeway today, and suddenly I smell coolant. And I"m thinking... okay there are only three coolant hoses left on my car (upper radiator, lower radiator, and the hose that runs along side the block, from the lower hose to the side of the head) and I've replaced all of them recently. My heater core is disconnected and empty. Then I see the TREMENDOUS amount of white smoke coming out from behind me. Blown head gasket??? Blown NEW headgasket? That I just recently checked and retorqued? On a motor that has less that 5,000 miles on it? I had floored the car in fourth gear for no more than a few seconds, to pass a truck. Didn't even rev past 4500rpm. Makes no sense. I just installed a new fuel pump, and a pressure gauge, and everything seemed fine. Dynoed the car twice (6 pulls) and showed consistently to be running too rich up until about 5000rpm, and running a tad lean by 5500rpm, which I never rev past anyways, the redline on my autometer tach is set at 5500..... I never even heard ONE ping. And I"m always listening for it... I dont even have a stereo in my car. So I get off the freeway, verify that all that white smoke IS indeed belching from my exhuast. Pop the hood... coolant all over the place... WHAT?? leaking inside AND out? Check the oil... looks fine. Well whatever... it's definately the head gasket. And I'm definately done with this car. And I'm definately done with turbo's. Man my N/A motor used to ping like crazy when I first built it for higher compression. Sounded like popcorn popping. And I ran it that way for six months, racing from every other stop light practically. I didn't know that was ping, at the time (duh!). Never had a problem with that motor. Compression and leakdown tests came back great right before I sold that motor to make way for the turbo. The guy who bought it is driving it now and loves it. Turbo's suck. And no, not because I did something wrong. Again... I dyno tested this car several times, and saw that it was well within what I have been told is my safety limit, as long as I didn't take the revs up too high. I dunno what could have gone wrong. But... I"m definately done. I am not fixing this car anymore. I dont care about being fast anymore, I just want to be able to get from point a to point b without worrying if I"ll make it there. I'm done... If you live in SoCal and are interested... the car has a LOT of work and money in it, is a decent looking car, very clean inside... if you can do a headgasket yourself you're gonna get a great deal. Check my ad in the buy/sell section. Guess I wont be hanging out on these boards much after this... sux too I was just about to hit my 2000th post. Anyways guys thanks for all the help, advice, etc. you guys have given me with this car. Especially thanks to Tim240z for all you help. I'm sure you will have another "i told you so" for me... heheh yes I know... "shoulda did a V8!" yeah well especially now, I couldn't agree more. I've always said that turbo's are too fragile... too easy to pop... you know and I really can't figure out what I did wrong. Maybe 10psi really is too much for the stock EFI. Seems lots of people have run it with no problems, and again, my dyno said I was definately cool up to about 5500rpm, fuel wise. Maybe something clogged in the fuel system? Maybe it being such a cool, humid morning out just caused it to run way too lean? I dunno... I dont care anymore... I'm done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonzer12 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 I now nothing of turbo's so I have never answered your posts, but I have read just about all of them, I am sorry it's come to this after all u have been thru, the only thing I don't understand is why you just don't go back to a nice simple NA setup, you have all that money in the car, why get rid of the whole thing? Just sell the IC and turbo setup and u should be able to pick up a nice l-28 carbed setup. Then at least u won't lose on your clutch and suspension setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike kZ Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 If your oil looked fine, are you sure it's the head gasket? Coulda had a V8 , sorry couldn't resist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobythevan Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 whats ping have to do with blowing a head gasket? Just curious since it seems like you are convinced that pre-detonation must be the cause of this. It sucks to see somebody continually have bad luck. If you going to sell all of your parts I am sure we will buy it up. You can have bad luck with any engine/car combo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbuczesk Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 When you replaced your head gasket, did you use new head bolts? Remove your valve cover and check your cam lobes. They'll wear first. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll be fine. When you changed your head gasket did you remove and torque it in the proper sequence? Was the head resurfaced? There are many things that could have gone wrong. The turbo is one of the last things that I'd blame in this case. Remove the head and let us know what you find. If you were 3000 miles closer I'd give you a hand. Chuck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 head was resurfaced. bolts were new. Torqued to proper specification in the proper order, and retorqued about 800 miles after we rebuilt the block. And I"m not convinced it was detonation that blew the gasket, as I didn't hear ANY ping at all, and unless something failed on me right then, I know from my dyno runs that I had enough fuel in the rev range I was driving when it happened. If it's not a blown head gasket I can't imagine what else it could be... it was definately coolant smell and white steam smoke coming from the exhaust. And there was also coolant all over the engine bay. As far as why there is no water in the oil... well I can only hope, that since I noticed it and pulled off the freeway pretty much right away, and got towed the rest of the way home, that I minimized any possible water getting into the oil. I will not even consider swapping back to an N/A setup. #1... it wasn't fast enough for me... heheh not that that's a good reason but mostly, because even if I WERE able to sell the turbo motor for enough to get another 2.8 with Su's, I can't swap it in myself and cant afford to pay someone else to do it. I dont' care anymore... i'm not going to bother tryign to find out what happened. Just want rid of the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yo2001 Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Sorry to hear that man. I can tell you this much, When I put my second HG after the first one, the head was so wacked, it went without detonation. I did hear some pingings like loose change under hood but I ignore. got to make sure the head and block is true. I now shave/surface the head before I install it on any boost car. another thing is if you are at 13:1 AFR on dyno at 5000rpm, then on the road, it'll be about 13.5:1 on the road at same RPM, that's why you tune the car rich some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SleeperZ Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 Very sorry to hear about the latest problem. Like moby said, any engine can have problems, so I doubt very much your problem is directly related to anything in the turbo engine design. Before you throw in the towel, just take a few days to cool off and consider options. My opinion is any car you get into will take a lot of work to make it right, unless you are giving up on the home mechanic thing completely. I've been chasing problems in my '78 Benz since July whn I bought it, and every other week or so something else turns up. I've been fortunate that the only recurring problems are due to cold weather, a bad battery, and a poorly designed glow plug system that keeps burning out. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lockjaw Posted February 18, 2004 Share Posted February 18, 2004 What headgasket did you use? I blew mine a while back, actually did the real damage a while ago, when I hit about 24 psi on the interstate showing a little Honda boy what big boys can do. HAHA. I would use a stock turbo one, or an HKS one. Get the HKS from Courtesy and be done with it. Seriously, its not a big deal. Make sure whoever does your machine work is a reputable shop. You get crappy work, well, you know what happens. Also I have been down your road, have had to swap harnesses, AFM's, crap on top of the intake, heads, intakes, turbo's to get straight. You will never get the giggle factor out of a NA engine that you will get out of the turbo. Nothing makes me giggle more then passing the crap out of some ricer while hazing the tires in SECOND gear. Seeing the look on their face is better then any mastercard moment. Trust me. I have to replace mine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Tough break, but don't give up. There will be a simple answer to your problem. FYI humidity will increase a fuels resistance to detonation, not decrease it. (humidity is your friend) I've only used Stock NA head gaskets with new turbo bolts and my L28ET has been used as a DD for about 4 years. It's a turboed NA engine, so it has a 'high' CR & detonation was an issue at specific load points with the A/C on flat out. the only things I blew were shift modulators - that will give you white smoke, nothing surer! Find out where the coolant is cominf from on the outside & also run the engine checking for bubbles in the coolant. You can also get a test done to check for fumes that have dissolved in the coolant. You MAY have a cracked head, and that crack could've been waiting to open for years.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad-ManQ45 Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Bummer, but don't give up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QWKDTSN Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 You have had the WORST luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lockjaw Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Oh yeah I almost forgot. Right after I finished college, I managed to save enough money to "rebuild" a shortblock. Did it all myself. Man it was a tight one too. Made it about 400 miles and I started to lose oil pressure, so I drove it from Bham to Opelika, to get it down to my friends shop. Lost oil pressure on the way down, drove it for 50 miles with no oil pressure (gotta love mobil 1). Guess what it was? The paint on the inside of the oil pan from the factory had flaked off, clogged my pick up to the oil pump. Had to re-rebuild the engine. And you would not believe the set-backs I had on my ZX, don't even get me started. Believe me, I know it sucks and its frustrating. But perservere. Don't let it whip you. It will bug you forever. Get a good headgasket, and have a good machinst check the head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Bryan, If you are still on the fence about getting rid of it, let me know and I can come over and take a look. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mack Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 yeah, what they said! dont give up. it could be something retardedly simple. I had a 1986 200sx turbo that was leaking coolant out the side of the head and would smoke on occasion, so i swore a lot and tore it down, ready to replace the heagasket and what did I find? it wasn't a blown headgasket but a hairline crack on the coolant line to the turbo that was spraying just right on the side of the seam of the head and block. that REALLY pissed me off. oh well. so, check your turbo! if your cartridge was bad, who knows, it could have a bad seal pouring coolant into the exhaust side of the turbo and hosing yoru engine bay at the same time... McAdam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 You have had the WORST luck don't I know it brother. I'm just tired of it. Hey... I'm gonna get pics taken today with a digital cam, but I can never post pics on hybrid Z and have them show up, always just a red X... can someone please host them or post them for me in a way that everyone can see them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted February 19, 2004 Share Posted February 19, 2004 Tim - you know me.... I'm ALWAYS on the fence when it comes to selling this car. It's my baby... but with my wifes schedule change sharing her car is all but impossible and I need a reliable way to get to work. The bus does not go near my job at the hours that I work (graveyard), and no friends are gonna want to give me rides at those times either. So I'm kinda stuck. I really don't know what I want to do with this damn thing.... Sure come on down and take a look, that'd be cool. I"m always here in the daytimes. PM me. yeah' date=' what they said! dont give up. it could be something retardedly simple. I had a 1986 200sx turbo that was leaking coolant out the side of the head and would smoke on occasion, so i swore a lot and tore it down, ready to replace the heagasket and what did I find? it wasn't a blown headgasket but a hairline crack on the coolant line to the turbo that was spraying just right on the side of the seam of the head and block. that REALLY pissed me off. oh well. so, check your turbo! if your cartridge was bad, who knows, it could have a bad seal pouring coolant into the exhaust side of the turbo and hosing yoru engine bay at the same time... McAdam[/quote'] I'm assuming you had a turbo with a water cooled center section? Mine is only oil, no water... anyways it was smoking badly, white smoke, definately coolant (could tell by the smell as well) from the exhaust. And the car will barely idle. I hope it's not a crack in the head.... Whatever it is, it is also spilling coolant OUTSIDE of the engine as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 PM me your address. I will try to come by tomorrow afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bastaad525 Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 Got pics taken of the car today... man I still get nothing but red X's when I post them to HybridZ... can anyone explain how to make this not happen?? anyways... heh you know... it looks pretty good in pics... the camera hides the little dings nicely and makes it look pretty shiny EDIT: nevermind someone showed me the trick to getting the pics to show up... you gotta have www in the url address... amazing I've never seen anyone mention that before... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metro Posted February 20, 2004 Share Posted February 20, 2004 heh, it only took me a few minutes to figure that out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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