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Not sure if I blew my head gasket... help?


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L28e

10:1cr

MSnSE

crane 272 282 cam

felpro 1mm HG

 

I just did a track day and ran the engine consistently at 200 degrees F. Something happened during the trackday to the engine and it felt low on power. Its a sporadic type deal though...

 

Here are the symptoms:

 

The engine is idling about 100-200 rpm slower than normal, really anywhere between 500-700.

 

When I rev it freely there is a light semi consistent puff sound coming from the intake/exhaust side of the engine somewhere around cyl 2 or 3.

 

If I drive it and try to get on the gas a little it smells like unburnt fuel and tends to pop through the exhaust, while making a louder version of the puff sound I described above.

 

Engine note sounds like I'm running on less than 6 cylinders when I give it lots of gas, less gas it doesn't sound, or feel as bad.

 

It has progressively gotten worse the more I drive it on the street since the track day.

 

 

 

I'm going to throw a compression gauge on it and see where it stands with static compression. If I don't see anything fishy with the valves/rocker arms the head is coming off so I can have a good look-see.

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Update:

 

Most of my header nuts were loose. Tightened them up and it sort of quieted down the sound. There is a strong exhaust pulse coming from around the #2 primary. I'm guessing the gasket deteriorated from me driving around with loose header nuts.

 

The plan: Replace the intake and exhaust manifold gaskets and see where I'm at.

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  • 2 months later...

Figured it out!

 

When I went to the track my header bolts were loose. The #2 cylinder started to loosen up more than the others and allowed exhaust gas to go by the gasket. After driving around like this for an unknown period of time the gasket eventually disintegrated, causing a highly rich condition in the cylinder.

 

This caused my spark plug to foul out. I replaced the exhaust gasket, but not the spark plug, and so the fouled spark plug still rendered the cylinder useless.

 

Changed the spark plug with a known working old one and I'm back to 100% power!!!

 

I'll be picking up a set of ngk bpr7es11's tomorrow and replacing them all. THANKS JEFF YOU ROCK!

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