Warp70

I just came from a repair shop where I had them weld my collectors due do my header install. You guys may remember my post last night about an oil leak, well I was told by the shop that I have a blown head gasket on the passenger side. Tons of oil in that area, and I also have a leaking valve cover. Now you may tell yourself that it wouldn't be leaking oil if it's the head gasket, as I found out when I looked up a previous post on the subject. What I did read was that a blown head gasket is usually determined by coolant level dropping, white bellowing smoke out of the exhaust, and engine overheating. After filling my radiator less than a week ago, it was empty today. I have all of the white smoke you would ever want pooring out of the exhaust, but the car hasn't really overheated. Do you guys think it could be the Head gasket like the guy at the shop told me? I don't see a leak from my valve cover in the front, but it's leaking toward the back of the engine. Could the oil somehow being making it's way to the front of the engine and pooling on the right front motor mount and Fuel pump? I need you advice before shelling out all of this $$$$. If it is the head gasket, I will probably have them do both sides, replaced the old distributor and change the cam while the have the engine apart, what are your guys thoughts?

69er

Wow Shane.Tough break.
She seemed to be running well saturday at Larry's BBQ.
Sorry I can't help with your questions.


[Modified by 69er, 6:11 PM 1/29/2002]

The_Dude

Do a compression test and maybe a leakdown test as well. If you have a significant difference between cylinders, you could have a blown head gasket. My wife's '69 Mach 1 is doing something similiar. We flushed her coolant by hooking up a T in her heater hose and the white smoke poured out, but no overheating or oil leaks. It seems to run normally otherwise, but I think the head gasket is starting to go and the extra pressure in the cooling system when we flushed caused the white smoke.


[Modified by The_Dude, 4:11 PM 1/29/2002]

Jughead

Disappearing coolant and white smoke out the exhaust pipes----those are dead give aways for me. Happened to me three times over the years....not on my Vette but each time a 350 engine. Turned out to be the head gasket each time. One time the coolant disappeared and the engine still ran pretty much normal. Another time there was coolant gushing outa the head!

Man you're having some bad luck.

Len

73Ken73

You may want to look into a crate engine. How many miles are on your car and was or when was the engine rebuilt. If you are paying for labor , the cost of new head gaskets and a cam and probably a valve job will approach a new engine. If you remove your spark plugs the cylinder which is leaking coolant will have a very clean spark plug.

Warp70

It is bad news, but something good always comes out of the bad for me. I guess I'm just a lucky person!!!! To illistrate my point, I will be receiving a bonus for last year that was totally unexpected. It will be in my check on Friday and it's about $1865 dollars. This will more than cover the cost of repairs, it will restore my piece of mind about the car after the head gaskets are replaced, and what the heck I am going to have a 350 350hp Crane Blueprint cam installed while I'm at it:) So as you see, it's going to work out fine. I also calculated my taxes and even though I was sure I would be paying this year....it appears I will be receiving a modest return:):):) Might even get my leaky new Valve cover Gasket replaced as well!!!!

Frankenvette

Could have been worse, you could have saved all that money to buy Enron stock :D You would have no stock and no money for the vette.

Regards,

Jim

Ganey

Warp70

Note 1970 Stingray comments. Which heads are on yours?

Len

Which heads are on the 350 you referred to?

Warp70

I have 327 Heads from 1962-1967 according to the cast numbers on the heads. They are not what originally came in the car, but neither is the engine. Do you need the cast number(3884520) on the heads???

Ganey

No. When your mechanic gets into it he will be able to tell if it's gasket (probably). If your C/R is high you might want O ring head gaskets.

Also depending on your rear gears, you might want a different cam than the 350hp.

Warp70

My compression ratio is high according to the shop I take it too. I have no idea what gears I have in the rear, but I would bet that they are stock gears that came in the car. I spoke with silvervetteman yesterday and he recommended the 327 350hp cam. What is your take on the best one for my car?

Ganey

Comp Cams 260H or XE256 w/TH400 & stock converter/gears. Many are very happy w/ that. There have been several posts recently on the 350hp cam.

Smokehouse69

I've got the Crane Blueprint cam in my car right now, and I can assure you, that you won't be happy with it. It doesn't have much low end torque and only starts performing at the upper end of the RPM range. If your car was a factory TH400, 350/300 then you have a 3.08 rearend (unless a special order was made.) Your stock torque converter won't work to well either. I agree 100% with Ganey, get a Comp XE256 or on the outside XE262 cam, you will be much happier with that choice.
Right now I am in the process of pulling my Crane cam and installing the XE262. With my TH400 and 3.08 gears, that still might be too much cam, but I figure it will just spur me on to install my TH200-4r and 3.70 gears.

Alwyn678

Why not put in new gears and make work better by adding a stall converter

Warp70

It seems like everyone likes the XE256 cam. I don't want to go with the XE262 if you think it might be too much cam as I am not planning on changing the tranny. Now.....who carries these things locally or will I have to order on line. I want to be able to run to the store today to pick one up.

Alwyn678

By the way Good luck with the head Gasket!!! :cheers:

john's '81 mouse

There are places that can put a device in the radiator coolant which checks for presence of CO2 which would indicate a blown head gasket, cracked head, or crack in engine block.

Just hope that's it's as simple/inexpensive as a head gasket. Note, if you have head gaskets replaced, you WILL have new valve cover gaskets, since must remove valve covers to remove heads.

Also agree that you'd be much better off with a newer style 'dual pattern' camshaft like the XE series from Comp Cams.

If you have flat top pistons, and small cc chamber heads, you might want to go with a slightly thicker head gasket to lower compression some, if you currently have trouble running on pump gas.........If you haven't had detonation/pinging problems, then don't worry about it.

Warp70

Well it looks like most of my trouble with the oil leak revolved around a leaking seal on the Fuel pump. Oil was leaking out of the weep hole on the side. The Head Gaskets were in poor shape on both sides, and would have given out anytime, so I had all of the gaskets replaced and their in the process of cleaning the heads and and all of that good stuff. The good news is that everything looks great inside the engine, no sludge, no cracks, it's probably the cleanest I have ever seen the inside of a 32 year old block. I have some pretty big deposits of rust and gook in my water jackets, but I was going to flush everything out when I got it back anyway. The under side of the intake looked good, just a slight amount of build up around the exhaust port from some blow by. I will feel a lot better knowing that's she's mechanically sound inside, and with the new gaskets I shouldn't have to worry about any leakage. I wasn't able to have the cam installed, due to the mechanic having to pull the engine etc to do it. I couldn't do without my car the length of time it would have extended the project. I was pretty bummed, but I will get to it eventually. I found out why I had to fully advance the distributor to keep the car running........it looks like I broke the distributor cap when I was working on the car. The pointy thing(technical term)on the cap that should be in line with the button was bent about 10 to 15 degrees to the side. The guy said if it had not been a Chevy :chevy the car would not have even run, with the advance and timing so far off!!!!!! I should have my baby back Friday, and it should be running great. So to tally everything up: I have new Gaskets, Fuel pump, Cap, Rotor, Points, Plug Wires, A/C Delco Rapid Fire Spark Plugs, Oil filter, oil(synthetic), coolant, Valve covers, alternator bracket(top/bottom), water neck, Headers.....let's see am I forgetting anything :lol: :cheers:

john's '81 mouse

FYI, you don't have to pull the engine to change the camshaft, just need to pull / remove radiator and lift A/C condensor, if you have one, up out of the way. Then you can pull camshaft after removal of valve covers, intake manifold, pushrods, lifters, fan, fan clutch, water pump, fuel pump, crankshaft pulleys, harmonic balancer, timing change cover, timing chain and gears, and losening the oil pan bolts.