EightTrackHits

No progress guys. I’ve been working out of town for bit.

Bloomfield here.

Just finished up. Initial indications are I still have a problem. Had plenty of white smoke on start up, it diminished some but never went away. After an initial idle period, I ran the RPMs at 2000 to get it up to temp. It sounds good. I expect some problems from the sludge that was in the engine and the liquid that was already in the exhaust. I’ll drive it some and see what the coolant level does. If it stays up and the smoke goes away, I’ll be happy. I was very careful. We’ll just have to see. I included a pic of the exhaust. I had it running into a blower, it even has some water pooling under it.

Quick update to say that I got the replacement head on last night. One thing that is making it a little easier this time is I took the fender liners out and I lower the front end with the tires off on jackstands so I can reach a little better. I’m going to work on this slowly, I have a few things going on. Hope to be done by Friday and then I’m going to start a thread on rustproofing.

I had two gallons of dexcool given to me. I’m likely going back with it this time in order to save some money on this project. It’s kind of hard to troubleshoot with though, it mixes with the oil a little more readily, also incompatible with the UV dyes that most parts places keep in stock.

No big updates. I received the replacement head today so I went ahead and finished pulling the old one. I did not see any thing that looked like a coolant run on top of or under the head gasket. I did drain the leg side of the block before I started; that was a help, but it opens up a channel for leaks. If anyone one wants to see any pics of the job, please let me know. I’m by posts pic of the block plug removed.

I didn’t ask them. I’m going to read their policy tonight.

This is the head that I believe to be good. Look under the rocker assy at the head bolt recess and compare it to the previous pic. In the previous pic you can see the same area looks steam cleaned Coolant goes through those little cracks as steam, some goes in the block and gets vented out of exhaust via PVC system. Some mixes with coolant and is distributed as sludge. As such, oil level does not significantly rise that fast. Also dexcool isn't as easy to see in oil as other formulas. That’s what’ I’ve read and I’m finding it to be true. All those new parts now compromised!! Very hard crack to deal with as it only become evident when hot and/or under a lot of pressure. My cooling system held 15psi shop air for an hour. Even my leak down test at100psi did not show that issue. But, as much as I like working on machines, I’m not an auto mechanic and could be wrong.

Inspected both, one had the areas near the head bolts that looked steam cleaned. It’s in an earlier pic I posted. The other looked normal. There’s a few pics on the web showing this as GM had a TSB on this issue. Incidentally, I replaced my heads during this job to avoid that as they were the casting with the TSB. The head that cracked wasn’t. I’ll post a pic of the head that I believe to not be cracked in a second.

Nothing big; I decided to replace the head since it’s under warranty. The company is sending another out. Going to drop the oil pan and clean as much sludge out as I can. I will follow up with everyone. I don’t see much happening for the next couple days.

I hope it’s not too late, I put about 200 or so miles on it since the initial repair.

I know I said I was done for the night, but I thought I’d pull the valve covers. I was expecting some sludge due to the symptoms. Quite a bit of sludge and some coolant present in the recesses where the head bolts go on the drivers side. The recesses also look like the castec TSB which was what I was trying to avoid by getting new heads. Passenger side looks normal, except for the expected sludge. I think I have a cracked head. I will sleep on that!

Looks like only two of the top bolts were a little loose (around 45degrees to get to torque. They were adjacent though. Being in the center it likely screwed up my torque pattern. I’m going to sleep on it. Thanks for the help everyone.

Shorter and smaller.

From what I understand, the top bolts are not TTY.

I pressurized with as close to 12 psi as I could get. I heard nor saw no leaks. The system held the pressure with the air cut off. I’ve always suspected the top head bolts due to the good leak down test and the proximity to an avenue for coolant to get into the block. But I first got the Idea from the below thread page 7 post by krigsby. A coworker had the same thing happen. I just now I checked torque with a different torque wrench and had close to 45 degrees movement. So, re-torquing, putting it back together, oil change and I’ll let you know. Only re-torquing the top as the leak down was good and I felt the bottoms yeald when I did this initially. I have a busy week, so it will be a few days before I’m done, but I will follow up.

Thanks for the heads-up. I hope I didn’t just learn an expensive lesson!

The pic shows the cap I made for pressurizing the system. I took a coolant reservoir cap, popped off the top, took out the diaphragm, drilled a hole through the bottom, set in the air fitting with JB weld. I then leveled the epoxy, drilled a hole through the top to clear the fitting and snapped it back together. Kits like this can be rented, but I want to use my shop air regulated to around 12 psi and listen for leaks. I’ll let everyone know how it goes.

I’ve considered a sealant, and have looked into the Barrs products. But right now I’m into it again. If the repair doesn’t take this time, I’m definitely trying some. If the repair works I’m also considering trying some for good measure as I’ve heard the gm factory does something similar.

The external leak is gone. I've not found any others. I did get rebuilt heads for this job as the old ones were castek and I would have worried knowing there as a TSB on them. We'll see what happens when I get it under pressure. Perhaps I can find a camera around here. Big fear is I was too aggressive cleaning the block.

The repair did not take. I was going to reply back with the follow up after It was fixed so I didn't drag everyone through too many long drawn out posts, but I'd like to see if anyone has anything to add. Basically, the white smoke in the exhaust stayed present. The coolant keeps getting low. I have no known external leaks, and an excellent leak down test. Oil level does not appreciably get higher, but the underside of my oil cap turned orange and I did notice some droplets on the bottom. So, I believe I have coolant getting in the block. I've read somewhere that coolant getting in the block can be vented out to the exhaust through the PVC system. I don't know how this works. I've had it parked until I could carve out the time to look into it and started tearing it down yesterday. The heads are still on. When I took the exhaust manifolds off, I noticed on both sides that water was present in the rear most exhaust port, but no others. The water also had no trace of orange (dexcool) and had no smell. What comes next is I've made a radiator cap that I can pressurize the system with. I'll do that with coolant in it, and with the coolant drained looking and listening for leaks. Then it looks as if the heads are coming back off and I'll try again. I was very careful the first time and do not feel that I cut corners. I am concerned that I may have been too aggressive cleaning old gasket material. One thing I am going to look into is the upper head bolts. A guy with a Suburban described a problem like mine on a different thread, and it was the upper head bolts with improper torque. If I can find the leak and stop it, I still don't know if I should not just go ahead and change gaskets again. The liquid being present in both exhaust manifolds throws me. If anyone has anything to add, please chime in.

It seems that is what's going on. I took it for a long drive this morning and tried to judge it's emissions by the other vehicles that I saw on the road and the ones idling in driveways. It's white smoke seems to be dimensioning. I'm elected not to do the leak down test this weekend. I'm just going to watch fluids and see what happens. For now, the job is done. I'll post if anything significant happens that was related to this job and reply if anyone has any questions or comments. I'll also post back in a few weeks to a few months and let everyone know if the fix was long term. I appreciate the views, comments, and answers I got from everyone.

I've put a little less than 40 miles on it. Runs good, but I am still having white smoke at start up. I was messing with it this evening and let it run for quite some time and the smoke really never went away. I wasn't able to take it on the road as one of my son's cars had me blocked in the garage. I was doing some reading and people mention that it sometimes takes a while to burn everything out of the exhaust after a head gasket repair. I'm going to run it for a while and watch my fluids. I also have the tools to do a leak down test, so I may try that this weekend.

Thanks!! I'll get that fixed up tomorrow morning.

Finish up last night and took it for a two mile spin after coming up to temp. There was a bit if white smoke at first due to the coolant that poured into the exhaust when I pulled the heads. Other than that, everything seems okay. I drove it 15 miles to work this morning with no problems and it doesn’t sound bad at all. My original question was- can this job be done with the engine in the vehicle? It can, but if I had the room and the means, I would have pulled the engine. But that might just be because I’m prone to mission creep. I’ll follow up on this thread over time to let everyone know the long term result. In the meantime, I have a couple of loose ends to tie up. Attached is a pick of a bracket that holds heater heater hoses. If anyone could get me a better pic of how and where it is mounted, including the hardware, I would appreciate it. Mine is mounted loosely. I would also appreciate it if someone could look at the previous pic I had of a misrouted hose and tell me what it is. I thought it was the fuel return line. Thanks!