Blown Head Gasket!!!

[Zedrally]

Strange you haven't lost all water if the heads cracked?

All indicators are pointing to it unfortunately.

There is a possible solution, however, there is a propriety head repair can of hope available. The name escapes me at present [i have no doubt someone on this board will remember the name], but in retrospect your problem was my problem a couple of years ago.

My 240 occaisionally dropped all it's water, usually [always] leaving a big white cloud in it's wake, [very odd as when filled it could run for days or weeks without any indication of trouble, probably indicating a hair line crack] in desperation I tried the can of hope and you could have knocked me over with a feather as it worked for 2 years until another fateful day and it gave a slight lurch coupled with strange engine events [can't remember exactly what but it was weird] signalled the end of the can of hope.

Inspection of the head showed that it was a basket case and it was a cheaper option to re-build a good used head.

If you do use the can of hope, make sure you follow the instructions, as it DOES NOT work with any coolent in the system.

Good luck.

[Gav240z]

I hope you guys are wrong on this one. As for a can of hope might be good as a tempory solution but not permanent enough for me.

I have the spare P90 and F54 block I think I'll be building a new engine I have a friend with a wicked setup that I wanted to build anyway now's my chance I guess.

I won't give up on this engine just yet and I haven't really lost any water at all.

Hmmm I just haven't got time yet to pull it apart what I shame I really wanna know the answer .

[Gee]

You're not speaking of Chemi-weld are you Mike?

[Mr Camouflage]

Now before you go getting all "worst case scenario" pull the head off and have a look at it. If you have to replace the head gasket, you may as well do the valve stem seals at while you have the head off.

[Gav240z]

Point taken I miss driving the Z .

[Zedrally]

Originally posted by Gee

You're not speaking of Chemi-weld are you Mike?

Yep, thats the one!

Snake Oil that actually worked [for a few years]!

[Gav240z]

Compression results finally got a compression tester and well I don't think it's a gasket.

Cylinder's in order are from 1 to 6.

{181, 179, 180, 182, 182, 179}

Minor discrepancies but I put that down to valve adjustment which needed to be done anyway.

Trying to recall the event and definately remember a bang like sound.

I remember the clutch felt like it lost pressure but the resevoir is full.

The car stalled and wouldn't start back up for a while, plugs look definately flooded, was in traffic when it happened.

remember it backfiring and shooting blue smoke out the intake(carbs), i've know the valve stem seals are screwed so that could be the cause.

I'm thinking electrical timing also cause car would start and cut out above 2000rpm put it down to water in chamber but now not so sure.

Just as I was saving for a rebuild still would like to build that motor i was talking about.

Now it seems the engine is ok, as I said no oil in water no water in oil.

Is it possible that the head gasket is slightly blown? but even then the readings would be further apart?.

It was the first time i've used a tester and I disconnected the coil and turned engine with starter and guage went up step by step till it reached a max of ~180 on most cylinders.

Other possibility could it be that the clutch that needed replacement somehow broke or malfunctioned that it caused the engine to stall and not run correctly? I will be pulling gbox anyway so I guess I'll take a look.

Other than that I'm thinking electrical issue causing bad timing.

HELP:disappoin

I will now pull valve cover and take a look for anything like a rocker that's popped off or maybe broken cam oiler even though it supposed to have internally oiled cam as PO said never looked under valve cover will keep posted.

[inline6]

Hey Gav,

I just read the whole post for the first time. If you trust the compression guage, and those numbers, I'd rule out anything major. Head gasket is fine. Water coming from the exhaust is normal during warm up-- plus your not losing coolant and the oil looks fine. Car seems to run fine too you said, right?

I'd also rule out clutch as well. What type of electrical system do you have on the motor? Also, what are you running for an air filter? I'm thinking it's electrical. Have you checked timing with a light yet to see if it is different than usual?

Garrett

[Gav240z]

Thanks for the reply, to start with electrical timing checked out ok with the timing gun, it's running an electronic distributor which has been mapped to the camshaft profile.

Car runs roughly like it's missing at first I put it down to perhaps water that had been making it run poorly.

I still am getting water from the exhaust and it's not just on start up after the incident i noticed a small pool of water behind the exhaust when it had been idling it was cold on the day.

It just doesn't make any sense mind you I haven't really tried to troubleshoot the problem due to being busy.

Any other ideas?

Air filter is a stock air filter and just replaced recently, don't think any foam got sucked into the combustion chamber if that's where ya going :classic: .

The plugs looks fouled up but that's probably from it's poor running I know the distributor cap looks a bit worn out and the rotor button probably could do with a replacement.

There a place to start and cheap enough to do.

I guess I'll keep having a go at it and see what turns out.

:disappoin

[Gav240z]

ok well i drove her today and she seemed normal, it was coughing and spluttering leaned it off a bit and seems a bit nicer. Car feels pretty rough I think the carbs , electrical distributor could use a rebuild.

I really need to get it on the dyno, the clutch has been slipping so that's the first priority.

Can't see any more watery residue so many it was just normal condensation. It's strange cause the car was running for like 30mins before hand.

I gave it a bit of a rev to see and nothing real abnormal just out of tune.

I bought a new rotor button and couldn't get a dizzy cap but will be trying to obtain it soon enough.

I should drop the gbox see why the clutch is slipping then take it along for a dyno run.

Dunno just have to wait and see if it plays up.

:cheeky:

[sjcurtis]

Gav,

okay you get an instant hesitation and bang, I think you may have a problem with your distributor wiring. The electronic Distributor wires terminate on a two pin plug into the black box on the side of the distributor, check for loose or damaged connectors, when these distributors are on injected motors sometimes people put the wires under the air induction plumbing and movement gives a similar result to what you are getting spontaneous bang when one pin looses direct contact. The fix on the injected engines is simple you just pass the loom over the top of the air induction pipe so it rests on top instead of the pipe resting on its no pressure breaking contacts.

I suppose what I am saying is have a look at the wiring and see if it could be working against a good contact of the two connectors in the plug.

now I have more.

are you mixing components on your electronic distributor, is it Hitachi or mitsubishi, do you source your parts using the distributor part number.

regards

Steve:classic:

[Gav240z]

ok the distributor is of mitsubishi origin, why is that? so it's not the Hitachi one the rotor button works fine on it.

the car hasn't really hesitated just seems the carbs are the issue here.

Still can't work out the events that lead to it being the way it was.

The smoke the stall and it not starting again, then a bit of water vapour out the exhaust I admit i did leave it for about 20 mins while I was trying to sort the problem it did rain maybe water went down the exhaust since they point up like the works rally cars exhaust system.

I will fidle with the wiring a bit see what that does but they seem fine and haven't caused an issue since I've had it.

That bang also I'm sure it was there I'll speak to my girlfriend about what she remembers cause she was in the car with me at the time maybe my memory is screwed.

So confused.