head gasket

I've just about had it with this car. Every time I fix something, 2 things break. After fixing my fuel injectors(small leak), I now have white smoke coming out of exhaust, and what appears to be oil?!! The head gasket was new when i bought it, and all reaserch says either blown gasket or bad/ warped head. Great. just what I wanted to read. I checked my coolant overflow and there is no oil in it. I checked and havent had to add any coolant to the engine. I had the oil changed last week, when everything started to go to sh!t.

so next thing is compression test on all cylinders?
boost leak?

There are no puddles under the car. The 6bolt 4g63t and I are going to have a long chat this winter on the engine stand about why its being such a little bastard. After I'm done bitching out the engine, I'm going to replace everything in my engine bay. There are too many issues with this car that keep poping up. If its not one thing its the other.

Rant over
sorry

Here are a few tell tale signs that your headgasket is going/gone.

1: Overheating while driving
2: Coolant in OIL
3: Oil in COOLANT
4: Copious amounts of white smoke coming out of your tailpipe, think "Spy Hunter" smoke screen
5: Leaks at or around the head-block surface.
6: Extreme random consumption of either of the two fluids above.
7: "Chocolate Milkshake" appearance of oil cap and the oil in your head.

Any of those in your scenario?

#1 symptom of a blown HG in a DSM: pushing coolant out the overflow after getting into the boost.

none of those symptoms. the exhaust has the same consistancey as a cold winter start. if i get on the gas pedal more comes out..

So you aren't losing coolant or oil?

not that i can see. was figuring was leaking small amount right into combustion chaber and gettin burned up thaty way.

Maybe you have a few bad valve stem seals.....

How long has the car been sitting?

a week...

Well, if you aren't overheating, pushing coolant, losing coolant or burning coolant, then I would suspect your headgasket is fine.

I would go ahead and start with a compression test to be sure.

Let us know how it goes! And don't forget to get your engine up to operating temperature before doing the compression test.

roger that.. thanks for input. ill try to post a link to a video i might shoot tomorrow if all else fails...

Did you check your turbo?

i took off the air intake doesnt seem out of the ordinary, all the conections are tight. but then again, should what shouyld i be looking for? i didnt touch the fan blades because they were hot from running the engine..

Blown seals can push oil into the turbine housing. It IS possible to pull just the turbine housing off the car, and not drain any fluids. Then again, if it's a 2G, you don't have to drain ANY fluids to pull the turbo off.

An easy way to check if the smoke is from the turbo or not:
Run the motor and loosen the four manifold to turbo bolts, and see if smoke comes out of the gap you made.
This will only work if there is a considerable amount of smoke.

From the description, it sounds like the smoke could just be condensation or leaky valve seals, both from having the car sit for a long time.

Don't discount it being a fuel problem either - maybe there's too much dumped in, at least on start-up.

Oil, coolant and fuel each have a distinct smell. The colour of the smoke is not a very good indicator, though.

The best check for head gasket is a leak-down test.

Agreed. Oil and being rich during idle can look the same, and smell the same.

It's only when something's REALLY gone that you can tell the difference with the smoke, however by this point there are other factors to confirm this.

A great way to check valve seals if you don't have a leakdown tester is to have someone follow you down a hill. Put it in 3rd and leave the clutch out and coast down the hill. When you get to the bottom, punch it. If a good grey/blue puff of smoke comes out, it's an indicator. The vacuum created when coasting (healthy motor sees upwards of 26in/hg) will suck in the oil past the valve seals if they are leaking.

compression test. 150, 155, 152, 148.... remember i said 1 thing breaks, fix it, 2 things break? found a 3 finger hole in my apexi 3" exhaust. Right where the pipe and muffle meet.

after the compression test I took it around the block. Like I thought, with more throttle out came more smoke. but its still white, car still has eratic idle(almost like its missing), all brand new plugs...
mods. walbro 255, 550'c, big 16g, ngk bpr7es, was running fine till a week ago at 20 psi..

It's possible that you might have filled up with a bad batch of gas from some station, and your tank might have alot of condensation because of that. Fill up the tank with some fresh gas.

Also...stand near the exhaust and smell the white smoke. Does it have smell to it? ...coolant smoke usually has a sweet smell to it.

Otherwise your compression numbers look ok.. but you should still pull the valve cover off and check the torque on the head studs. The head might might not have been tightened properly.

was the head removed? for a gasket replacement?

Is so you should have checked it for straightness, with a straightedge and a feeler guage. also, it wouldn't have been a bad idea to have it pressure tested (for cracks) and vaccum tested (checking seats).
most auto machine shops can perform these services for you for a resonable fee.

you need to determine wheather you are losing coolant or not. does the system build pressure? carefully check the rad cap after a run in which you reach full operating temp.

if it blows white smoke under load, then you probably are burning coolant. a comp test doesnt reach the same pressure as combustion.

the car isnt the problem.

the head wasnt removed since i owned it. over 1.5 yrs now. The coolant system builds pressure. if the car isnt the problem, what is? I'm going to have a mechanic friend come over and diagnose.. i dont think its coolant. buttttt.. we will see.?

Is it oil or coolant, should be easy to differentiate stick your nose right in the tail pipe after smoke appears, or follow your car well under boost, new oil looks white.

Probably a bad PCV valve, cause it's only a prob under boost, end of story. Use a factory PCV !!!!

You did mention the HG was new when you got it though 1.5yrs ago, wouldn't hurt to re-torque.

Did you spray your throttle body with a cleaner recently? If so you may have destroyed the wax pellet in the FIAV and coolant could be entering your intake manifold through your TB.

Pull the TB off and check to see if there is any coolant in the intake manifold. You can also try bypassing the coolant around the TB temporarily and see if things get better.