How bad?

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KnuckleDuster

KnuckleDuster

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Ran the car at the track Friday.
No issues. Drove the car Sunday and all was good. No smoke, no overheating, nada.

It was 28° here last night , but warmed up today.
Went to crank it an hour ago and it didn't want to. Acted like the starter was stuck.
Finally cranks and after running for a few I notice white smoke out the passenger bank.
Thinking it was condensation checked the dipstick, and the oil looked fine.
I let it run on fast idle, but it didn't clear up.
Than I looked and saw the temp was about 215° and shut it down.
Felt the radiator and it was stone cold. Opened it and dry pressure escaped, no coolant to be seen.
I think the intake gasket failed. I reused after head porting them because they looked fine. Guess that was a bad idea.
Plugs 6 and 8 are a little wet.
So as far as I know it only ran a few minutes with coolant in it at idle.
My question is how much damage do you think it did? It ran a max of 1500 at idle for 6-8 minutes.
It was running fine other than the smoke. I don't hear any knocking or strange noises.
About to go drain the oil and start pulling the intake.
Could the bearings still be ok?
 
You're fine. I'm a Dyno Tech for 35 years. Change the intake gasket & Oil. Recheck when done.
 
I think it’ll be fine.
It has oil, your food there.
No coolent? Double check it didn’t make its way into the oil. Pull the dip stick and check for a milk shake or just straight oil.
 
If it was just the gasket failed at startup , then it ought to be OK. The 'stuck' starter' symptom is concerning as it might have gotten into a cylinder in some quantity and hydro-locked. If so, then the starter probably could not bend anything. I does sound like you lost a lot of coolant.....

If it leaked overnight into the cylinder and got into the pan, you'll know when you drain the pan.
 
from rumblefish
I think it’ll be fine.
It has oil, your food there.
No coolent? Double check it didn’t make its way into the oil. Pull the dip stick and check for a milk shake or just straight oil.


or open the oil cap and see what it looks there.
 
The biggest thing is get that oil drained asap. After you get it running again I would run a while then change the oil again.
Get a mechanics stethescope and poke around on the pan with it idling. If any bearings are knocking you should be able to hear it. I have seen engines run with milkshake oil and no damage to bearings.
Good luck my friend.
 
I do picture to show people what is possible. Sometimes it works? Yes it's real. Car is currently in paint shop. So probably in the spring I will Dyno test it. One last photo. Lol

IMG_25071.jpg
 
72Dart6pack said:
I do picture to show people what is possible. Sometimes it works? Yes it's real. Car is currently in paint shop. So probably in the spring I will Dyno test it. One last photo. Lol

View attachment 1715249028
Click to expand...
The Mopar Sick Pack is such a pretty little engine, the magic never seems to wear off no matter how many pics, lolol! Cross rams are the only thing close to the visual appeal...
 
Garrett Ellison said:
The Mopar Sick Pack is such a pretty little engine, the magic never seems to wear off no matter how many pics, lolol! Cross rams are the only thing close to the visual appeal...
Click to expand...
At this point, ANYTHING in a running car would beat it
 
No one thinks it's a blown head gasket huh?
I do. (between cyl 6-8 and the water jacket coolant ports)
 
Ha Ha, it definitely can be frustrating at times, I too am guilty of working on the details more than I am of getting out and driving as much as I’d like to, especially while single parenting etc. etc. I am very thankful for all the time everyone puts in on here though! I really don’t think I could do what I have been able to accomplish what I have without all the articles and forums, trying to give back whenever possible.
 
I have a sneaking suspicion that your coolant leak started after your trip to the track and then slowly got worse after driving the following day. It probably had lost most of the missing coolant near the end of your drive. I’ve had this happen before but knew I had a head gasket going out beforehand by the recovery tank filling from system pressure. It would then go back empty overnight. Was keeping close tabs on the coolant but it didn’t last too much longer after that before it steam cleaned the two center cylinders in a Nissan Z24...
 
Gonna wait until the morning to pull the intake and think this through.

Heads were just milled .004 clean up on the decks.
Head gaskets are 1008, brand new.
ARP bolts
All holes chased
ARP lube torqued and retorqued after running with my digital Snap On Techwrench to 100 ftlbs.
Pretty sure it's not the headgaskets.
Betting on the reused intake gasket failing and leaking coolant from the dead end of the head coolant passage at the intake, into 6 and 8 intake runners.

But, where did the coolant go?
Could it have been a slow leak that opened up today and I missed the wisps of smoke before?
Hard to say how much coolant is gone. Can't see past the top of the tubes in the radiator...can't feel any in the top hose, and it was cool like the top of the radiator.
Should the gasket be obviously wet when I pull the intake?
 
Garrett Ellison said:
I have a sneaking suspicion that your coolant leak started after your trip to the track and then slowly got worse after driving the following day. It probably had lost most of the missing coolant near the end of your drive. I’ve had this happen before but knew I had a head gasket going out beforehand by the recovery tank filling from system pressure. It would then go back empty overnight. Was keeping close tabs on the coolant but it didn’t last too much longer after that before it steam cleaned the two center cylinders in a Nissan Z24...
Click to expand...


We were both typing and thinking about the same thing.
I guess I might as well pull the head unless the intake gasket is a smoking gun.
 
I would certainly expect it to be.

I agree with the thought that this has been going down gradually. If it slow into the chambers, then it will just burn right off, with no visible smoke except when cold.

Head crack into the chamber is also a possibility. Pull all the plugs and examine.

Can't really see the oil pix for sure... do you mean the slight variations in shading? Smell it to see if you smell A-F.
 
KnuckleDuster said:
Gonna wait until the morning to pull the intake and think this through.

Heads were just milled .004 clean up on the decks.
Head gaskets are 1008, brand new.
ARP bolts
All holes chased
ARP lube torqued and retorqued after running with my digital Snap On Techwrench to 100 ftlbs.
Pretty sure it's not the headgaskets.
Betting on the reused intake gasket failing between 6 and 8.

But, where did the coolant go?
Could it have been a slow leak that opened up today and I missed the wisps of smoke before?
Hard to say how much coolant is gone. Can't see past the top of the tubes in the radiator...can't feel any in the top hose, and it was cool like the top of the radiator.
Should the gasket be obviously wet when I pull the intake?
Click to expand...
I think your right on this one, if it’s the intake gasket it will only lose about one third
KnuckleDuster said:
Gonna wait until the morning to pull the intake and think this through.

Heads were just milled .004 clean up on the decks.
Head gaskets are 1008, brand new.
ARP bolts
All holes chased
ARP lube torqued and retorqued after running with my digital Snap On Techwrench to 100 ftlbs.
Pretty sure it's not the headgaskets.
Betting on the reused intake gasket failing and leaking coolant from the dead end of the head coolant passage at the intake, into 6 and 8 intake runners.

But, where did the coolant go?
Could it have been a slow leak that opened up today and I missed the wisps of smoke before?
Hard to say how much coolant is gone. Can't see past the top of the tubes in the radiator...can't feel any in the top hose, and it was cool like the top of the radiator.
Should the gasket be obviously wet when I pull the intake?
Click to expand...
i would imagine it would show traces of the fluid path but it seems somewhat unlikely it would come past number eight intake port and into number six without pouring out into the valley underneath as well, but it is possible, double check the mating surfaces for true flatness when you pull the intake. Were the block decks trued up as well? My head gasket problem was caused by installing a reconditioned head on a used block without the deck surface of the block being trued as well. It makes a difference when you only have four bolts per cylinder for clamp load but mine was also aggravated by an aluminum head on an iron block. Even though it only took 4 thousandths to clean up the heads, the block decks are usually off by a similar amount... I recommend a full compression test, I am really curious as to what you find when you get into it.
 
The block was square decked when the engine was machined.
The heads got decked earlier this year.
Maybe 4000 miles apart.

Heads are Edelbrock 60779 63cc closed chamber, btw...
 
Sounds to me like you did not have enough antifreeze mixed with the water and what happened was it separated it froze in the radiator so it would not allow the coolant to circulate through the engine that's why your radiator was cool on top but your engine was up to temperature.
 
KnuckleDuster said:
The block was square decked when the engine was machined.
The heads got decked earlier this year.
Maybe 4000 miles apart.

Heads are Edelbrock 60779 63cc closed chamber, btw...
Click to expand...
Greater possibility the used intake gaskets are the problem, especially if the intake manifold surfaces are the least bit warped. Did the intake surfaces of the heads have to be trued to compensate for the block cut? The .004 on the heads shouldn’t make much difference but if the block had to be cut 10 thousandths or more it could be an issue...
 
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