White Smoke

[goober]

I just put new lifters in and now i have coolant coming out the tail pipes in the form of white smoke. What could it be a blow head gasket, or something else. My question is how more can i turn the head bolts. I did the 22ftlb the the 90' and the next 90 and the 50 on the short ones. can i turn them any more just to see if the fing head did not seat or some thing. This was not happening when i took the heads off. Only sens i put the new lifters in. I need some help guys what do yall think.

thanks justin

P.S. I dont want to here any thing about my spelling.

[mbaskett]

From what I've seen about how these heads gaskets go, once they develop a leak, they lose the surface material. What head gaskets did you use? I've had bad luck with the Napa ones... The only ones I've seen seal properly consitently is the ones you get from the dealership. They're more expensive, though :(

At least the napa gaskets have a warranty.

Turning the bolts more *may* help, but if you've already lost the material on the gasket, tightening it down more isn't going to help out much.

When you put the head back on, did you clean the deck surface of the block real good as well as the surface on the head?

Did the lifter swap solve the ticking problem?

[Eller]

I stopped by Justin's place after class last night.. He was finishing up putting the heads on.. Well about 1:00am we fired it up.. Ticking sound is still there.. Interesting that now it's coming from the passenger side since last time it was on the driver side.. WTF? It wasn't the lifters even though he claims one of the stockers was collapsed.. It threw a code initially but it went away.. The car smelled like it was getting a little hot (coolant) Temp was fine though.. Looked under the car and it was shooting a tad of white from the duals.. I've seen much worse in terms of white smoke however.. The passener head seemed hotter than the driver? That was odd...

Things I've been thinking about.. I know Justin has used the GM header gaskets 5 times.. Maybe they are leaking causing the ticking? Also may be the culprit of the noise switching sides, meaning the gasket that's not sealing was moved to the other side..

Now, for those of us that don't know, what will happen if a head gasket (Felpro from Oreilly) is put on backward in some way blocking the coolant passages.. What is the result? Would the pressure blow the gasket? Could this be the cause for the hotter head on one side? Also, I beleive the gaskets are symetrical?

[funkybunchjr]

i dont think the presure would blow the gasket, but if was on backwards if could make it overheat, if you look at the gasket you will see that there no coolant holes in the front, but there are holes in the back. The coolant flows from the front of the head to the back of the head and then from the back of the block to the front. if the gasket was on the wrong way i see how it could overheat and not show on the temp gauge. My guess is that the head gaskets are on backwards. And put some new header gaskets on next time man, i hate exhaust leaks :D

[mbaskett]

Aaron explained exactly what will happen if the head gaskets don't go on the correct direction... coolant doesn't flow right, so the rear cylinders will heat up more than the front... Keep in mind the temp sensor is on the FRONT of the driver side head too... so could be giving an innaccurate reading....

The ticking could very well be an exhaust leak at the header, especially since it switched sides on this last swap.... I've got brand new ones if you guys need some...

Have you guys been able to tell if the white smoke was oil burning or coolant? What does the oil look like on the dipstick?

[funkybunchjr]

Funky does the happy dance, damn i'm good (for a drugged up white guy) I'm slowly gettin these LS1's fingered out

[Eller]

I was dim from the light of the garage, so I couldn't tell if it had a blue tinge to it.. It wasn't a lot of white smoke though.. I told him about comparing the gaskets to the stock GM gaskets when the heads are off.. There also seemed to be some issue with the heads torquing to easy.. Maybe they weren't fully seated, and acting similarly to a blown head gasket??? The oil looked ok.. He needs to change it though.. I'm going to stop by Justin's after class tonight..

[mbaskett]

I"ll have my phone on me, so if you have questions, just call...

The heads should be fully seated flat when you make the first torque pass. Usually I'll go back a second time over all the bolts to make sure that tightening the outsides didn't loosen up the inner bolts, etc.... If the head 'stuck' slightly on the head guide, you might have been able to reach the first torque spec before the head was actually flush on the deck...... that's why I usually seat, and re-seat them... kinda like jigglin the handle, just to make sure ;)

[funkybunchjr]

yeah but you have to juggle the handle and flush a cherry bomb, followed by a violent beating with the plunger :D

[goober]

it is coolant. just ran it a min ago and it was a shower coming out of the duals. :( O well i will get new exhaust gaskets and i already have new head gaskets. Well i will star the hole proses again. On the up side i am getting good at knowing the motor realy well. Well 8 more hours to work on the car and it will hopefully be up and running strong.

[funkybunchjr]

8 hours? come on man, i know you can do it faster than that :fonz:

[Maxed]

A couple of more things to consider. The surfaces of the block and heads must be absolutely clean. I use a clean rag with alcohol until the rag comes away clean. Also make sure that you have cleaned out all the coolant from the head bolt holes. I found it easiest to roll a shop towel (the blue one) into a long skinny strip and "twist" in down the holes until dry. If you don't get all the water out you could hydrolock the hole and split the block. Another thing I do is grind two sides of an old head bolt flat and use it to clean the threads. It would suprise you how dirty the threads get.

-Allen

[mbaskett]

A couple of more things to consider. The surfaces of the block and heads must be absolutely clean. I use a clean rag with alcohol until the rag comes away clean. Also make sure that you have cleaned out all the coolant from the head bolt holes. I found it easiest to roll a shop towel (the blue one) into a long skinny strip and "twist" in down the holes until dry. If you don't get all the water out you could hydrolock the hole and split the block. Another thing I do is grind two sides of an old head bolt flat and use it to clean the threads. It would suprise you how dirty the threads get.

-Allen
sage advise... Clean surfaces are an absolute must!

I've found that the third set of head bolts don't go in right until the threads have been cleaned... it's all that threadlock that GM uses on the bolts. It balls up and stays in the hole....

Yet another reason I love having head studs!!!!!!

[funkybunchjr]

ahhh, headstuds good stuff and WELL WORTH THE MONEY