Symptons of a Blown Head Gasket?!?!?! JR!!!!

[DARK-5.0]

I am needing help in identifying if I have a blown head gasket. It all started 2 weeks ago when after the dyno, the car began running worse and worse. I was driving one morning to play golf and during acceleration in 2nd, the car just shut off. I was so pissed off that I just had it towed back to my house and I began to tear it down, still in my golf clothes, ha. I didn't even care to try starting it again, which i regret now. Well I got it put together last week but ran into a small coolant leak on the lower intake. So i pulled it off, cleaned all the coolant out of the valley, sealed the intake back up real well and put everything else back on. Last night I drained all the oil and coolant out of the pan and I let it drain from last night until tonight to make sure everything drained. Then tonight I used an extra quart of oil and let it run through so it would flush the pan of all the coolant. All that was coming out was oil, no coolant. So i plugged it up and added 5 fresh qrts. Then I tried starting it. It ran, but really rough and I was having to force it to stay alive. The throttle wasn't corroperating either, I could put it to the floor but it wouldnt go above maybe 2500. It would just start getting real choked up. I checked the dipstick after that and it was milky again. I dunno if that was from some coolant still in the pan maybe or what. But it won't run like it should so I am needing some help.

Jeremy

 

[94twinscrew]

I hate to say it,but you already have the answer in your oil pan.Head gasket most likely,if not,...maybe you have a warped or cracked a coolant passage on the lower intake.Sorry man

 

[DARK-5.0]

Thats what I was afraid of. I did have the two coolant holes in the back of the lower welded up, but it ran fine after that for a few days before the dyno, so I'm sure that the lower isn't warped. Anyone else??

Jeremy

 

[94TURBO5 O]

It sounds as if you may have lifted the heads on the dyno. How did the dyno session go? Was there any problems there or did it run like crap right after you left?

 

[DARK-5.0]

The car didn't show any kinda blow on the dyno chart, but it didn't dyno anywhere near what it should be. I dyno'd at 260 and like 294 but it should be at 300 if not more with a little over 300 ft lbs. But yes, it ran like complete **** after the dyno, i drove it for a few days but it just kept getting worse and worse. Then that one morning I was driving in 2nd when it just shut off.

Jeremy

 

[wytstang]

I would pull the heads and have a machine shop put a straight edge on it and make sure the surface is "true" not warped. Do you have exhaust gases coming from your radiator. When it's cold start her up with the rad. cap off and see if you have any exhaust bubble forming(it's one sign of a blown H. gasket). That's a little trick I learned when I worked at ford a while back.

 

[DARK-5.0]

I know about the radiator cap trick but i can't get the car to run, i have to keep my foot to the floor to have it sit around 2500. Its all messed up. I'm guessing there is just dick for compression.

Jeremy

 

[DARK-5.0]

What kind of gaskets should I get for this time around. Any suggestions??

Jeremy

 

[94TURBO5 O]

I'm currently using some OEM replacements from NAPA.
Is your car overheating when it was running like crap?
How does the oil look, now?
If it runs coolant first when you drain it then it's most likely your HG.

Get some OEM replacements from Summit like Fel-Pro.
Who put your heads on for you?

 

[DARK-5.0]

Well i flushed the pan out and all that was coming out was oil. No more coolant. I checked the dipstick and all it was was oil. I turn the car on. It ran like complete crap. Wouldn't stay alive. A little bit of smoking. Then I checked the dipstick and it was milky. Thats why I figured it was a blown headgasket.
I had a buddy of my older brothers do them because he works at the local lincoln/mercury dealer but he's the one that put my brothers motor together and has worked on a couple other guys 5.0's. The thing that worries me is that both felpro gaskets in the box were the same. They both had front on the same side. So he flipped the driver side over so the coolant passages wouldn't be blocked. I'm gonna do a compression check tonight but it its on the driver side, then I'm gonna be questioning him.

Jeremy

 

[DARK-5.0]

Well i flushed the pan out and all that was coming out was oil. No more coolant. I checked the dipstick and all it was was oil. I turn the car on. It ran like complete crap. Wouldn't stay alive. A little bit of smoking. Then I checked the dipstick and it was milky. Thats why I figured it was a blown headgasket.
I had a buddy of my older brothers do them because he works at the local lincoln/mercury dealer but he's the one that put my brothers motor together and has worked on a couple other guys 5.0's. The thing that worries me is that both felpro gaskets in the box were the same. They both had front on the same side. So he flipped the driver side over so the coolant passages wouldn't be blocked. I'm gonna do a compression check tonight but it its on the driver side, then I'm gonna be questioning him.

Jeremy

 

[94TURBO5 O]

They both will say front but they must be opposite on both sides, so you only face one to the front and the other the opposite way. He did it right and I was only asking b/c I was wondering are you gonna do this yourself?

If the HG is blown it will have a miss and sound like a huge exhaust leak.

 

[DARK-5.0]

Ok, It definitely did have an exhaust leak sound. But of course I just thought that must be an exhaust leak. But I did a compression check earlier and it came out as it:
1 155
2 130
3 140
4 150
5 140
6 150
7 140
8 129

Tell me what you guys think.

Jeremy

:EDIT: I tried doing it out of memory the first time, but now i corrected all the numbers

 

[DARK-5.0]

I forgot to tell you give or take 1 psi for the gauge. It was hard to read but everyone was pretty over the marker.

Jeremy

 

[ProKiller]

what do your spark plugs look like? they have any green on them? they all look about the same? i've had my head gaskets blown twice now and both times i could right away from the plugs. how does your exhaust smell? normal? rich? coolantish? does it overheat?

 

[DARK-5.0]

Well thats the other thing I forgot to post. I cleaned the plugs really well before I tried starting it, but I pulled them back out and they were black black. They pretty much smelled like gas like it was just way too rich and maybe flooding the motor, but how do those compression numbers look. They look to be within 10% of each other.

Jeremy

 

[Silver85TC]

Just wondering if you're dealing with two different problems here. Since your plugs fouled in a very short time, you are obviously running really rich which could make the car hard to start and will make it run like crap.

I would check your fuel pressure to make sure your FPR isn't causing the problem. Really high fuel pressure will obviously make your car run rich. It will also wash the cylinder walls and cause fuel to mix with the oil causing a milky appearance.

The FPR bit the dust on my T-bird last spring (failed full open). It happened just after I did a tuneup on the car. Took my a while to figure out why my car was so hard to start and was running like absolute crap, since I had just done a full tuneup. I thought I had a bad plug wire or spark plug, but couldn't find a problem. Finally checked the fuel pressure and it pegged the gauge! (100 PSI + )!!
Installed a new stocker FPR and the car ran like new.

Goodluck

 

[ProKiller]

i had that problem with the fpr. my aeromotive adjustable went bad on me. after running it would slowly idling like crap and eventually shut off. found out what it was after pulling the upper intake off and gas comes pouring out the vacuum line in the back. fpr was spuing fuel out of the air line. got a new one on there and ran like a swiss clock.

try the fpr. if there was no coolant in the oil and no evidence of it on the plugs, then that pretty much eliminates a blown headgasket.

 

[DARK-5.0]

Thanks, I'll be out of town tomorrow, but wed I'll get back to checking things out. I think I'm gonna start by pulling the vaccum off the reg. and also pulling my custom chip out.

Jeremy

 

[Trigger]

I blew a head gasket the day after I put on my supercharger and the classic symptom for me was white smoke billowing out of the tailpipes. Has that happened? If not, it may not be a head gasket.