Headgasket or intake gasket probs?

RYC CUKR

Founding Member
May 19, 2002
1,437
1
38
Orlando
Got a problem with the 88 coupe.

I was heading over to a friends house yesterday and here is a quick rundown on what I was doing and what happened.

I was on one of the local toll roads coming out of the plaza passing a guy. In 3rd gear around 4k rpm. When I shifted into 4th I noticed the car didn't quite feel right. I got off at the next exit and noticed that it had developed a little miss. The miss got worse as I tried to limp it to my friends house. I was accelerating off from a light and when I looked in the mirror I noticed the telltale cloud of white smoke and the distinct smell of coolant. Got to my buddies house and got under the car and it was smoking out of the left (DS) tailpipe. My first thought was a bad HG. The car wasn't overheating or having any other problems. Stayed right at 180* on an autometer mechanical temp gauge.

I checked the oil and it looked fine, no chocolate milkshake. So I had my buddy follow me home and I limped the car back home, probably around 10 miles. The temp stayed right at 180* the whole drive.

Here is what I found when I got home.

The #5 plug was wet when I pulled it, definitely had coolant on it.

Pulled all the plugs and ran a compression test. Result ranging from 145-160 psi. The #5 cylinder was at 160 psi. The test was run with the engine warm and throttle blade fully open. Haven't run a leakdown test or checked the coolant for any products of combustion.

With the compression test results I am beginning to wonder if the HG might be fine and instead the intake gasket ruptured into the #5 intake port and that is where I am getting the coolant in the exhaust from. The car was down probably a little less than a gallon of coolant by the time I got home.

So any other ideas or input would be great. At least its not my DD.
 
  • Sponsors (?)


The only pleasant thing about a problem like this is the solution. You pull the intake manifold carefully, trying not to tear or rip it. The reason being so you can examine the intake gasket. If there is an obvious tear between one of the water ports and one of the cylinders, voila, problem solved. You slap on a new intake gasket and you're fine. If however, the intake gaskets look great and you are scratching your head, you are by default resigned to believe that it is a head gasket and you will have to replace them.

Long story short: Pulling the intake will have not been a waste, since you would have needed to do it anyway.
 
The only pleasant thing about a problem like this is the solution. You pull the intake manifold carefully, trying not to tear or rip it. The reason being so you can examine the intake gasket. If there is an obvious tear between one of the water ports and one of the cylinders, voila, problem solved. You slap on a new intake gasket and you're fine. If however, the intake gaskets look great and you are scratching your head, you are by default resigned to believe that it is a head gasket and you will have to replace them.

Long story short: Pulling the intake will have not been a waste, since you would have needed to do it anyway.

i bet that made him feel a little better about the situation. well put man :nice:
 
I'll probably pull it apart this weekend and see if its the intake.

I pretty much figured it would be the same process as jtfairlane said but wanted to ask in case anyone had any other ideas on what the problem might be.

Thanks for the help guys.