I am thinking about buying this Lt1 motor and would like some advice on what to look for and what to listen for that would indicte a serious problem.
This is the motor description and what it is currently doing.

Lt1 350 with ported heads and intake. Lt4 hot cam, 1.6 roller rockers. Pacesetter mid length headers and magnaflow cat back. Msd optispark, Taylor ignition wires, recent spark plugs. Cold air intake. PCM4less tuned ecu. Car put 319 horsepower to the rear wheels on a mustang dyno. Was told motor had about 10k on a rebuild when I bought the car and we've put another 20k or so on it.

and now being New England these cars sit all winter and was recently started and run. This is what the owner said:

Fired it up this year (2013). Was going to trade it whole for a truck but started running hot and drinking coolant this morning.

It's never overheated but always ran at 160, was a pretty constant 210 Sunday when we had it out. Not dripping anywhere, puffs white at idle, and pressurizes the coolant hoses right away on a cold start. Not positive but I'm pretty sure it is a head gasket.
I'd compression test it if it wasn't such a pain to get around the headers. I'm just at the point where I've had enough. If you are still interested I'll let it go very cheap if we get to that point.

for now the oil still looks clean but who knows. I'd advise going through it to be safe but entirely up to you. If it comes to a part out I'd probably ask $500 for it. Heads, hot cam, roller rockers, I'd give the harness, ecu, all accessories, everything. At that price I'd include the msd opti too. It's not on it. Needed a cap/rotor so I put an eBay opti on it for the end of last season.(2012)

So what do you guys think I should expect?
Puffs of white smoke =New head gaskets?
I there is Coolant in the oil would mean trashed bearings right?
Take a valve cover off and look for rockers? what should I see? Aluminum rocker arms? are there stamped steel 1.6 rocker arms?
Need help, I just wanted to do a straight swap of the stock LT1 in my 280Z

 

Sounds like it could be a head gasket to me, although I doubt it really ran as cool as 160 and 210 isn't overheating since stock engines run that temp quite often. He is indicating that it is running a lot hotter than usual. If it did overheat from a blown gasket, it could warp the head a little. If he ran it very long with water in the oil, the bearings could be damaged, but I cant imagine him running it very long if he had a serious overheating problem, and these engines can overheat badly and quickly when a gasket goes and steam gets trapped in the head. I'd say check the oil for mud or pull the valve cover and look for any signs of the chocolate looking oil. Hopefully, the guy hasn't just changed the oil, but some guys do that before selling a car knowing people will check it. Seems like he's being honest about the condition of the engine. If the engine is out of the car, it might be easier to check the compression and inspect the plugs or even pull the pan and check the bearings.. FWIW, I once blew a head gasket at the track and drove to the nearest town having to shut it down twice from overheating, and it was a real mess with coolant all in the oil, but I couldn't see any visible damage to the bearings upon teardown.

The 1.6 roller rockers might be aluminum, or steel, but shouldn't look anything like the stock stamped rockers. Look for roller tips, roller trunions, and posilock type lock nuts.

Let us know what happens.

 

Thanks Kevin that helps a lot, would the coolant also be brownish?, should I take the radiator cap off when cold and check the color although some coolants are orange already.
The engine is still in the car and I told him I wanted to hear it run and the person buying the trans also wants to drive it, Afterwards he is then going to start pulling the engine and trans and start stripping the car.
So once the motor is out I can do a compression test by hand cranking the engine or tap a battery to the starter to crank it a few rotations on each cylinder?
I am going to see it next weekend, this weekend is a snow out with 22" of more snow ARGH
Thanks,
Greg

 

If you suspect a blown head gasket, check the oil vs the coolent.

Remove the oil cap and look for gunk that would remind you of spoiled chocolate milk. That's a sign that coolent and oil were mixed.

If that engine has a blown gasket......it should be rebuilt.

Coolent on rod bearings = bad, bad. bad.......

KW

 

I have seen brown foamy oil once in a friends radiator years ago, he had a bad head gasket.

Stupid question, would the brown milky color be the same regardless of the original coolant color? Green, yellow, Orange?

If the oil is clean but the coolant in the radiator has the bad chocolate milk look what would that indicate?

I am going to insist I be able to take a valve cover off, to be sure I have the 1.6 rockers and to look for burnt valves stems with tar, any metal shavings and scratches on the push rods.

Anything else you recommend ?
thanks,
Greg

 

Antifreeze, regardless of the color, all have pretty much the same chemical make-up. It's the interaction of these chemicals with the oil that produces the brown milky color.

So yes.....same result regardless of the original antifreeze color.

Clean oil will always indicate a recent oil change......may be hiding something.....

When you blow a head gasket, coolent leaks into the engine crankcase. As a result, you coolent level eventually gets low. But oil level stays the same.....because oil is NOT leaking into the cooling system.

The cruddy antifreeze in the coolent system IMO, means......cruddy antifreeze, nothing more. I have never seen oil make it's way into a coolent system, as the result of a blown head gasket.

KW

 

I see head gaskets that are blown, all the time at work, that don't have any coolant in the oil. Go get a block tester kit, if you wanna be sure. If the fluid turns yellow, it needs a head gasket.

 

Sound like a decent deal, just the added pieces are worth $500.