Well I just bought a 97 TA with a 383 stroker with ported heads in it that had 18k miles on the engine. It sat for about a year but was started occasionally (so I was told). Well 10 min. on my first ride I laid into it and a big cloud of white smoke came out and car died. I assumed HG and bought a new set. When I took off the intake the right bank head runners on the last cyl. were basically full to the top with antifreeze. I changed the headgasket, put it back together and started it up. Almost right away the right bank had steam coming off by the headers so I shut it off to see if it was just burning old antifreeze off or new stuff. I did not see anything wrong so I now added antifreeze to the radiator (it was low from before when it broke) and then the car turned over a little and locked up, from being full of water again. This time when I pulled off the intake BOTH heads had the runners full of water on the last cyl on each side of engine. I am thinking that the right side has a cracked head (I visually inspected it but saw nothing when i previously had it out). My question is have any of you guys ever saw this before? It is my first time digging into one of these engines and I could guess all day long but would rather hear from the experts

Also, there are not any shops around here that can test the head for leaks, I am basically on my own. Sorry for the long post, just wanted to be accurate.

 

Cracked head or cracked block. Can you get your money back? Now we know why it was sitting.

Rich

 

how will I know if it is the block? I bought a head from a guy on this forum this evening so I was just gonna throw it on and hope for the best. Let me know ifyou have any other suggestions.