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As you can see/hear in the videos, I'm getting some really loud popping after the car gets up to temp. The smoke that you see seems to have gone away after I added a bottle of K-Seal to the coolant, so I must have had an an internal coolant leak. I can't seem to find a place that wants to even do testing on this car. The motor only has about 500 miles on it, but time-wise, I can't take it back to the builder. Also, regarding the coolant, I see everyone says to fill it up to the top of the neck, but if I do that, when I start it up, it immediately starts pushing out (pic attached of where the level seems to settle after running). I'm also seeing steam out of the radiator cap. For reference, I'm running Evan's NPG, so the cap low pressure cap (if that makes any diff).
What do you guys think? Am I screwed? Do I just need to pull the heads? If so, is there any way to know which head I should pull since it's such a pain? Or does it seem bad enough I need to pull the whole motor?
I don't think the coolant itself is much of the issue. I'm more concerned with the popping (is that considered backfiring or a miss?) But the coolant being pushed out on start up is the coolant system being pressurized? Do I need to pull the heads? Any way to determine which one if so?
I've never been good at picking up these sounds on brief videos. I tried listening with high end Sennheiser headphones, and still hard to tell what the sounds are. Almost sounds like a "pop" (misfire) with a lot of liquid in the exhaust.
Does the NPG impart a smell to the exhaust like ethylene glycol?
I've never been good at picking up these sounds on brief videos. I tried listening with high end Sennheiser headphones, and still hard to tell what the sounds are. Almost sounds like a "pop" (misfire) with a lot of liquid in the exhaust.
Does the NPG impart a smell to the exhaust like ethylene glycol?
Npg doesn't have that sweet smell. I know I was getting coolant into the engine as after I added the k-seal to the coolant, the smoke stopped. However, I could still have the cylinders pressuring the coolant system as k-seal wouldn't stop that.
Well, the answer is not one you'll want to hear. Me personally, I'd rather pull the whole eng/trans/k-member than to pull the heads in the vehicle. That's my biggest beef with the factory setup and the vehicle as a whole with an lt1, which can be problematic as daily driven " race cars".
Now, on to the fun stuff. You need to pull all the plugs out. You can start by doing a compression test. The leaking cylinder should show weaker. If not, you need to do a leak down test, which you likely don't have the tool for. Neither of which is much fun in the car, especially with factory manifolds.
This time around, hopefully the last,.....I'm standing my radiator up with a Griffin, and installing 24x torque head conversion. Will give much more room to work, and hopefully better reliability/driveability, not to mention easier to find tuners with the ls pcm swap, that's the biggest pro
Well, the answer is not one you'll want to hear. Me personally, I'd rather pull the whole eng/trans/k-member than to pull the heads in the vehicle. That's my biggest beef with the factory setup and the vehicle as a whole with an lt1, which can be problematic as daily driven " race cars".
Now, on to the fun stuff. You need to pull all the plugs out. You can start by doing a compression test. The leaking cylinder should show weaker. If not, you need to do a leak down test, which you likely don't have the tool for. Neither of which is much fun in the car, especially with factory manifolds.
This time around, hopefully the last,.....I'm standing my radiator up with a Griffin, and installing 24x torque head conversion. Will give much more room to work, and hopefully better reliability/driveability, not to mention easier to find tuners with the ls pcm swap, that's the biggest pro
I actually picked up a compression tester and air compressor Friday and have a leakdown tester on the way from Jegs. Seemed like I didn't have much of a choice. :
I have turbo headers on it, so some of the plugs are a little easier to get to. Haha. So you're talking about dropping everything out of the bottom, right? I don't think I'd have the room in my standard garage to do that and no lift you get the body high enough anyways. :/ How'd you do it?
Go to post #23 to find links that work. The bottom link is the .pdf of the picture file. Around page 82 of 237 it shows pics related to unbolting the K-Member, then raising the nose of the car with an engine hoist. Works in the typical 7 to 8-ft tall garage.
Go to post #23 to find links that work. The bottom link is the .pdf of the picture file. Around page 82 of 237 it shows pics related to unbolting the K-Member, then raising the nose of the car with an engine hoist. Works in the typical 7 to 8-ft tall garage.
Wow, that's some craziness! I wonder if that really is easier than pulling the heads in the car. Something I'll have to consider after doing the testing. Thank you for pulling info up!
I'm "older" , not old, and broken (couple motorcycle accidents and then some). So for me it's easier out the bottom, BUT, I do have a lift. Now if I had to do it by raising the vehicle either with chain fall, or engine hoist, I might have to think about it, of I was in better condition, but I still think I'd yank the whole drive train. I've done it so many times though unfortunately I would consider myself a pro. With a lift I think the fastest I've done it alone was about 1.5 hours. After that anything you need to do on the engine is really easily accomplished and from a chair. It really isn't as hard as you think.
Torqing heads down IN an f body is NOT my idea of fun, much less pulling them and fighting header bolts. You drop the whole k member with headers and everything is literally 5 minutes on the ground, that's where you make up the time
A couple of my old pulls... the last two pics are the first time I did the pull with chains around the rails.
Got smarter and used all thread, in the shock towers, with thick washers on the back to link a chain across the towers. Much like some gents use a strut tower brace to raise the body.
I also stopped using jack stands to rest the body on and built some much more stable 2x4 stands.
Awesome pics and info! Looks like some crazy giant Jenga! .
So check this out; when the turbo was installed, my core support was cut and moved forward about 6". If after of course removing the turbo, radiator, fans, etc, do you think I could pull it out the top with headers intact?
Originally Posted by ACE1252
A couple of my old pulls... the last two pics are the first time I did the pull with chains around the rails.
Got smarter and used all thread, in the shock towers, with thick washers on the back to link a chain across the towers. Much like some gents use a strut tower brace to raise the body.
I also stopped using jack stands to rest the body on and built some much more stable 2x4 stands.
now thats exactly why im standing my radiator up this time as well. I think you'll have the space needed if you're upper support is removeable, and that changes everything
Although it is bolted on as well, it is also welded on the ends. However, it is a thin bar, and I would imagine very easily welded back in if cut out.
Thoughts?
Originally Posted by blown94
now thats exactly why im standing my radiator up this time as well. I think you'll have the space needed if you're upper support is removeable, and that changes everything
Need Big Help with LTX Engine
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