so i was driving the car to storage today and it was running just fine. all of the sudden a light ticking occurs and it starts to run funny. i stop and shut it off. i come back 5 minutes later, start it up again and it's smoking really bad (steamish like antifreeze would) and smacking loudly like a rod would. i drove it the rest of the way to the storage garage (probably a 20 second drive) and shut it off as fast as possible. i gave it a visual and i noticed water dripping out of both header collectors where it meets the y-pipe. I obviously got antifreeze in the cylinders, but how do you get antifreeze in both sides of the motor? the chances of both head gaskets blowing at the same time are slimmer than winning the lottery. Keep in mind that this motor has barely over 600 miles on it. good thick felpro gaskets and all. There was no sign of antifreeze laying around on the top of the head and there was no sign of it on the oil dipstick. the car did not overheat or anything and i did not abuse it. I'm questioning all of this. either way, i'm pretty pissed because I'll probably have something damaged on my forged 355. if one of those je pistons has a hole in it, i'll really be down the ****ter on money. it's 11.4:1 compression so there's not much room for water to work around. I'm going to tear it dow this winter, but I'm wondering what damage could be done. with as little as the incodent was, i wouldn't think the rod or piston broke, but you never know. Any suggestions on what could be the cause helps very much. i'm really confused on how this happened. thanks

 

ttt?

 

If you have pre-detonation, especially with 11.4 CR, it's not uncommon for both head gaskets to go.

 

Well water from the exhaust in cold weather is often just that water as in condensation not coolant. Obviously you still have issues though.

Frankly you scared me with the 11.4:1 and "good thick felpro gaskets and all", ever heard the term quench without having some clue of how it works you would be unlikely to make 11.4 work on the street very well and the only way to get good quench with a "thick" gasket is going to be have the piston out of the hole which I doubt you did. This is just what I get from this post though I could certainly be wrong. If I am right I would look to the detonation problem OBE1 noted could be present, detonation will take out bearing if the pistons are strong enough to handle the detonation long enoughh to let it hurt the bearings. In other words there is always a weakest link the highend pistons might have taken abuse the other parts could not.

 

mositure is one thing, but green puddles coming from the headers is another. i guess predetonation is possible, but how could it happen crusing at 2k rpm with no previous records of any kind of misfires? also, 11.4:1 is very streetable on pump gas. chambers are 56.6 CC and the pistons are sitting flush with the deck. by no means is 11.4:1 too much for a street application on an aluminum headed lt1. by stating a "thick head gasket" I'm saying that i didn't use some cheap thin gasket to raise compression. The parts used in the build, as well as quench and piston to valve clearances were all assisted by bret bauer. I've built many motors successfuly, so please refrain from suggesting i don't know what i'm doing. thanks again for the responses.

 

Check to see if ya dropped a valve.That would account for water in both sides.
Get the anti-freeze out as soon as posible or ya will have to re bore it. Anti freeze and brgs don't mix either.

 

Pre WHAT????? Never heard of it.
Ya have pre ignition and detonation.

 

Detonation is a good thing when the spark plugs fire ; just don't want to have it before the spark plugs fire.

 

I'm not going to start or run the motor again, so i wouldn't think having antifreeze lingering around would hurt anything. i wouldn't see why it'd need rebored from sitting in the cylinders without it running.

 

The anti freeze etches the metal and it will rust if water is present. Either one causes PITS in the metal and the ring seal goes to hell.

It's your choice. Leave till spring and see.
The problem IS it sitting in the cyl's.

 

upon the occurance of the problem, the oil pan was clean of any antifreeze. it's been a few days now so i'm sure if there was some left, it drained down into the oil. i can drain the oil, but there's not much else i can do to try and remove anything from the cylinders.

 

Remove all of the spark plugs and spin the engine over a few times,by hand of course.Should be easy to do with the plugs out.

 

I'll try it next week. i'm pretty busy until then with thanksgiving and all. thanks