It all started when my cooling fans did not come on and my motor went just below the red mark on the temp gauge. I tried to get it home but it was the first time I could'nt get a car to the house. I hauled it home and fired it up to see white smoke coming out of the exhaust. So I tore it down, cleaned all of the coolant out of the cylinders and replaced the head gaskets on my 95 LT1 with Mr. Gasket #5715 and new head bolts. After I started it back up it's still blowing white smoke (not as bad) and steam is coming up from around the exhaust manifold. Could my aluminum heads be warped? Gasket problem? Do I need to retorque the head bolts?

 

I have always had the heads planed or checked for warpage. You say it's coming from the exhaust manifolds, are you sure its not just baking off residual leakage?

 

I was hoping that I was burning off the old coolant that was on the motor but I have started it three times and let it run for about 5 minutes and when the engine starts to warm up it starts steaming a little. I have read that the aluminum heads need machining if it overheats exdcessivly, but I have never had it in the red before. The motor sounds and revs great but still have white smoke the smells like coolant. Is it possible I still have coolant in the exhaust system I haven't burned off? I am going to take it down the road tomorrow and get see if I can burn it off. By the way, who come up with the idea of putting half of a motor tucked into a car you can barely get your fingers in their to work on it?? I could have done this job in half the time on my Dodge truck.

 

It sounds like it will come out of it. You did change the oil, to get the coolant out of the crankcase. Go to Autozone and borrow their cooling system tester. Pressurize the radiator, if the gauge doesn't bleed down, I'd say your good to go.

 

I did change the oil and filter. I was planning on putting about ten miles on it and putting the Mobil 1 back in it if everything goes good. Thanks for the info, I'll tackle that tomorrow.

 

UPDATE - Everything is fine with the car now. I had a lot of coolant to burn out of the exhaust. It took about ten or 15 miles to burn it out.

 

Nice. Keep an eye on your coolant level in the coming weeks just to make sure everything is ok.