Well recently my TA hasn't been running too good. It idles good 80% of the time but the main problem is during normal accel sometimes around 2k it will loose a lot of power almost like there isnt any gas getting to the cylinders then I give it some gas and it jumps back to normal (I know its not timing cause I had a cracked plug before and the feeling when that happened is totally different) But just today I changed my oil and while it was up in the air turned it on to check for leaks. After that I looked around back and saw that a watery/oil was coming out of the exhaust. The passenger side pipe had a spray below it and there were small water drops inside the pipe. I looked/felt/smelled the liquid and it seemed like antifreeze with maybe some oil in it. I have ALSO noticed that my antifreeze is dissapearing too. The tank is always dry and its down a inch or two in the radiator like everyother week. This car is my summer daily driver and garaged in winter. Can anyone give me somewhere to start to see where this might be coming from or where to go with this? Pretty soon im going to garage it and start tearing into it and see what it could be. Any help or starting point would be great. Thanks

Chris

 

When gasoline burns, it forms two main compounds.... carbon dioxide and water. Its normal for water to condense and pocket in a cool exhaust, and to drip out of the drain holes provided in the exhuast system. It will mix with the carbon in the system and drip out smelly and oily.

 

if its water and dirt mix coming out the tail pipe thats ok. Its usually just condensation. If its antifreeze and oil mix coming out the tail pipe you may have a blown head gasket. Thats what mine did when it blew. Check you oil. If it looks like chocolate milk you got problems.

 

Get on this quick!!!! Or else...your engine could look like this....

http://www.ace1252.com/crank1.jpg
http://www.ace1252.com/coolant_rocker_shot.jpg

Here is the new engine we put in it for comparison.....

http://www.ace1252.com/13K_rocker_shot.jpg

This was my brother's 3800 V6 out of his 1999 Camaro. He just kept adding coolant. Never bothered to check where it was going. I discovered this when we were changing the belt tensioner on his car. When we started it up, no oil pressure. He was lucky it lost pressure in my garage....we had to put a new engine in it. I picked one up out of a 2000 Camaro with 13K on it for $1,000.

He had two problems with his old engine. The first was a serious leak around the water pump(this is where the majority of the coolant was going). The 2nd, but most serious, was slow leak from inside the engine.

I found both by using a cooling system pressure tester. You can get one on loan from Autozone. It replaces your radaitor cap. Just pump it up to the pressure your cap is rated for.....see if the system will hold pressure. My bro's old engine didn't get anywhere near the cap rating before coolant was dripping from the front on the engine and on the floor from inside the engine(I had the oil pan off...was coming from around cylinder #6).

I'm not saying your engine is this bad...or even has this problem....but you MUST find out where the coolant is going.

 

blown head gasket, stop driving the car

fix it or your buying a new engine

 

Sounds like just what happend to me when my gasket blew.

 

Well Im going to take a close look at the oil that I drained yesterday...also will take off the valve cover to see if it looks like the pic you put up. So im guessing a new engine is going to be the best idea unless im going to rebuild with something newer or bigger? Or can I just get a Gasket kit and replace them all? Thanks for all your help so far guys!

 

Could you guys give me some info on what you would recomend I do...
1. Used Engine
2. Rebuild (want a 383 but sorta low on $ right now...could be in the works)
3. New gaskets

Money wise Im sure I could scrap up enough to do any of those but nothing more then what a used engine would cost...around $1k Thanks for all the help

-Chris

 

I don't think you'll really know what to do until you dig into the engine. If you catch the leak quick enough before the coolant gels the oil you may be able to repair your present engine.

My brother's car was an extreme case. He had been adding antifreeze to it for 3 months!!!! He revealed this to me when it lost the oil pressure.

I did have the heads on my Z28 warp due to overheating one time....cooling fan fuse blew.....car overheated sitting still. That caused a minor cooling problem(weird heating issues when driving), but it wasn't sucking coolant badly and the Chevy dealership found it by doing a hydrocarbon test on the coolant.

They checked the block and heads for flatness. Ended up milling the heads 0.005-0.010 and replacing the head gaskets. Hehe, they even told me it would be a good time to throw in a cam and roller rockers. Got to love a dealership like that!

You'll just have to pinpoint the leak and the severity of it before deciding what to do.

If you can, take pics and post what you find here.....this place was a great help to me when taking on my bro's V6.

Edit: One other thing....pull the oil pan....and a couple of the bearing main caps. Look at your bearing condition. If it looks good, chances of saving the engine by just fixing the leak may be good. If it looks bad, then you may be at the very least looking at a rebuild.....

 

Your not building a decent 383 for a penny less that $3,600 unless you have the ability to do everything yourself....

 

Maybe if he keeps the upper-end completely stock (cam, heads, intake, etc.). Otherwise, it will cost more than that.

$2000 for decent crank, rods, pistons, and bearings
$1200+ for machine work (balance and blue printed, bored, clearenced, assembled, cleaned, etc.)
$ ? Gaskets, install (unless he does it himself), and any other boltons that will make it work.

 

take it down and see just how bad it is... if you still have good oilk pressure you might of caught it in time.

 

yea I think im going to either tonight or saturday...good news is my oil looks normal...no slush/chocolate and it wasnt overfull. Im guessing that its blowing into a cylinder...im going to check the plugs first to see which one it is...what would I look for on the plugs?? Im pretty much just going to do a small rebuild...maybe get the kit from summit...what would you guys recomend or does anyone know a local (PA, OH, WV) place that I could either take the block/heads to too get cleaned up? Thanks a lot!

Chris

 

Sometimes the oil can be misleading if you go by that. When I dropped my oil pan I found out just how bad things were when I saw all the Yogurt in there. But my oil always looked normal too. you'll know just how bad it is when you break things apart, but good luck to you.

 

If you got the cash, and you want a decent stroker check tis guy out...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT