Alright I feel like an idiot but I need advice. I just replaced the head gasket in my car and got it back together and it runs but it has a couple problems
Could I have put the head gasket on upside down? Also is it possible i’m off a tooth? Also the PCV is broke so I had to bypass it for the mean time could this be causing any of the issues?
did you jump the ecu connector before you adjusted the ignition timing?
as long as the distributor is about middle it should be running fine.
also did you use ARP headstuds?
and the headgasket has the word “UP” on it and you should be able to read it looking down onto the block when you put it on. also did you get the head resurfaced? that is a must!!!
high idle could be a vaccume leak, check all vacume lines!!!
If you were off a tooth it would run like crap, but you can always double check it just to be sure everything lines up!!
I had to take my head off twice the first time i did my headgasket. so don’t feel bad if ya screwed up, takes time to remember all the things to double check.
ECU is jumped
I used factory head studs
All vacuum lines are hooked up the only one not is the breather to the intake pipe (plugged it and no change)
Looks like I wil probably be pulling the head again but I wanted opinions before I went to this extent
like, new factory? or the ones you pulled
the ones I pulled but they are still good.
The only way to be sure that the headstuds are still good is to use a stretch gauge to make sure. But I dont think thats the problem here…
My guesses are:
As already stated, if the timing was off it would run and idle like garbage, but you can double check it to make sure that it is still lined up.
Im betting on the surface being warped hence not sealing correctly.
before going through the trouble of pulling the head, run a compression test.
how long did you run the car?
your high idle is probably due to a vacuum leak. did you change the intake manifold gasket? both surfaces must be clean and free from old material. use a can of ether and hunt for leaks
and you should be using new head bolts
thats exactly like my car , i did a HG not long ago
i forgot to plug the map sensor and iacv, so my car was making white smoke and idled high also the check engine light on
my advise is double check vaccum, if everything is correct , there are trouble shoot threads for idle, you should plug too holes inside the tb with your finger, if the idle at 600-700 , meaning your motor and vacum is good
its not a must to resureface the head and block, its not a must to change the bolts
when you take off the head its very very important to follow the torque spec and order for the head bolts, if you do it right you dont have to resureface it
mine runs like a champ, all i did was the hg from honda
good luck with that
hmmm. you’re right. they aren’t torque to yield.
as for resurfacing, at the very least, you should (should have) checked the trueness with a straight edge and feeler gauge set
The head was checked when I had a valve job done on it (reason I changed the hg to while I was in there) but I didn’t check the block but it didn’t burn any coolant before just oil. I let the car run for probably 5 min or so to make sure it wasn’t just excess coolant being burnt off from pulling the head and everything. I did change the IM and exhaust gasket but cleaned the surface and torqued them properly. I am going to run a leak down test and a compression test to see what the problem is. I’m going to put in a new PCV valve today also thinking that could be causing the issue since the old one was removed and lines were just hooked together. I really don’t want to pull the head but have a feeling i’m going to have to so I can be sure the HG is not upside down.
Alright just did a compression test and a leak down test
All the cylinders on the compression test are 165-180
The leak down test is as follows:
Cyl 1: 5-7 PSI lost
Cyl 2: 15-20 PSI lost
Cyl 3: 5-7 PSI lost
Cyl 4: 5-7 PSI lost
on all cylinders I can hear air through the oil fill port. There is no sound through the exhaust and I head a slight sound through the intake I think.
Also car has less white smoke today but stil smells like coolant and there is smoke when the car is revved up. Idle is now 2200 RPM or so after I fixed the PCV valve.
Also when I pulled the #3 and #4 spark plugs I found a decent amount of oil on the bottom of them #1 and #2 were clean. This has a new VC gasket and the spark plug grommets
Anyone?
Well the only thing I can say is that 15-20% loss doesnt sound good. Sounds like the rings are bad. The 5-7% isnt too bad. When you put the head back on, did you do a valve lash adjustment? Because if you didnt, you could have valves(intake valves) that are still open at TDC and that could be why you heard air coming out of the intake. Did you hear the air from the intake on the cylinder that was leaking 15-20%?
I adjusted the valves properly. I really coudln’t tell if there was any air from the intake or not it was mostly vc
how long has the engine run for since this hg was done. have you actually driven it around or just let it idle?
Sounds to me like you could have an air bubble in the cooling system somewhere or an air leak on the intake side
I have driven the car. I did have a vaccuum leak and so now the idle is fixed but the burning of something still exisits I’m not 100% sure what it is but i’m leaning to oil now.
which woould make sense if you have bad rings on your low cylinder
I don’t understand…
If the rings were not good before the HG change but it still ran fine, why would it all of a sudden start giving off adverse effects now?
I’m not asking a dumb question as far as I can tell, I just don’t know why that would happen.
not a dumb question at all. but thats not a question I can answer in fact I cant even say my previous statement is the case. just makes the most sense to me
That just seems really strange and somewhat paradoxical. Hopefully it clears up soon for you Tegguy! I still remember when my old EG8 when the HG started leaking badly and was blowing white smoke like a banshee… I smelled like coolant for quite a while after that 