Headgasket?

J

JP87GN

Active Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
I posted this in tech section but no one answered me so maybe the locals know. I Took my GN out to get the new Audioslave CD and on the way back all hell broke loose. I thought I poped a head gasket but, now I'm not sure. I jumped on it and tires broke loose and then smoke started barreling out from underneath the hood so I pull over and the looked under the hood.Everything was still there so I limped it home( about a mile) looked under the hood and the oil is coming from the passenger side K&N valve cover breatherand I can hear what sound like an exhuast leak from inside the valve cover through the breather. Any ideas?
 
Smoking oil can come from all kinds of places. Check your crossover pipe as well to see if oil is leaking onto it from the back of the engine. That's typical.

If it's truly from the p/s breather area, check your turbo oil lines since they're in the same proximity. That's the easy stuff. Next do a compression and leakdown test to see what the internal diagnosis looks like. If it's noisy out of the breather, I believe that may indicate blow-by of a piston ring allowing pressure buildup in the crankcase. That pressure is tossing oil around the inside your valve cover leaking out the breather.

That's my guesses, but I could be totally wrong. Hope it's nothing major. Might be a good time to haul it up to Gene to take a look.
 
Generally speaking if a buick blows a gasket towards the inside of the engine (under the intake manifold) there will be a lot of coolant leakage with it. Whats the oil look like ?
Dale
 
It smoke out of the breather any time you give throttle. You can hear the leak through the breather. My brother looked at it (GM Tech) and said head gasket. But its kinda wierd because its blown from the inside. Is that common?
 
I just talked to josh and it seems to me it could be valve/valve seal related. Does this seem far off?

A: not pressuring the entire crankcase just passenger side valve cover.

B: no oil in water or water in oil.

C: no bubbles in radiator.

D: runs fine with slight miss and only blows smoke out breather under off idle throttle.

Maybe a bent valve? Could you replace seals without pulling the head? Same procedure as changing springs?

ADAM
 
My vote is that you broke a rocker shaft. If its running on 5 cylinders its a good bet.

Pull the valve cover thats on the side where the noise is coming from and take a look.

If its broken, its a simple and easy repair...if not, there's some wrenching and spending in your future. :mad:
 
You need to do a leak down test if its not a rocker shaft:)
You can barrow ours if you have a compressor:cool:
 
Consider that /\ a public service announcement to NOT leave yourself logged in on a public computer at work.

Thank you for your time and the offender will be delt with. ;)
ADAM
 
Originally posted by geno
You need to do a leak down test if its not a rocker shaft:)
You can barrow ours if you have a compressor:cool:
Click to expand...
Thanks for the offer to barrow but, You now me and my tool fetish, If I don't have it, my brother does. doing compression and leakdown tests this weekend
 
Josh,
For reference, here's the data from your GN we measured May'04:

Near 156 all cylinders and 4% or less leakdown except #3 with 10% leakage.
 
Originally posted by HYBRIDT
Consider that /\ a public service announcement to NOT leave yourself logged in on a public computer at work.

Thank you for your time and the offender will be delt with. ;)
ADAM
Click to expand...
Yea get him :):)
 
Found the problem!

As expected the head gasket went in a bad way! It didn't just lift the head it did it with authority!:( At this point I consider my self lucky to just be doing head gaskets and taking care of some other things why I'm already there. I will post the pic in my GN album in my sig link if you guys want to laugh at me alittle.Lesson learned: excessive detonation will cost you some time and $$!:D
 
Have you asked yet whether or not to go to head studs or if it requires machining? What are you planning while you're in there? Did you happen to check your scanmaster after the issue before you shut the ignition off?

ADUM
 
Yeah Dan, Thats the gasket kit I was looking at. and I don't know what it would cost to do the heads while they are off but I will get ahold of Mr Bodine and ask.Do you have his # Dan? I will probably go with ARP TTY fasteners unless someone tells me different. and since I have the motor out I will do the rear main and seal up a few other things so I have no leaks. I also want to do the braided oil feed and return while i'm there. No Adam, I didn't even think to look at my scanmaster even though its the first thing I should have done. I was to worried about the smoke barreling out from under the hood.:eek:
 
I ordered Champion Irons and sent my intake to them to be cnc ported and polished and ordered a butt load of other nic nacs and gaskets. I hope to have the motor back in the car in a few weeks if all my parts show. Now that the motors on the stand and the engine bay in clear I'm going to degrease it all with the steam preasure washer!:)
 
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