Big smoking problem from valve covers

[BOJANGLES]

i have a issue that just happened about a hour ago. 86 grand national just did a tune up with Taylor 10.5mm wires and NGK v power ur45 plugs. What started this issue is before the tune up it was breaking up under boost like a bad miss. Gapped the new plugs at .25 from what I was told from a performance shop, I'm a rookie with these cars so don't hate to bad please. Original plugs that came out were acdelco .r43ts. Went out for a few hits and it cleared up the miss and was running great. Cruised for a good 45 minutes before I made another 45mph hit, let it build boost to about 10psi and let it eat, well it started to smoke really bad and the power was gone, pulled over opened the hood and found oil mostly on the passenger side and a little on the driver side coming from the breathers. Running on 5 cylinders now it feels like. Limped it home and investigating it at this very moment. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[gunzandgearz]

i have a issue that just happened about a hour ago. 86 grand national just did a tune up with Taylor 10.5mm wires and NGK v power ur45 plugs. What started this issue is before the tune up it was breaking up under boost like a bad miss. Gapped the new plugs at .25 from what I was told from a performance shop, I'm a rookie with these cars so don't hate to bad please. Original plugs that came out were acdelco .r43ts. Went out for a few hits and it cleared up the miss and was running great. Cruised for a good 45 minutes before I made another 45mph hit, let it build boost to about 10psi and let it eat, well it started to smoke really bad and the power was gone, pulled over opened the hood and found oil mostly on the passenger side and a little on the driver side coming from the breathers. Running on 5 cylinders now it feels like. Limped it home and investigating it at this very moment. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Welcome to the turbo buick world, hate to tell you this but you probably need to unscrew those new plugs and run a compression test, probably popped a head gasket

 

[BOJANGLES]

Welcome to the turbo buick world, hate to tell you this but you probably need to unscrew those new plugs and run a compression test, probably popped a head gasket

I will get into that tomorrow, I was hoping it wasn't leaning that way but I will give a update when I do. Thanks!

 

[MAK507]

Hey Bo, I feel your pain. Within 45 minutes of owning my Buick it blew the gasket. Probably was already bad... Welcome to the rebuild life!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BOJANGLES]

Hey Bo, I feel your pain. Within 45 minutes of owning my Buick it blew the gasket. Probably was already bad... Welcome to the rebuild life!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No worries I guess, at least it happened now and not on some long cruise, I decided to start tinkering with it and we'll this happened. I guess I'll have to make it faster, and it happens when I'm currently just built my ls1 in my camaro and it's still in progress. Let's build! Also thanks for all the input always appreciated!

 

[BOJANGLES]

Well found the culprit, #3 is dead. When I pulled the plug it was suspicious with oil on it. Tested it and nothing. Looks like a nice top end refresh. I'll be asking for pointers n all that important information, any suggestions on gaskets n part brand names would be appreciated. I'll be getting to this project in the next month or two, still have to finish my camaro up after a full engine build. Keep this thread updated with stuff soon! Thanks for the help everybody.

 

[gunzandgearz]

View attachment 278081 Well found the culprit, #3 is dead. When I pulled the plug it was suspicious with oil on it. Tested it and nothing. Looks like a nice top end refresh. I'll be asking for pointers n all that important information, any suggestions on gaskets n part brand names would be appreciated. I'll be getting to this project in the next month or two, still have to finish my camaro up after a full engine build. Keep this thread updated with stuff soon! Thanks for the help everybody.

Yep, same hole that popped on me a couple years ago, I just ran the regular felpro gaskets on mine with some arp bolts, work great, no need to get exotic on a driver.Nows the time for a set of heads and new cam,then you will be able to say bye bye stang,or Camaro,or vette.

 

[BOJANGLES]

Yep, same hole that popped on me a couple years ago, I just ran the regular felpro gaskets on mine with some arp bolts, work great, no need to get exotic on a driver.Nows the time for a set of heads and new cam,then you will be able to say bye bye stang,or Camaro,or vette.

I've been reading that this seems to be a common problem with these cars. But no big deal, I know the motor is built from my uncle just don't know how much he has done and it was done 10+ years ago, he got it to turn 11.7 @124mph he recalls so it's got some work done but time to make it faster. Just need to pick his brain if he can remember what he did to it so I'm not putting the same shit he did into it.

 

[mikewest_08]

I put a set of cometic head gaskets from gn1 on my car.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[87gnguy]

Cometics are good gaskets but they aren't very forgiving. IMO, I'd go back with stock head gaskets because it's better to blow a head gasket than melt a piston...

 

[BOJANGLES]

Cometics are good gaskets but they aren't very forgiving. IMO, I'd go back with stock head gaskets because it's better to blow a head gasket than melt a piston...

Will stock head gaskets handle the boost load at 22psi +? My dad was never happy with cosmetic gaskets from my motocross days as we had a lot of problems with them, we used factory gaskets after that and never had a issue.

 

[87gnguy]

Yes... I use stock headgaskets and run 26 pounds of boost with no problems. So your be good at 22 - 23.

 

[MAK507]

Welcome to the turbo buick world, hate to tell you this but you probably need to unscrew those new plugs and run a compression test, probably popped a head gasket

Wouldn't he show coolant in the oil?

 

[87gnguy]

Not every time. You only get water in the oil if you blow the gasket into a water port. I've blown a couple into the intake side and it blows smoke out the breather and runs like crap.

 

[MAK507]

Oh. 10-4


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BOJANGLES]

Well here it is! #3 cylinder blew on the fire side thankfully , so no mess to clean up really. Got parts on order from a seem to be good place for GN parts place. Time to learn!

 

[87gnguy]

Glad you found it. I've replaced plenty so if you have any questions just pm me and I'll send you my number and I can walk you through it

 

[BOJANGLES]

Glad you found it. I've replaced plenty so if you have any questions just pm me and I'll send you my number and I can walk you through it

Thanks for the offer, appreciate it. Gonna button up some missing bolts and that and try and get this thing running this weekend and get some heat in these tires, I've driven it once since I bought it

 

[MAK507]

Damn, I think I did the same one! Don't remember.... Mine was a coolant oil fuckfest. [emoji30] I'm currently using RJC's bulletproof head gaskets.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[t-typinator]

Thanks for the offer, appreciate it. Gonna button up some missing bolts and that and try and get this thing running this weekend and get some heat in these tires, I've driven it once since I bought it

May want to do a search or 2 if you havn't done the head gasket thing on a buick before.
A couple things to think about is ,are you reusing the stock head bolts i believe they are tty and are probably stretched,(that is assuming they are the stock ones).
If they are stock, you may want to upgrade to arp's ,especially if you are planning on high boost in the future.
And remember that these bolts are going into your water jackets and need sealer, not just a bolt lube.

While it's apart you may also want to try looking at your cam lobes and make sure that none of them are looking worn.
These motors are known to wipe out cam lobes if people don't use zddp oil addditive (For more zinc in oil ) or using some synthetic oils, etc. etc. especially if stronger springs were added .
If you have a worn lobe or lobes ,now is the time to discover it.
Good luck .