Head gasket fail?

[belsie]

Just replaced valve springs and on test run knock alarm went off around a 20lb spike then noticed a puff of oil smoke on decel & at idle on quick acceleration. No overheat, running fine w/ good idle , any thoughts??? Will pull plugs and go from there this morning. What is the best way to confirm gasket failure before un-necessary teardown?

 

[we4Mateo]

Just replaced valve springs and on test run knock alarm went off around a 20lb spike then noticed a puff of oil smoke on decel & at idle on quick acceleration. No overheat, running fine w/ good idle , any thoughts??? Will pull plugs and go from there this morning. What is the best way to confirm gasket failure before un-necessary teardown?

Compression test.

 

[MSDGN]

Perform a leakdown test. More efficient than compression test

 

[earlbrown]

leakdown test.....


or what's quick an dirty if you don't have a leak down tester is just filling the cylinders with compressed air and listening to where it's escaping. If air comes out of another spark plug hole, the heads are coming off.

 

[TTA308]

leakdown test.....


or what's quick an dirty if you don't have a leak down tester is just filling the cylinders with compressed air and listening to where it's escaping. If air comes out of another spark plug hole, the heads are coming off.

Hey wait, that's what i did to my ex wife...

 

[bison]

There's no way to determine what the integrity of a head gasket is without tear down unless it's totally wasted. I've pulled hundreds of head gaskets from engines that appeared fine to the owners but had trails all over them from compression leaks due to detonation. Usually we see a lot more damage than head gaskets these days. If it's close to stock a 20psi spike (if in a log) is not a big deal. These engines ran in the grenade mode for years in some near stock applications and were fine. That is near stock, low cylinder pressure. I wouldn't trust a 20psi spike viewed on a gauge. The gauge is likely a lot slower than the actual manifold pressure


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