Headgasket?

[blacksix]

Pulled things apart tonight to change to TA headers & found turbine wheel to be WHITE. Pulled off the old headers, all white inside. Check the exhaust ports, backs of all the valves have a touch of it, but #3 is pretty much all white. Car ran fine, really no other signs.

Do we all agree that this is another headgasket I need to fix?

 

[blacksix]

Photo'd turbo and plugs. LH plug is #1, RH plug is #3. Can anyone tell me I might NOT have to change the headgasket?

 

[charlief1]

Looks like you're running alky and a little lean. Let's see if anyone else is gonna chime in.

 

[blacksix]

Haven't run alky for a couple of years. My SMC pump became unreliable and I never got around to replacing it. I felt my TE61 pulled harder at 18 psi than my TE44 at 22 anyway, so I've just been running 94 octane with 1/2 gallon of xylene per tank. Maybe that's not safe enough . . .

How do I tell if the white is from running lean or from burning coolant?

 

[charlief1]

Xylene, I should've known that. If the plugs were slightly shiny then I'd agree with water but the sliightly discolored tip shows just about right. That's a normal burn. I don't think you have a headgasket issue but I may be wrong so do a leak down test on it.

 

[blacksix]

Compression on #1 and #3 = 90 psi = headgasket :frown:

 

[Dreamcar86]

Compression on #1 and #3 = 90 psi = headgasket :frown:

What kind of head gaskets are you running?

 

[blacksix]

FelPro 9441 PT

 

[blacksix]

NOT a Headgasket!

OK, now I'm not happy: pulled everything apart and the headgasket is perfect. What now? Everything else looks relatively normal, some scoring of the cylinder walls but not bad (I overheated it the LAST time I blew this headgasket.) Piston tops and valves look OK. WTF?????

Never mind the time and money spent pulling a head for nothing (really don't need any more practice) but now there is no clear cause of the problem. Compression on 1 and 3 was 90 psi; all the rest were 130 or so. Car ran fine, I had no idea there even WAS a problem. Now wishing I'd a let this sleeping dog lie . . .

 

[pacecarta]

if you had 90 in 1-3 and 130 in the rest it needed to come apart and be looked at , somethings broke and needs fixing