Blown Head Gasket or Intake Gasket?

[hugger73hatch]

Started the car up today and had a heavy smell of antifreeze and lots of white smoke. I already kind of knew about it b/c when my buddy and I went to the track a few weeks ago he noticed it when I started the car up, and that was the first time it had done it. It only did it when the motor was cold off the trailer. That night I made 4 passes and it never did it again during the test session. Today I decided I was going to finally check things out. During my inspection today I noticed that just about all of the intake bolts had gotten loose, I know I'm an idiot for not checking those. I decided to pull the plugs and found a little bit of rust on the plug from #3 and from #4 and #6. Would the intake gasket cause it to do that? Most of the time when I have seen a head gasket blow it is usually just on 1 side. I am just hoping I don't have to pull the heads again. BTW, the head gaskets are Cometic and last time out the car ran within 0.05, and that was tuning on it. I will post some pics of the plugs in just a little bit.

Should I just put some new plugs in it and start it up tomorrow and see if it does the same thing or what would ya'll do?

[hugger73hatch]

Here are the pictures of the plugs. Also, I have not drained the oil, but I pulled the dipstick and the oil looks fresh, not milky.

[supernova]

If it's white smoking out of the exhaust , I would have to pull the heads and replace the gaskets. I don't like to take chances. My intake gaskets were leaking into my motor when I got the motor running last month. In my case it was leaking into the lifter valley. Not good!!! My motor is a tall deck block with a short deck intake and spacers so instead of fixing the leak I decided to just replace the intake with a tall deck intake so not to worry about it anymore.
And while the intake is off of it I went ahead and pulled the heads off and sent them to CFM for port work. When I was loosening the head stud nuts I noticed that the torque on the nuts was not at the right torque I torqued them at when it was put together. I had only ran the motor for a total of about 30 minutes from the first start up. I imagine it needed a retorque after a few heat cycles I just didn't think as soon as just 30 minutes. I'm using Cometic MLS gaskets and have been told they can be reused once or twice. NOT IN MY MOTOR!!!!! They will be replaced do to I don't like to take chances.

Try tightening the intake bolts to see if thats enough to fix the leak. Sorry for the rambling.

[hugger73hatch]

I think the motor suns too consistent to be a head gasket, but I have been wrong before.....ah what to do what to do???????

I think I'm gonna put new plugs in tomorrow and start it and see what happens. I already tightened all the intake bolts, maybe I'll get lucky...Oh and change the oil to make sure.

[chpcamaro]

do you have a leak down tester if so check each cyclinder and see if you find any thing or if you have a radaitor pressure tester use it just make sure you pull all the plugs and crank it over look for water coming out of any cyclinders and check the oil for water. i would think water in the oil if it is intake and water out the exhaust for heads gasket now you still can get water in the oil from the head gaskets but i doubt water in the exhaust from the intake. hope i didn't confuse you. my odds are on the head gasket i hope not but chances are better
rob

[supernova]

do you have a leak down tester if so check each cyclinder and see if you find any thing or if you have a radaitor pressure tester use it just make sure you pull all the plugs and crank it over look for water coming out of any cyclinders and check the oil for water. i would think water in the oil if it is intake and water out the exhaust for heads gasket now you still can get water in the oil from the head gaskets but i doubt water in the exhaust from the intake. hope i didn't confuse you. my odds are on the head gasket i hope not but chances are better
rob

What Rob said!!!! Hi Rob.

[sunsation540]

this could be a crack in the head deck cylinder intake port many other things they will swap coolant in the intake as some reversion moves the intake charge to the plenum and can be pulled to other cylinders... completly warm engine.. if you have a leak tester ,pump the cylinders to 10lbs and let sit overnight. check pressure loss to verify.. remove all plugs and crank over it will tell you what you want to know...1 cyl or both sides this can help when mag heads AND BLOCK

[hugger73hatch]

Couldn't get the plugs today, they didn't have them, so I just sat around the house watched a little football. It has been record breaking cold and rainy here the last 4 days anyway. I will get the plugs in probably Tuesday and see what that does. If I still am showing symptoms I am going to borrow a buddies leak down tester and see what I can find out from that. Doubt very seriously it is block, at least it better not be, DART block bought brand new 2 years ago with only about 50 runs on it.

[hugger73hatch]

Decided I am going to do a leak down test. I was researching making my own and this is what I came up with. Will it work? Found a website that described how to do it. A lot cheaper. I have to take the shrader valve out of the compression tester tube.

[want-a-be]

I bought the one from snap-on about 12 years ago and have never regreted it.
Repeats pretty good and has tested alot of engines. It's a very good investment.

Don

[vegaracer]

Should work. I've only ever used the dual gauge testers.

[hugger73hatch]

Ok I tried it out tonight and I think it worked. I checked with the guy who gave me the idea and he had compared it side by side with a snap on leak down tester and got the same results. I set the regulator to 100 psi. When I hook it to the cylinder it should go down because no cylinder is 100% sealed. If it reads 95 psi that is 5% leakdown. I checked everyone in the correct firing order and every cylinder was 3-5%. What gives?

I am going to drain the oil tomorrow and make sure there is not water in the oil. If it isn't could the intake itself be bad? I am just wondering if the water jacket on the intake could be leaking into the intake port.

[rustbucket]

how does the oil look on the dipstick? i have blown a head gasket and the water would pour out the exaust pipe.
is your coolent level really low? could it be passing the head gasket when the motor is hot and the coolent is under pressure? Im with the others on head gasket. let us know

[hugger73hatch]

Oil looks like new on the dipstick. Coolant level was about a quart low the other day, but that was what I emptied out of the overflow. Only time it did it was on cold start up after sitting 2 weeks. After 20 seconds running, it no longer smoked or smelled like burnt antifreeze, got me a little puzzled.

[rustbucket]

hmmm, that is weird