Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Need some advice, my 91 got towed home last night. was in the middle of a 75 mile ride. low coolant light was flashing. stopped to get gas. popped hood, engine idling. coolant leaking from front underneath. from rear exhaust smell was so pungent, for lack of a better word, brought tears literally to my eyes. suddenly big white smoke out exhaust. temp went to 260. shut it down and had it towed to my mechanic. trustworthy guy. I like to give him any advice in advance that I can though. any advice on these symptoms would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!
Mike

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Would have said just a hose but with the smoke and exhaust smell, Hate to say this but sounds like a head gasket. Any coolant in the oil? Do a compression check and a cooling system leak down test, check the plugs. Everything is fixable.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Mike,
Where in PA are you?

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Hi Kevin,
I'm in the Northeast corner, bordering NY & NJ. Milford to be exact...

Seems my mechanic agrees We Gone, burning coolant. He's gonna diagnose. Basically said what you said above. And I guess we'll take it from there... trying to look on the bright side, what else can I upgrade while I'm in there? :-)

I posted about this car a while back, unknown mods due to it coming from dealer/auction. Finally got the title sorted out... seems (seemed) way stronger that my stock 1990 ZR1 ... so I guess now we'll find out the good and the bad maybe?

As you said We Gone, its all fixable, right?

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

To your "bright side" point, if the heads have to come off to replace gaskets anyway, it'd probably be a waste to put them back on without some porting, right?

Best of luck, Mike!

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

if you were closer I was going to offer to run over and lend a hand if possible. I haven't heard of many non sprayed lt5s going down but that's not to say it can't happen.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Really appreciate that!! thanks!!

Would it be more likely to fail if it wasn't the factory original assembly? I feel like someone has taken this apart before... I may be crazy but.... this car has some mods that I can see that were not advertised by the seller, including coil overs and C5 brakes up front. I swear the engine was painted too. its drastically different in color from my 90 and doesn't look to me like it is discoloration... I guess I wont know until I get in there but I'm assuming if the coil over conversion is a big effort and the brake upgrade isn't cheap either, is it likely that the engine was worked as well? I'm really curious to get in there! but a little intimidated...

I'm no mechanic but I've done a decent amount of work on SBCs, just enough to be dangerous. is it crazy for someone with limited experience to take on this head gasket job? I mean, I've got all winter pretty much! Anyone have a ballpark on how much labor a shop might hit me up for?

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

I think that would be a shame! :)

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

The LT5 is a little intimidating, but don't give up hope. The hardest thing to do is timing the cams after you get the heads back on. The easiest way to do the cam timing is with the motor out of the car. If you are capable of pulling the motor then you should be able to time the cams. It will require some special tools, but there are plenty of guys here who will help you if you run into problems. Just take your time, document everything as you take it apart, take lots of pictures, label everything. Contact Jerry at Jerry's Gaskets for everything you will need to put it back together, seals, glues, gaskets and "Get 'er Dunn".

I would strongly advise against taking it to any kind of local repair shop. The odds of a timely and correct repair are not in your favor.

'Crabs

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Good luck to you Mike.
We hope you have no damage of major and the fix can be had for low $$.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

I know you can do it Mike, I have a buddy here in Atlanta (ShawnZR-1) that had a head gasket let go and made all the repairs himself than had it happen again found out it was due to corrosion at the top of the liners and had to replace them it was a high mileage car still did everything himself. By the way no other damage was done to the motor ether time. The 2nd time he did a complete overhaul due to the mileage.

Good Luck looking forward to your pics and progress reports.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

I concur completely :thumbsup:

I have removed the heads with engine in car but then what is left you can almost lift out by hand :p

So I pulled what was left as you really need the engine out of car to do the timing like you want it just as Crabs suggests :cheers:

With engine out of car you can take your time with the heads, cams, water pump, and clutch/pressure plate.

And if you like...........add headers which you can install the engine with Headers attached :dancing

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Thank you! The support here is unbelievable! My confidence is growing!!

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Thanks! Looks like DIY is doable. Certainly will post pics/progress.

Assume you'd consider 124,000 miles to be high? Should the complete overhaul be considered? Are there tests/specs, such as what is above, that would be used to make the decision to overhaul?

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Just peeking.....

Unknown mods? My guess the injector housing are ported and it sucked in the gasket with the water port next to it. easy fix I hope good luck.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Wouldn't that be great! It's happened before, on more than one occasion.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Plug that TB Coolant Water Port on top of Injector Housing when you are at it :p

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Yes, I guess I blocked my episode w this. What a pain! However, even if u block IH, you still need to seal head/IH interface. I use Permatex #2 around that area only.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Yep......Permatex on gasket between Head and Injector Housing but nothing on gasket between Plenum and Injector Housing if you have TB Coolant blocked.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

you guys rock!! That WOULD be great!

This is also in line with what my local guy is telling me he'll test for - to determine if its the heads or the intake. I should hear back from him today/tomorrow. He's pretty good, I trust him to diagnose properly. He commented upon first seeing the car a while back "looks like a Lotus motor"! Now I wouldn't know how alike they look but... basically he said if its intake he could take it on, head gasket, probably not....

I'd feel comfortable letting him do the intake and I will surely share the advice given here, especially if it is ported, as I suspect.... probably safe to assume he'd do that properly? His response up front was "let me diagnose and we'll go from there"....

Another question, not knowing the age condition of the injectors, this sounds like a good time to replace them. Would that make sense if we are already in there?

thanks again to all for the wealth of info! I would love to meet up once this is all done and thank folks in person. I'll keep my eyes on the events page for gatherings. Thank you all!!!

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

I'm going to suggest fuel injector connection for injectors. Made in the usa life time warranty and a friend to the registry, which I hope you consider joining. Hope to see you at carlise also

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

need to take apart first. You might already have FIC, RC's ,..... who knows yet. If it ran good before the crap out....... Wait to pull apart first.
Can you tell, I don't like putting parts at it till I have seen it apart.

These LT5's are pretty dang tough. Mine has had GM orange antifreeze in it ( big no ) and has been hit with 175 shot N20. Stock top end and still has the factory head gasket in place. Dang tough motors.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Yes, if needed, but injectors are a $750 investment. So, as others said, make sure you need them first.

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

$650 actually but not something to jump into if not needed

Re: Hopefully not catastrophic failure?
 

Dittos

After porting, there was about 1/8"-3/16" between the water and the intake runner. I was using a gasket from another vendor, so I switched to the ones available at Jerry's Gaskets, and I too used Permatex #2 around the water port.

Hope this helps.


Paul.