Daily driving a ZR-1

[8cam]

Originally Posted by edram454

I would be very careful letting that last person who was driving it while the gaskets blew drive it again.

Yep.

Originally Posted by Kevin

it's very rare that a zr-1 will pop a head gasket...all the ones I can think of have been related to nitrous use or the wrong coolant. Was the coolant in your car green or orange?

Normal driving, up to and including a few pulls to redline wouldn't do this. somethings fishy here

Normal green coolant, just changed in October when I did the water pump and all the hoses. Previous was also green and about a year old. Before that, I can't say. I have not inspected the side of the engine myself, but the (reported) white smoke and the huge puddle of green AF on the floor was fairly telling. The only other time I've had a car lose a head gasket was running a highly boosted 944 turbo at Road Atlanta, and it ran too lean on the top end. Big white cloud, every drop got vaporized.

I'm just glad to have the car in my brother's shop now. He does restorations, not normal mechanic work, but he's going to help me out and I am very grateful. He's a Corvette nut who loves the ZR-1, and says he's actually looking forward to it. I'm planning on a trip back down in the next few weeks and give him a hand. If anyone is in the Tallahassee area and wants to stop by, go for it.

http://www.fastfineclassics.us/

[We Gone]

Originally Posted by 4cam

I wasn't driving, so I can't say for certain how the car was being driven. All I know is it lost the head gasket and puked coolant everywhere. No water in the oil, so it apparently all came out the side and through the tail pipes.

Pardon, my ignorance here but how could you blow a head gasket and not get coolant in the oil? Could it possibly be an injector housing gasket?

[8cam]

Hi Steve, just replied to your pm. I'm honestly not sure. Does the injector housing gasket actually block coolant, or is it a fuel/air gasket? I don't know enough about the LT5 design to say one way or another. I'll break out the WSM and take a look.

[edit] on the oil question, again I'm not familiar enough with the LT5 design. The only routes I know would be through the block oil passages, back into the head, or past the rings. The first two would be the result of a very big blowout in a very bad place. My only other experience with this type of failure had the same result - coolant gone, and nothing in the oil. It's going to take some post mortem to figure out what really happened.

[cadillac531]

This is why I never let anyone drive my cars and why I don't drive anyone else's. I'm glad you have the car in capable hands for the repair and I hope you get it back quickly.

[We Gone]

Ok, was just looking at the pics on Marc H's site of blown head gaskets, it would have to be a major blowout to have also blown thru the outside also.

http://www.zr1specialist.com/HAT%20W...d%20gasket.htm

[8cam]

Hmmm, then I wonder why there was a big puddle of coolant on the floor...would the injector housing gasket do that? I'll know more soon. Steve (my brother) is going to a compression check in the next couple days, and then start looking a little deeper.

[Kevin]

could it be the rad? Maybe a hose? I've blown several rads while owning this car and it came out like a waterfall. could we get some details on how this happened?

[Dynomite]

Originally Posted by 4cam

Hmmm, then I wonder why there was a big puddle of coolant on the floor...would the injector housing gasket do that? I'll know more soon. Steve (my brother) is going to a compression check in the next couple days, and then start looking a little deeper.

This is Jerry's Injector Housing Gasket (Injector Housing to Head).....Injector Housing Gasket From Jerry

To the Left there is a large hole above a hole...the bottom hole is coolant from the Head to the Injector Housing Coolant Manifolds.......if that breaks...coolant all over the floor

On top of Injector Housing directly above that lower gasket there is a small port about 1/4 inch diameter that feeds coolant through the Plenum (small L) and on to the TB coolant connection....(which all those ports can be blocked) with no bad effects. That would then allow you to remove the Plenum without having to drain/refill with any coolant.

[edram454]

Originally Posted by Kevin

it's very rare that a zr-1 will pop a head gasket...all the ones I can think of have been related to nitrous use or the wrong coolant. Was the coolant in your car green or orange?

Normal driving, up to and including a few pulls to redline wouldn't do this. somethings fishy here

yeah I thought about the coolant also. Lots of people do not know that the lt5 takes a specific coolant. almost everywhere the stores are selling tons of dexcool and yellow coolants. during the life of the car who knows what was in the radiator?? the mystery continues.

ed ramos #3028

[mike100]

I'm hoping for the bad injector housing gasket coolant leak into the intake tract- that will be no big deal if it turns out to be the only thing wrong.