90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. The wife and I decided to take the ZR1 to the family turkey extravaganza about 15 miles up the road. It ran great all the way there and half-way back. At the half way point, things got ugly.

All of a sudden there was a loss of power and the engine was running rough. Definitely not hitting on all cylinders. Pulled up at a stop light and it didn't really want to stay running. Without giving it little throttle bursts, it would have died.

There was no "drama" leading up to this. I hadn't been hot-rodding. There wasn't any bang or other indication. Gauges remained normal and no indications on the cluster.

At the next light I saw that there was smoke coming out the back when I gave a little gas.

We limped home and into the garage and I shut it down. It smells to me like there's unburned fuel in the exhaust. We unloaded the leftovers (mmmm... turkey....) and then came out and lifted the hood. No signs of external trauma. Nothing leaking, seeping or oozing. Oil is still full (and clean).

Started her up again and it continued to run like crud. White smoke from the exhaust.

Just under 28k miles. No mods save for a B&B exhaust and K&N filter from previous owner.

I'm trying to reassure the wife that the car we got 3 weeks ago will be alright again. I know the injectors are notorious on these cars, but maybe it's spark.

Any recommendations on where to start? Maybe this looks familiar to somebody.

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Pull plugs and see which if any look like they've been steam cleaned. It may not be a head gasket. If it looks like either #4 or #3 cylinder, it can be the IH to head interface. Coolant port runs very close to the primary runners of those cylinders. Very little material separating the port and coolant. Over time it can corrupt the gasket and burrow its way under it especially during high vacuum situations like idle or decel.

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Blown head gasket? Ew.

The radiator over flow bottle has water in it.... not much. It's at the "cold" line. Engine's been off for about an hour. Garage is about 45 deg.

What else should I look for to confirm/deny it? And I guess next question... how hard is it to replace (find?) an LT5 head gasket? <ducking>

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Shaving cream milky sustance on the oil dipstick. About $89.00 per side on Ebay

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Thanks Xfire751. I guess next I will need to figure out how to pull the plugs on this beast. They look well buried, and I have very little experience with this car. Dumb question: what's the "IH" in "IH to head interface"? Lucky for me... there's a shop manual in the back!

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Man, you guys are QUICK on this board. Not used to that! :)

Goldcylon, the oil dipstick looked nice and normal to me and I checked within 2 minutes of pulling in the garage.

I may wait till daylight for more digging since lighting in my garage pretty sell stinks.

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

IH ="s Injector Housing

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Duh. Injector Housing. Got my service manual out and I'm going to study. Thanks gents for the input. Anything else you think I ought to know, hip me to it. I'm grateful for the knowledge here.:notworthy

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Do you smell gas and does the smoke come out of only one exhaust pipe? If so could be a blown fuel injector. If it is you will quickly burn out the cat on the side with the bad injector. Very same thing happened to ZZZZZR-1 David.

Re: 90 ZR1: Oh crud, did I break it?
 

Hey Jagdpanzer. Matter of fact, I don't smell gas. It smells sweet. Which leads me to think Dynomite was onto something from the git-go with the water. Understood on the cat though. Just went through that on a buddy's Acura.

Just looking through the service manual to get to the IH and related gaskets. Sweet Jeebuz what a PITA! Looks like it's about the same amount of labor to get to it or the head gasket.

What I didn't want = project car. Too bad I'm already hooked on the thing!