03-11-2016 | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 838
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Symptoms of bad head gasket
My car has been running pretty good minus a slight hesitation with opening the secondaries when not fully warmed up. Once fully warmed up they seem to open up normally after I have gone WOT a few times. Its like they are almost sticking, but I heard lazy O2's can cause this. Will be replacing after my header swap.
Now to the serious issue. Lately if I drive my car for say 30 minute or more then go to shut off the engine and re start it a few minutes later it runs really rough. Almost as if one of the cylinders is misfiring/not firing at all. If I rev it up a bit, and start to drive the engine seems to run fine within a few seconds. I remember my old 96 Neon when its headgasket went out behaved similarly except when it would run rough, it would continue to run rough until it completely cooled off. The ZR-1 isn't exactly doing that. What are some of the symptoms of a bad head gasket?
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Looking for a ZR-1 1985 Yamaha RZ350-NOT STOCK 1971 Yamaha AT1-Middle of a restoration |
03-11-2016 | #2 |
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Arcadia,OK
Posts: 3,394
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
That's a symptom most usually associated with a leaking fuel injector
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Jerry Downey JERRYS LT5 GASKETS & PARTS http://www.jerrysgaskets.com 1994 ZR-1, Black/Black, Lingenfelter Aerobody, 416cu in, 3.91 gears, coil-over susp, Brembo brakes, etc. 2016 Black-Red, 3LT-Z51 Auto 8-speed. |
03-11-2016 | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 838
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
I replaced all the fuel injectors almost 2 years ago. They are the accell brand. At the time of replacing the injectors I also changed the fuel filter.
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Looking for a ZR-1 1985 Yamaha RZ350-NOT STOCK 1971 Yamaha AT1-Middle of a restoration |
03-11-2016 | #4 |
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: ATL. GA.
Posts: 2,170
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
Find someone with a scanner that has diagnostic capability. They will be able to check the 02s and lots of other things before you start throwing parts at it.
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Steve 1990 Steel Blue/Black #2355 1990 Red/Red #1473 1991 Quasar /Black #118 Sold 1991 Turquoise/Black #766 Parted Out 1993 Yellow/White #179 Sold 1990 Black/Gray #1361 Headers/4:10s Sold |
03-11-2016 | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 838
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
I have a MT2500 available in my toolbox.
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Looking for a ZR-1 1985 Yamaha RZ350-NOT STOCK 1971 Yamaha AT1-Middle of a restoration |
03-11-2016 | #6 |
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: ATL. GA.
Posts: 2,170
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
Check the cross counts of the 02s. I had one that was very slow and caused a small hesitation.
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Steve 1990 Steel Blue/Black #2355 1990 Red/Red #1473 1991 Quasar /Black #118 Sold 1991 Turquoise/Black #766 Parted Out 1993 Yellow/White #179 Sold 1990 Black/Gray #1361 Headers/4:10s Sold |
03-11-2016 | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: CenCoast California
Posts: 899
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
Actually, the right way to diagnose a potential leaking injector is to run the fuel pressure tests in the Service Manual. For that you need, obviously, the FSM for your model year and a pressure gauge appropriate for checking fuel pressure on a GM port injected engine. The gauges can be had from a number of vendors.
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Hib Halverson Technical Writer former owner 95 VIN 0140 current owner 19 VIN 1878 |
03-11-2016 | #8 | |
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: ATL. GA.
Posts: 2,170
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
Quote:
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Steve 1990 Steel Blue/Black #2355 1990 Red/Red #1473 1991 Quasar /Black #118 Sold 1991 Turquoise/Black #766 Parted Out 1993 Yellow/White #179 Sold 1990 Black/Gray #1361 Headers/4:10s Sold |
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03-19-2016 | #9 |
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Warrington PA
Posts: 1,914
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
In my experiences with blown head gaskets is that you will see a ton of white smoke coming out the exhaust, as all of the fluids are now mixing together. You may or may not notice a significant change in performance under normal driving conditions. I have not experienced this in any car that I have owned, but have had this happened in some of the big trucks that I have driven over the years.
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Tom 1994 ZR-1 #009 "captured test fleet car" 1974 LS4 454 Vert 1974 L-82 355 Vert. 1982 L83 CFI...now a retired "dd"....Sold WAZOO Member |
03-28-2016 | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 838
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Re: Symptoms of bad head gasket
Today was probably the worst it has been. I drove the car from work to the gym, roughly 30 minutes driving time. Vette ran great. Pulled well on the highway nothing a miss. The car sat for about 30-35 minutes outside. When I went to start it up, the idle was very rough and pulsing up and down, like it was hunting to find the idle. I didn't touch the gas pedal and let it stablize by itself. It took a 30 seconds before it idled at 1000 RPM's.
I haven't changed the plugs or anything yet. When I hook up the scanner what should I all be looking at?
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Looking for a ZR-1 1985 Yamaha RZ350-NOT STOCK 1971 Yamaha AT1-Middle of a restoration |
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