liquid fuel leaking from exhaust manifold

[SoullessNihilist]

i have a 97 s10 blazer 4.3, i just replaced the head gaskets and all others that came with the kit. new cap and rotor, new wires and plugs, new pcv. fired it up this morning, misfire code p0300, which after a minute changed to p0303.. cylider 3. and p0135 o2 sensor. white smoke bellowing from the exhaust also. i just got home from work and tried to start it. no misfire, but running rough, it's dark out so i looked for an arking spark, nothing. could smell tons of fuel. was looking for leaks and noticed (what i thought was water coming from the left exhaust manifold).. turns out after smelling it, it's liquid gasoline!!! glad i didnt blow up!! haha... now what?? could the spider be malfunctioning and cause this?? ...when i replaced the lower intake manifold, i noticed a crack. no i got another one from my work, and replaced it... (used the spider that was mounted on it, cause it was already there and looked a bit cleaner)... i'm gonna go swap out the spider and pcv with my old ones. i'll let you know how it goes!

[Rick Norwood]

Check your Distributor shaft for end play or wobble. Don't try to run it if it is mis-firing real bad. If you are dumping raw unburned gasoline into your exhaust manifolds and system, you'll burn out the Cats and O2 sensors, and even the mufflers. This happened to me on my 2001. Cost me $1600 to fix everything that went south. The culprit was the excessive end play in the distributor shaft.

[danielsatur]

If the Head gasket is gone both misfiring, and white smoke will come from the tail pipe.

If bad, see http://www.steelseal.com , or blue devil.

[old_master]

There is a drain hole in the lower intake manifold that leads to the #3 intake runner. If there is a fuel leak on the left side in the plenum, the raw fuel drains into #3 cylinder. Same set up on the passenger side with cylinder #4.

If you didn't replace the O rings on the fuel lines where they connect to the injector housing, they might be the culprit. If not, it could be a leaky injector, or one of the fuel lines to a poppet valve might be leaking.

Check the bottom of the injector housing for leaks too, could even be a leaky fuel pressure regulator:

[SoullessNihilist]

alright folks, heres the story... (swallowing my pride here, but maybe some other idiot will make the same mistakes) when i unbolted the fuel lines from the top of the spider(two 8mm bolts). i realized that the little metal piece that holds them down, was on upside down. when i pulled the poppets out of the lower manifold, the one that was in clyinder 3, was soaked with fuel. also, i realized that when i took them out originally (to inspect the condition of the nozzles) i must have accidently switched the cylinder 5 and 3 nozzles into the wrong ports. so in conclusion i'm an idiot, and thats what happens when you do your head gaskets in a snow storm, in the middle of the night! after i got it back together, no more fuel oder, and the smoke went away after warming for awhile... she runs like a top!

btw. i did end up putting my original spider back in, simply because i knew for a fact that it worked when it came out... thanks for the imput!

[old_master]

We'll let it go this time Working in the driveway in the winter is an acceptable excuse. Glad you got her figured out.

[viggy58]

thanks for posting back! glad you got it fixed.

when i did my manifold gasket, i debated with myself for quite a while how that hold down clamp on the fuel lines was supposed to go on.

[Rick Norwood]

Dude, Don't beat yourself up too bad, The main thing is you got 'er Done!

You did a lot better than most, and better than that, you didn't give up.

If I listed out all the stupid mistakes and things I broke while trying to FIX them, under sunny skys in broad daylight, I could write a book. Fixing cars at night in a blizzard is certainly a huge challenge.

The main thing is you (and hopefully the rest of us) learned from your mistakes. That's what this Forum is all about.

Any mechanic that tells you they don't blow one every now and then is lying.

Good Job.

[Jerry80871852]

I remember my 1st tear down. Daddy had went and bought one of those power motors with an engine on top, it still looked like the old reel type mower we had, yet had an engine on top of it.

Several weeks later it stopped running, he just left it setting and used the old none-powered mower the rest of the summer. During fall I was thinking, could I fix it, yes, I figured I could if I would tear it to pieces. Now remember, I was about 5 or 6.

So I picked a time when dad was gone, got his tools, and a # 2 wash tub. I took it apart piece by piece placing it all in the #2 wash tub.

My dad, when he saw what I had done, to say he was mad, very mad, would be a understatement. For I had the whole thing apart, piston, rings, rod bearing, crank bearings, and all pilled in that # 2 wash tub.

He was mad for 2 reason, tearing the motor to pieces, and for placing it in the # 2 wash tub we all took a bath in every Saturday, for you see that was in the days of no bath tub in the house. Saturday evening was the time we all took a bath. Summer time, back yard, cold weather, in the middle of the kitchen floor.

I might add, he never let me forget taking that motor to pieces. When I got my 1st car I decided it needed spark plugs, points, spark plug wires. Wow did I make a mess, finally had to call a fried to come and get it running. So no, tearing that 1st power motor was just the start up me enjoying to fix things. More than that I learned to put stuff back together when I would take it apart, dad was amazed, suspired even, it would even run smooth as a sewing machine, after I fixed it.

Shade tree mechanics have to start somewhere, and I figure they all make stupid mistakes, if not sooner, later.

I do not touch automatic transmission, always leave them along.

[VORTEC S10]

I'm having this exact same issue with my 94 S10 Blazer. Do they have the same general setup? I have never seen gasoline coming out of the exhaust manifold until it happened last night. Just had a head gasket job done & replaced the spider (which had a leaking leg) as well. Please help!!

Thank you