Just repaired head gasket...

So after about a 12 hour day putting it all back together and 20 hours of taking it apart and cleaning all the parts, it starts up. But it seemes like the exhaust isnt on there tight enought because it looks like there is exhaust smoke coming out from the back of the engine where the exhaust connects. But the only other thing that seems wrong is the idle is really low. It seems like it doesnt have enough power to stay running and just stalls out. Does anyone have any ideas on what it might be or how to get the idle speed up?

Are you sure you have all of the vacuum hoses back on?

there's a hose not clamped at the top of the intake is whistling. That would cause it? I'll try to record a video and put a like from YouTube on here so you can see in detail. There's also a lot of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe but it revs up real smooth

there's a hose not clamped at the top of the intake is whistling. That would cause it? I'll try to record a video and put a like from YouTube on here so you can see in detail. There's also a lot of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe but it revs up real smooth

White smoke out of the tailpipe, not a good sign.
Did you check for a cracked head while you had it off?
Just my :2cents:

Good luck

Al

ya there were no obvious cracks I did look around to see, but before I replaced the gaskets it wasn't half as bad. I used some wd40 to try and remove some surface rust off the cylendar wall I'm hoping that's all it's that burning off

Get a used motor!

I just put 250 dollars in parts and tools and 30+ hrs of time into this. It's not my only car it was pretty much a project but Ide like to get it working.

So after about a 12 hour day putting it all back together and 20 hours of taking it apart and cleaning all the parts, it starts up. But it seemes like the exhaust isnt on there tight enought because it looks like there is exhaust smoke coming out from the back of the engine where the exhaust connects. But the only other thing that seems wrong is the idle is really low. It seems like it doesnt have enough power to stay running and just stalls out. Does anyone have any ideas on what it might be or how to get the idle speed up?

Rob

Is this your first headgasket job? Is the engine noisy? If you're hearing noise from where the manifold connects to the head then there is something in there keeping it from coming in contact. You could just be seeing something burning off. If this is the case it should stop smoking once it gets good and hot.

I would start with making sure you got ALL of the vacuum hoses put back on. Listen for vacuum leaks with the engine running.

Next do a compression test to make sure that the heads and the the headgaskets and rings are doing their job

Have you had this car running before you did the headgasket job? Do you know how it ran before?

Regards,

Dan

Ok I figured out the exhaust problem. I tightened the bolts up and there was a lot of stuff burning off the engine. The car ran kinda rough before I started the job. It kinda was like put put put with a white cloud of smoke coming out of the tail pipe. It doesn't do that anymore. Now, when it was all completed and put back together, it ran nice but there was a very lot of exhaust smoke for about 10-15 minutes but that stopped. Now it runs fine but the check engine light is on and there's some white smoke coming out of the engine oil dip stick. What does this mean?

By the way, it took the check engine light took about 25-30 minutes to come on. And all vacuum hoses are back on.

engine light is solid and olny thing I see is white smoke coming from dip stick. I just replaced ok gaskets also. What does this mean?

Rob

Is this white smoke coming out when the engine is running? Have you changed the oil after the HG job?

Dan

Its only smoking when the engine it on or hot still. Its also coming out of the motor oil cap. I changed the oil and the oil filter right before i tired to start the car back up. It wasnt doing this before.

White means water. Could you have gotten water in the crankcase?

Rob

Let the engine cool down and pull the sparkplugs out and look for water on eny of them. I'm thinking that you may have put a headgasket on backwords, or upside down. Or the other thought I have is that there is a cracked head.

Why did the HGs need replacing?

Dan

Gaskets needed to be replaced because my girlfriend over heated the car, put more coolent in and drove the car a little more. I took it to 2 different places and they both said it was the head gaskets.

The gaskets I got were pretty idiot proof, they said "up" on the side that needed to be up on them. I torqued the bolts down to the right weight according to online research and a book I bought for my car.

A couple of the pistons were all the way up so I couldnt tell if there were any cracks. But before the gaskets were replaced, there was nothing like this happening so Im guessing it isnt cracked.

I'm hoping theres just some left over water in the oil pan and when I get another oil change it will empty out. I've also seen that a PCV could be causing this.

I also just read that some Lucas oil stabilizer could fix this but where would I add this in?

so it isn't blowby because there's no oil in the air filter. I got a check engine code reader today. I forget the error code exactly because I'm at work ruche now but it said something like there's not enough fuel getting to engine. I cleared it out twice and noticed the car runs real nice now besides the belt squeaking. The check engine light hasn't come back on. Not sure if it fixed itself or what?

P0171 system to lean - bank one

If it is a simple thing like water in the oil pan, it will evaporate when you drive it some distance.

Rob

Keep an eye on the coolant level. If it's going down you have trouble.

Dan

thanks

Also a smell of gas when the car is running.

Sounds like you should check the fuel line fittings and the injector seals. Did you have the injectors out when doing the head gasket job?

Also, I'm going to merge your two current threads together as they really are both related. In the future, please don't post two separate threads on the same topic.

-Rod

Ended up taking the heads out again and havig them machined. Car runs like brand new. Thanks a lot for all the help

Ended up taking the heads out again and havig them machined. Car runs like brand new. Thanks a lot for all the help

What did the shop find? Why did the heads need machining?

Dan

Both heads were warped and there was a bad valve on the back head

I've been tempted to just replace HGs and not have them surfaced and valves checked for leaks. After hearing your story I'm glad I didn't and had them checked out.

Glad you got it figured out!

Regards

Dan

Haha thats the mistake I made the first time. I just replaced the gaskets thinking it would be alright. Come to find out I get the whole thing back together and 2 days later Im taking it apart again. It cost me 250 go get the head machined and a valve replaced and 50 bucks for the other head to just get surfaced. Really.. when you have this done your supposed to change all valves changed and get new rocker arms depending on your engine. But I was already over budget for having to do it a second time.

Runs like brand new now besides the engine light but thats because antifreeze went through the cat converter and ruined it.

Rob

What code are you getting?

Dan

P0420

Haha thats the mistake I made the first time. I just replaced the gaskets thinking it would be alright. Come to find out I get the whole thing back together and 2 days later Im taking it apart again. It cost me 250 go get the head machined and a valve replaced and 50 bucks for the other head to just get surfaced. Really.. when you have this done your supposed to change all valves changed and get new rocker arms depending on your engine. But I was already over budget for having to do it a second time.

Runs like brand new now besides the engine light but thats because antifreeze went through the cat converter and ruined it.

Rob

I think that you need an O2 sensor instead of a cat.

Here is a list of P codes:


P0420 Downstream Oxygen sensor reporting low catalyst efficiency on Bank 1 (Rear Bank)
P0430 Downstream Oxygen sensor reporting low catalyst efficiency on Bank 2 (Front Bank)
These codes are an indication that the catalytic converter indicated is not working properly.
The 2 catalytic converters are part of the "Y" pipe....a single assembly.


Dan

It would certainly be less expensive to start with the O2 sensor than the catalyst, and coolant can damage the sensors. However, it's good that you are prepared to replace the cat as well since that could also be damaged from coolant and the code could be related to that as well.

-Rod

Ya I changed the O2 sensor infront of the back cat. Light still comes on so it must be because a/f went through the cat.

You changed sensor 1. The P0420 code, as it would relate to a potential oxygen sensor issue, would be sensor 2 (post converter).

-Rod

When doing the head gaskets it is also a good idea to replace the valve stem seals. Also, the compression of each cylinder should be checked before beginning cylinder head work, so that you know which cylinders have weak compression.