Foam in coolant - HG going?

[AmericanEagle]

White smoke at idle but not after i run the car around the block or so. Coolant in the res but none under the radiator cap. Coolant also has a white foam.

I'm thinking HG. Is this a real DIY?

[kjewer1]

How low is it under the cap? If you can see foam it must not be too low. If its real low I could see the pump foaming it up trying to pump it. If its real low (cant see it) fill it up and drive for a minute or two at operating temp to move things around, then check it when it cools again. Of all the bad HG cases I've seen, white foam wasnt part of it, so I'm curious now.

[turbomyspyder]

Probably air trapped in the system or dirt or a wrong dilution not 50/50. Causing the coolant to boil off. You usually have white sludge in the oil and coolant when the headgaskets go.

[AmericanEagle]

It didn't get very low. I can squeeze on the upper radiator hose and get clear coolant to come up. I'm doing a compression test soon to rule out the HG.
If this is the HG it's only been blown for about a day. I have overheated the car, but that was almost a year ago and since then i have done too many 1/4 passes to count.

I wil say that i have been peaking at around 16 to 17 PSI when i am racing. I have been doing that for atleast a month and i just turned it down a few days ago. Stock t-25 and no fuel managment, maybe my luck ran out and i was hitting detonation?

[AmericanEagle]

Compression test results. Didn't do a wet test yet

1 . 185PSI
2. 175PSI
3. 190PSI
4. 195PSI

[kjewer1]

Cant really do a wet test on our motors anyway, since we have dished pistons. All the oil ends up in the dish, making the CC smaller.

Here are possible failure modes of the HG.

oil in coolant
coolant in oil
coolant to atmospere
oil to atmosphere
oil to conbustion
combustion to oil
combustion to atmosphere
coolant to combusttion
coolant to atmospehre
combustion from one cylinder to another

I probably forgot some, but you get the idea. The HG seperates the oil system, cooling system, combustion chamber, and atmosphere. It can fail between any two points, or more.

My point is it may pass the fluid mixing test, and the compression test, but still be bad. You may have no white smoke, but... you get the idea.

Either way, looks promising so far. I would probably do a full colling system flush and see if the foaming comes back.

[Young_gee]

hey man, i had the same problem with my car. It wasn't an eclipse the problem is that your head gaskets are no good anymore, the anti-freeze is getting in to the engine (mixing with the oil) and white foam is seen. you need to replace your head gaskets...

[kjewer1]

If the oil had white foam I would agree, but its his coolant that has the foam.

[AmericanEagle]

Better compression readings. Are these good?

1. 185
2. 180
3. 192
4 195

I started the car, dead cold. And no more smoking. I warmed the car up and took it around the block a few times kinda hard. No coolant foam. The foam from before was white with no oil in it. My engine oil looks great. Did two 1/4 runs with no problems except a CEL again for my o2 sensor which is new.

[kjewer1]

I wouldnt worry unless you start to see more trobule. Looks good so far. IF you do find the cause of the foaming thoiugh let me know

[AmericanEagle]

My neighbor just clued me in, It was grey not white smoke he seen. Good ole oil burning. So, i guess the turbo is going...or going to go soon. Could also be oil fouling my o2 sensor, my brand new sensor just gave me a CEL. Still can't find the reason for foam.