Head Gasket or ?????? July 11, 2013, 09:36:30 AM -by the symptoms I was having on the '86 TC, I ASSuMEd it was a head gasket blown, or blowing. Got it apart last nite and it looks to be ok. seems to have some oil getting into the cylinders, but no coolant signs. no breaks in gaskt. here is what it was doing. had started running a little rough on start up. would eventually clear. seem fine going down road. every now and then a hiccup, like a miss. had done tune up about year and a half earlier. then I drove to work one morning. got off. fired up. running rough. clears up. leave. hit the interstate on ramp, start losing power. more gas I give the slower the engine gets. let off, coast over to emer. lane. still running. get back on gas slowly, it goes, but is missing. next exit is a little over a mile away. make it there, get off, double back to work. still running rough. hiccup, jerk, skip. park it at work. haven't drove since.(about 4 months now) would go out and crank it up every now and then. didn't ever over heat. would be an awful smell out of the exhaust. assumed again it was burning coolant. and now, have it in, head off. no signs of coolant on pistons, no gasket breakage, so it seems like that was not it. any ideas or overlooking??? thanks in advance......... Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #1 – July 11, 2013, 10:05:34 AM Cracked head. Good opportunity to spend some cash on a nice aluminum head (lots of cash, but hey, you can always make more, right?) Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #2 – July 11, 2013, 11:04:10 AM yes, prob cracked head that has a path out to one of the exhaust ports.presure test the head.the block if cracked wouldnt do this, youd have oil in your coolant , coolant in your oil, and depending on the crack location either or on your pistons.i cant say it acts like a crack somewhere that seals off vac presure, that would make you idle very high *most* of the time.,, not actually always. Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #3 – July 11, 2013, 11:10:17 AM -nice... thanks. I will do a "visual" test. talk to the tech doin the grunt work. I have a spare engine I could grab the head off of(who knows if its any better..lol) and have theis one check at my leisure.....course if anyone can maybe think of another reason......lol Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #4 – July 11, 2013, 11:27:08 AM -did run it by the tech. he said he thought there should still be signs of coolant in the cylinder somewhere as it was normal looking other than oil. the only weird place he showed me was at the top of the# 2 & 3 cylinders, there were hot spots that had "blued" the cyl walls........ Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #5 – July 11, 2013, 11:50:44 AM Make sure to check your exhaust flow. Sounds a lot like what I had when I had a plugged up cat on my 84 turbo couple. The more gas you give it the more it wants to dog out and shake. Idled great with some skipping and such. So it would be worth a shot to look into that. Mine got plugged after it was only 2 years old. After loosing a cam follower and it running SUPER black exhaust I guess it got plugged up. It did sit for about 6mo's while I was getting parts and machine work done and paid for. So when I put it all back together it would start and run and skip and such then take it out DOG city. So after countless hour of going over things and finding nothing a buddy of mine was looking it over and thought the cat was plugged we dropped the down pipe" loosened the nuts to make a gap for exhaust to escape" and took it on a run. Wow it was way better 3days later got a new cat installed. I looked thought the old one while pointing one end at the sun I could only see 3-4 holes that were open. HTH Stuckman Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #6 – July 11, 2013, 12:24:19 PM Quote from: ipsd;418445Make sure to check your exhaust flow. Stuckman -good idea. that would account for the smell. it wasn't rotten eggs, just a nasty going by a paper mill type. I looked, cause I had forgot since its been like last nov when the oil was changed, the cat is still there, provided it still has its guts..... Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #7 – July 11, 2013, 04:00:46 PM -anything else anyone can think of before we go forward??? thanks Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #8 – July 11, 2013, 04:16:11 PM The old, ported BV head I had on the Tbird cracked on me and was just blowing oil out of the exhaust (and pressurizing the crankcase). There was no coolant loss. It's possible.Might be exhaust/cat too.Any codes? Quote Selected
Head Gasket or ?????? Reply #9 – July 12, 2013, 08:51:59 AM -nah no codes, Chuck. seemed to be runnin fine, and about the last week of daily drivin, every now and then I would feel a miss/hiccup like when ur plug wires start breaking down. the PO had hard wired the cooing fan to a switch under the dash and I usually never have to turn it on and the car has never been so hot I would be worried about the head cracking. that last week, it never showed any signs of getting hot. then as said in above post about how it did that day when I parked it. I guess I will bite the bullet and send the head out and have it checked. if all is well there, turn to the convertor........ Quote Selected
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