[frbformula]

Looks like my luck keeps getting better. Checking over the car again and the radiator is about 1/2 empty. No coolant leaks on the floor or any residue visible. So im guessing head gaskets. I tried to do a coolant pressure test tonight but i cant get the upper radiator hose to stop having a tiny air leak. So after an houre of messing with the hose i quit for the night. Should o try any other tests? Maybe a compression test or cylinder leak down? Or should i just pull the heads?

[slowbird]

Pull the plugs, are they dry or wet? Oil milky?

[455firebird1969]

You could test the coolant for CO2, and a compression test. How long did it take for the radiator level to drop?

[charlie66]

After its warmed up and after a drive does the top hose stay pressurized ? what do the plugs look like?

[frbformula]

Plugs didnt look milky but i will post a pick of them. I drained the oil and no sign of coolant in there. Checked the level end of September before a 250 mile road trip then maybe put another 100 miles on it after that. I did notice last time i took it out it was blowing out white smoke under heave accel. My dad confirmed it was. Said he was going to say something to me about it but never did. I normally put cometics on the engine but this last rebuild 2 years ago i just put the nicer felpros on. Seemed like cometics were over kill but maybe not.

[frbformula]

Plugs are a little rich. I run e85 and switched to the fitech efi unit this year. Havent changed the plugs since i got the tune figured out.

[charlie66]

They seem a little oily with signs of rust on some of them. E85 tends to make smoke out the tailpipes, mine does it all the time. Does your car run a little hot? What your normal cruising temperature? Think it might be losing it through the overflow, how's the condition of the radiator cap? Does the system hold pressure after the motor is turn of for say, ten minutes? I would fix that air leak you mentioned too..

[steve25]

What heads are we talking about here?

[Half-Inch Stud]

Look over the Rad top areas carefully. I too dropped coolant level, but no garage wetness. Leaked coolant from the top row and it trickled down "in the blind" while driving.

[frbformula]

The heads are edelbrock round port heads. The car always runs cool. Before i switched to e85 i just had a restrictor in place of the thermostat, i had to put in a thermostat when i went to e85 to keep heat into the engine. It runs at 180 all day long. It did over boil at the track twice last year beacause of a thrown belt.

Charlie, i know e85 seems to smoke but the last time i drove it it seemed excessive. Also i let the car idle for 30min in the drive before i put it away for the summer and no coolant leak was detected.

Looks like i will fix the air leak on the top rad hose at the intake and do compression/cylinder leak down tests to see where im at before i tear it down.

[charlie66]

Originally Posted by Half-Inch Stud

Look over the Rad top areas carefully. I too dropped coolant level, but no garage wetness. Leaked coolant from the top row and it trickled down "in the blind" while driving.

I have had this happen also . Good point..

[charlie66]

Originally Posted by frbformula

The heads are edelbrock round port heads. The car always runs cool. Before i switched to e85 i just had a restrictor in place of the thermostat, i had to put in a thermostat when i went to e85 to keep heat into the engine. It runs at 180 all day long. It did over boil at the track twice last year beacause of a thrown belt.

Charlie, i know e85 seems to smoke but the last time i drove it it seemed excessive. Also i let the car idle for 30min in the drive before i put it away for the summer and no coolant leak was detected.

Looks like i will fix the air leak on the top rad hose at the intake and do compression/cylinder leak down tests to see where im at before i tear it down.

Doing a leak down on all the cylinders is a good idea. If one is bad it will send the water level in the radiator up and over the top . What I do is take the radiator cap off, apply 100 psi to the cylinder and watch the water level in the radiator. If its bad , you will have a rise in the water level. For the ones that seem good, spend some time leaving the pressure in the cylinder and watch to see if it slowly rises..

By the way , My car blows white smoke the most on the colder days.. Something about the e85 that reacts that way to the cold. This used to bug the crap out of me until I realize there was nothing to be done about it.

If you do wind up taking your engine apart, take good notice to all the cylinders. Move the pistons up and down until you have viewed all the cylinder walls on the exhaust side of the walls. If there are any funny looking stains , you had water puddling there after turning off the engine. It happens a lot with the Cometic gaskets I've noticed .. ..

[Bill Eveland]

One thing I don't like with the felpros over the cometics is they have some very large coolant passage holes that don't always line up real good or are a lot larger where needed. Seems the Cometics holes seem to line up better and have sealed fine. I've had good luck with felpros also just saying that could be an issue

[tom s]

I pretty much use the Butler gaskets unless a custom thickness is required.They make head specific gaskets for the early and late valve angle.Not sure how they are on boosted applications.Tom

[Elarson]

Originally Posted by frbformula

It did over boil at the track twice last year beacause of a thrown belt.

.

Possibility that the boil over events warped the head(s). It wouldn't take much to cause a leak. The test that Charlie66 recommended in post #12 is the way to approach it.

Good luck,
Eric

[straycat]

Like Bill said. One of the reasons I went with Butler gaskets over Felpro. They told me their's were manufactured from original blueprints. I felt the larger gasket opening just let the water closer to the cylinder.

[frbformula]

Thanks for all the input. Ill get to the leak down check this weekend and post my findings

[Skip Fix]

Butler's make a good template for drilling the water passages in an IA block also.

[charlie66]

Originally Posted by straycat

Like Bill said. One of the reasons I went with Butler gaskets over Felpro. They told me their's were manufactured from original blueprints. I felt the larger gasket opening just let the water closer to the cylinder.

I like them too.

I like the Cometic for the variety of bore sizes available. I like to get the gasket as close to cylinder bore size as possible..

[charlie66]

Originally Posted by frbformula

Thanks for all the input. Ill get to the leak down check this weekend and post my findings

Good luck