So, my little Ford Racing 302 seems to be having some difficulties after approximately 8,500 miles...
I started her up the other day from warm and heard a funny "pop"...which was followed by quite a bit of smoke coming from the exhaust. I believe it is steam/coolant rather than oil/fuel vapor.
I checked the compression and it's spon on in each cylinder - 170 +/- 2 on each cylinder (lowest of 168, highest of 172).
When using an electronic IR temp on each of the exhaust headers there are two cylinders (one on each bank) that read much less than the others....150 degrees v. ~350 degrees for the other six so I assume there's no fire in the pot on those cylinders.
After removing the muffler and the collectors, it is apparent that these two cylinders are indeed the two cylinders producing the exhaust smoke/steam.
I can't quite see/view the coolant through the top of the aluminium overflow tank (level is a bit low....) to see if there's some oil sludge in the coolant.
When the plugs were pulled on those two cylinders there was a lot of moisture on them that smelled (and tasted) like coolant. One of the plugs actually had oil/coolant across the electrode gap.
I assume that there's a cylinder head gasket leak, or something similar, which is causing the problem here. I'm surprised that there are two cylinders (one on either bank) that appear to have developed the same issues concurrently.
I think I'm to the point where I need to remove the heads and see what's going on in there. Sound about right?
Any advice is appreciated.
Ford Racing Performance Parts
I started her up the other day from warm and heard a funny "pop"...which was followed by quite a bit of smoke coming from the exhaust. I believe it is steam/coolant rather than oil/fuel vapor.
I checked the compression and it's spon on in each cylinder - 170 +/- 2 on each cylinder (lowest of 168, highest of 172).
When using an electronic IR temp on each of the exhaust headers there are two cylinders (one on each bank) that read much less than the others....150 degrees v. ~350 degrees for the other six so I assume there's no fire in the pot on those cylinders.
After removing the muffler and the collectors, it is apparent that these two cylinders are indeed the two cylinders producing the exhaust smoke/steam.
I can't quite see/view the coolant through the top of the aluminium overflow tank (level is a bit low....) to see if there's some oil sludge in the coolant.
When the plugs were pulled on those two cylinders there was a lot of moisture on them that smelled (and tasted) like coolant. One of the plugs actually had oil/coolant across the electrode gap.
I assume that there's a cylinder head gasket leak, or something similar, which is causing the problem here. I'm surprised that there are two cylinders (one on either bank) that appear to have developed the same issues concurrently.
I think I'm to the point where I need to remove the heads and see what's going on in there. Sound about right?
Any advice is appreciated.
Ford Racing Performance Parts