Hello Alpiners:
The good news is that I now know how to remove and replace the valve
train and re-torque the head without apparently braking anything and
making it worse! The bad news is that after I crossed my fingers for
luck and re-started the engine, the coolant still sprays out the back of
the head as well or better than before.
Feeling around back there as the coolant sprays out, it sure seems that
it's coming from the head gasket, just underneath that metal "boss" at
the very back, left of the head (facing the firewall). It does not seem
to be coming from the freeze plug back there.
Also, over the last few weeks I've noticed some white smoke out the
tailpipe (especially when cold and warming up) , and now that I've seen
the coolant spray, accompanied by a small bit of white smoke there too
that seems to match the color coming out the tailpipe, I wonder if my
head problem is related to that white smoke.
The two possibilities I can figure are either a cracked head gasket or a
failed water passage, or a combinateion of both. Would a failed water
passage (failed welding from my engine/head rebuild) cause the coolant
spray from the head gasket, or maybe make the head gasket fail in this
mode? And would this cause that white smoke from the pipe?
I guess my next step is to pull the head off, look at the gasket and see
if I can see anything funny at the bottom and back of the head, unless
someone has any other ideas or suggestions.
Steve Sage
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