Damm Head gasket........................................

[WarShrike]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

I guess nobody had the GM coolant tabs?

[ssms5411]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

I guess nobody had the GM coolant tabs?

I just happened to be in Checkers and saw the Bars leak professional and bought it.

[ssms5411]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

So after getting the car running good I have found that my 3 and 5 cyl. are leaking coolant causing them to misfire. It shows up on my Aeroforce gauge and my coolant slowly disappears. I'm thinking its the head studs leaking. I have ordered so GM pills and will be using them when they come in this week to see if they seal up the head gasket. Theres no coolant in the oil so I'm good there. Worst comes to worse I plan on pulling the head and redo everything. I actually stripped one of the studs where the allen part is and called ARP and they gave me the part # to order another stud, this is the smaller stud # AP3.125-1LB and the nut part # is 200-8605. If you need the longer stud you'll have to call or email ARP. I found them on Summit racing for $12 shipped for the stud and nut.

[ssms5411]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

So I decided to go ahead and use the GM coolant pills before I go ahead and tear it apart. I used the 5 pills in the coolant system(put them in the radiator crushed up) and let it warm up to 170 degrees so my 160 thermo would open. I watched my gauge and after about 20 minutes my misfires on 3 and 5 stopped. So it looks like the pills worked, should of listened to Warshike in the first place.LOL Gm coolant pills FTW and their like $5.

[PalmHarborBlkv6]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

Often GM has the answer to the problems with their own engines and cooling systems

[ssms5411]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

Yeah it wasn't too much of a leak just enough to register on the scanner but not enough to have it actually mis where you could fell it, the car ran great. If it wasn't for my scan gauge I would of never known it was having misfires. I'm letting it cool down then I'm going to take it for a drive and make sure it has sealed up.

[WarShrike]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

Hope it worked! I only used a little bit on mine and it fixed the issue.

It's an old trick some of the grand national guys used to do.

[ssms5411]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

Well it worked yesterday and then today when I started it, its doing the same again misfires on 3 and 5, so I just ordered some Felpros and I'm just going to swap headgaskets and be done.

[WarShrike]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

Bah.

Make sure the heads and deck are true before you install the new HG's.

[htmabe]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

I think those gm headbolts may be a one time use only item. I think I remember reading that somewhere when I did my motor but I never reuse headbolts. I splurge the big bucks for arp studs washers and nuts. You also get better torque readings with them. I also use the arp oil to lubricate them nothing else and have never had a problem. Ditto on what WarStrike says to Imho. I have done 8 sets so far with no issues some as far back as 5 yrs ago.

[ssms5411]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

I think those gm headbolts may be a one time use only item. I think I remember reading that somewhere when I did my motor but I never reuse headbolts. I splurge the big bucks for arp studs washers and nuts. You also get better torque readings with them. I also use the arp oil to lubricate them nothing else and have never had a problem. Ditto on what WarStrike says to Imho. I have done 8 sets so far with no issues some as far back as 5 yrs ago.

Already using ARP headbolts, stock are TTY so no reusing them.

[enzia35]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

I think my car has the same problem, lose coolant and I experience a rough start after driving-letting the car cool down-then starting it up again. A small bit of coolant might be getting into the cylinders.

[ssms5411]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

[QUOTE=enzia35;1043113]I think my car has the same problem, lose coolant and I experience a rough start after driving-letting the car cool down-then starting it up again. A small bit of coolant might be getting into the cylinders.[/QUOTE

Are you getting a PO300 code or any misfire codes? I can see on my scanner the misfires on cyl. 3 and 5 so I know the headgasket is leaking and some coolant on the plugs. You might want to make sure its not getting into the oil also. I've doubled checked mine to make sure. You could have a lower intake gasket leak, I know its not mine because I used the Alm. gaskets on mine. And I could see coolant coming out the side of the head gasket. I decided before tearing it all apart to just re tq the head first and make sure thread sealant is on the studs and if that doesn't work I'll pull the rest off and redo the head gasket on the drivers side since the passenger side is fine.

[enzia35]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

Oh, no misfire codes. I know there's a leak somewhere, I'll just keep up with refilling the coolant until I decide to tear the engine apart.

[Hib Halverson]

Re: Damm Head gasket........................................

I know I'm getting in on this thread late but know a couple of fact about GM's cooling system pellets.

1) They are not really intended to solve head gasket problems.
2) Their main use was to address porosity issues with aluminum heads back in the 1980s and 90s.
3) While they can, in some instances repair small leaks as a result of porosity or small cracks, they also coat the entire cooling system with sealant and that reduces the cooling system's ability to transfer head from hot metal parts to the coolant.

If you have a head gasket problem bad enough to cause a misfire in two cylinders, you'll likely not going to be able to solve it by using cooling system pellets and, once you replace the head gasekt(s), your engine will not cool as well as it did before because of the sealant coating the inside of the system.