Thread: Sbc 350 vortec heads coolant out of cylinder 6 exhaust.

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I'll make this brief and as detailed as possible. I drove 60 miles no problem then at a stop light waiting for the light to turn green my exhaust is spewing white smoke. Steam train amounts. Did compression check and got:

1-185. 2-205
3-188. 4-205
5-165. 6-210 with coolant out exhaust port while cranking
7-165. 8-205

My question is how can the be so far off from driver to passenger side? Also how is cylinder 6 still holding compression?

The heads have about 1k miles on them and the engine rebuild has about 500 miles. I used the normal felpro head gasket 7733pt-2. Initial timing is at 10* and total is 31* all in around 2.8k rpms. Car never overheated and everything was great up until now. Wideband read 12.1 at wide open. Thanks for your help.

I had this happen to me but some how I wound up with a 305 gasket and never caught it. Until it blew. Good luck in finding it before reassembly

First off, Welcome to CHR!

Bummer of a post - could be a couple things that would not affect compression. It may be a bad intake manifold gasket or a cracked intake manifold. I'd check there before pulling heads.

Thanks guys. I'm gonna rip it apart and report back.

Sorry I missed it being your first post Welcome to CHR enjoy your stay

Coolant in cylinder 6. It still held 210 compression. It's still odd the there is a big difference between the driver and passenger side. I'll send the heads out to get them checked. I've also read that cam timing could cause the huge difference in compression. Does that sound logical?

Was the block magnafluxed when it was rebuilt? For your sake I hope it's a bad head and not the block. BTW, welcome aboard.

What does the gasket look like?

Quick update: My wife is right, I'm an idiot and this is proof. When I did my first head swap I used the felpro 7733pt2 with great results. When I rebuilt my current block I ordered a sbc gasket kit from a no name brand from Amazon. I just wanted to use the valve cover gasket, oil pan gasket, exhaust gasket and other non critical gaskets to save some money. The entire kit was $30. As I was assembling the engine, I guess I carelessly thought "what the hell, I'll try these gaskets because they looked pretty durable." Man was I wrong. The gasket failed not at the metal ring around the piston but at the compressible orange sealing surface. When I removed the heads I can use my index finger and smear that sealant off. It pretty much flakes right off. I'm gonna try to upload a pic but the website is giving me an error. Am I pissed? Not really because it's an easy fix. However, dont cheap out on the head gaskets.

Lots of cheap new junk for sale out there. Seems like most guys try them because they look good. Im kinda a slow learner with that stuff.

Originally Posted by Grillhands

The entire kit was $30.

And there was a reason for that.

.

So I flushed the engine with 12qts of oil and took the car around for a nice drive about 2 days ago. Today, my friend came over and he wanted to hear the car run. I started it up and within 1 minute the car turned off. I thought maybe I forgot to turn the fuel pump on so I tried to kick it over again but the solenoid only clicked. I checked the volts going to solenoid and everything was good. Turns out MY ENGiNE CEASED!!! I cant even turn it over with a breaker bar on the crank. I drove this car for 600 miles after my rebuild without any problems and it decided to crap out at idle. I had oil pressure and I used my drill to prime the pump to 50 psi with my dewalt drill just to be sure. I removed the starter to be sure it wasnt binding to the flywheel. All valves and pushrods are fine. I didn't open the engine yet because my frustration level is at astronomical levels. How could this have happened? I'm at a lose. Can anybody please provide insight? I rebuilt the engine with all clearances in spec.

Sorry. Its seized not ceased. I'm too angry to edit

pull the plugs then turn it over . my guess you'll have coolant come out of #6 hole. coolant dont compress .

Plugs are out and still doenst move a inch. I drove it yesterday too.