Needing advice on 360
Ok so this past winter I did a 360 magnum junkyard build. Tore an 80,000 mile magnum 360 down and everything looked great so I left the bottom end alone. Put Mr. Gasket 0.28 head gaskets on to up the compression a bit. Went with the stock uncracked heads and put on the Hughes 1110 springs becuase I went with a comp custom grind cam. Basically mimicked the 380/360 magnum crate build.
The swap went as planned this Feb and I have been having a blast in this car with this budget build until a few days ago. I was on a lonely road working on my holeshot becuase I was getting ready to take it to the drag strip for the first time. Holeshot went good shifted into 2nd about 5,500 and then it started blowing white smoke out of the passenger side tailpipe and blowing antifreeze everywhere.
I shut the car down and assumed I had blown a head gasket. There was antifreeze everywhere under the hood and it seemed to have gotten compression in the cooling system becuase it blew my water pump gasket and my over flow tube. I then towed the car home and planned on replacing the head gasket.
Last Sunday I finally had time to work on the car. Pulled the passenger side head and to my suprise the head gasket looks fine. So, I'm thinking that maybe it cracked that head. I couldn't visually see any cracks so I took the head to have it tested. The machine shop tested the head and says it's fine.
So could I have blown the head gasket on the driver's side and it blew white smoke out of passenger side? I hope I didn't crack the block but I can't see any cracks and the oil is not milky. I guess my next plan will be to pull the driver's side head and check it out when I have time.
Just trying to pick some FABO brains to see if someone has run into this before. Now is probably time to upgrade to some better heads I'm just trying to make sure I haven't screwed anything else up.
Thanks in advance for the help.
If you are blowing white smoke, you are burning coolant.
Did you see any antifreeze in any of the cylinders when you took the head off?
Have you run a compression test or leak down test in each cylinder to isolate which one is having "trouble"?
What was your piston to valve clearance when you put the engine together with the new cam/head gasket?
If you are getting white smoke out of the tailpipe, you are getting coolant in your cylinder. Are you sure that you haven't cracked a cylinder?
I would run a compression test and/or leak down test on the other side before removing the head, to see if it was leaking. After removing the head, you can't trace it back to a head gasket if that is the case.
Try to isolate which cylinder is having the problem, so you can take a closer look at that one.
From you "practicing your holeshot", you may have kissed a valve.
Also, there should be antifreeze in one of your cylinders when you tear the engine down.