engine issues, help please!

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soaringcowman

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hey guys i just had my heads rebuilt on my car due to bad vavles. so i had a full rebuild. alright i put everything back together and the car ran pretty good for a day. then on my way home from work all throttle went away i could put it into neutral and itd rev fine. but in drive it would barely pull the car and would wanna die if i throttle more the 1/4. made it home and while looking over things i checked the oil. and its all white with antifreeze. a couple buddies said it sounds like a intake manifold leak. whats your guys opinion?
 
Could be either, intake gaskets or head gaskets.
 
You never mentioned bize so i,ll assume its a small block. B/rb motors dont have watrr passing thru the intake. it is a possibility its the intake gasket but that would only put water in oil and not the cylinder. Pull your plugs and use a compression gauge to check cranking cylinder pressure .If all cylinders are high and uniform ,not sure but probably 150 to 220 depending on compression ratio then its not head or cylinder related.For your sake i hope it is because if it lost power due to compression then head gaskets should fix it but if bearings are galling due to lubrication problems ie water in the oil the block is going to have to be torn down.
 
well i just did a compresion check on it and it was as follows:
1:129
2:131
3:149
4:155
5:130
6:150
7:120(dunno if i had a good seal cuz the header was in the way)
8:135

now if i come back with higher numbers like this wouldn't this elimate my head gaskets?
 
Head gaskets can fail and allow oil /water mix without effecting compression. That wouldn't cause your running problem though.
There has been a lot of posts around lately concerning intake gaskets. Too thin? Aftermarket intakes being undersized ? Head and or block milling increasing gaps ? Various causes or speculations anyway.
Stacked gaskets can solve it.
I'd pull the intake and clean up the mess then center the intake and check gasket space.
 
White smoke out of the exhaust? If you were pulling water into the cylinders, you will make LOTS of steam. This time of year it should be pretty easy to see.
 
is it still running on all 8??
did you drain the antifreeze before pulling the heads??
did the top radiator hose build up pressure with a cold motor??
 
Don't take this as a fix for your problem, but this actually happened to me and I still have a chuckle when I think about it. :)

I was stationed in Germany in 1972 and bought this puke green 68 Mustang fastback, 302 cu.in., C4 auto, from another serviceman who was totally disgusted with his car cause he just couldn't get it to run right. Paid him $300 bucks and drove the Stang home. He told me he'd just had a valve job done and it never ran right after that.
Well, come Saturday morning, I fired up my new-to-me Stang, set the timing, set the Autolite 4300 4-bbl, checked the oil, water, tranny fluid, etc. I couldn't see the coolant in the rad, so I stuck the garden hose in and gave it a good drink, put the rad cap back on, and went merrily off down the street of the little German town where I lived. After about a mile, I noticed a LOT of smoke / steam in the rear view, so I pulled a U-ie and headed back home. Pulled the dipstick and noticed the same thing as you....major bubbly, cream colored, puke right to the top of the dipstick. Hmmm. The damned engine is full of water, this can't be good.
I decided I'd better have a good look around the engine compartment, and while doing so, noticed the tabs of the new head gaskets sticking out from the block.......... Hmmmm. Got out my trust tools, popped off both heads, flipped the head gaskets over so the tabs now pointed to the inside, top of the engine, instead of the outside, bottom, and put the heads back on.
I raced that Stang for 3 years after that and then sold it for a good profit, and never did have any overheating or coolant loss problems again. :)
 
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