Need thoughts, idea's, and/or advice

[bumpin_z]

First off I would like to say thank you to Brian for the great job on the M&G it was a pretty good time. It gave me the needed inspiration to work on my 'maro. Whichh brings me to the title of my thread.

When I got home my friend and I started to checkout the car. First thing we found was that there was no coolant. We then filled the radiator with H20 to see if that was the reaason the car ws overheating, kind of but not really. When we took the cap off today the coolant was gone again And there was nothing on the ground, no white smoke when running, and the oil is miky brown and has a few extra quarts show up on the dipstick Sounds like a cracked head or block doesn't it? What do you guys think? Now if I go trough everything and prove this to be so what do I do now? The car isnt bad its fairly straight, It does need floor pans.

A) Should I try and rebuild he engine if its rebuildable
B) Find a used lt1 and re-ring and drop it in
C) Do an Lsx swap
D) Drop in a cheap J/Y V8
E) Part out the car
F) Sell the car whole and try and get my money back that I put into it

I appreciate and value any input anyone might have. Thanx in advance.

Chris

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

Yeah, that ain't good...

All the options you listed are plausible...it really comes down to are you emotionally attached to the car and how deep are your pockets...

[bumpin_z]

Emotional attachment is minimal. Desire to have a v8 fbody, priceless!!

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

Soooooo...then it all just comes down to $$$$.

I see an LS9 in your future...

[meissen]

Yeah, if it's milky and there's more oil showing up in the dipstick tube then it's definitely coolant getting into the oil.

[MP81]

I'd definitely pull the engine, could be a simple head gasket, and it's just not burning a lot at a time.

Have the block checked for cracks, though.

[02RedCamaro]

First thing I'd do is pull the heads and check the head gaskets and check the heads for cracks. Then that will tell you where to go from their. If the block ends up being cracked, and depending on the funds you have, an LS swap would be nice

[ezcruisn71]

The problem could be a lot of different things. I could be as simple as an intake gasket coolant leak into the oil valley. It could be a head gasket, and or a cracked block or a cracked cylinder head. Was the car stored over the winter with antifreeze in it? One thing you could do to check to see if it is a intake gasket leaking is to add coolant to the top of the radiator and then leave the radiator cap off and the put air pressure to the crankcase. The air pressure that that you apply to the crankcase should be very low (about 2-5 PSI)! You can put the air in at the dip stick tube. You will need to plug the valve cover were the PCV Valve is. Remove the PCV valve and plug the valve cover hole. Also remove the tube on the other valve cover and plug the valve cover opening.Look for bubbles in the top of the radiator as you apply air pressure. If you see bubbles in the coolant then it is probably just an intake gasket leaking.

[ezcruisn71]

Another check is to fill the cooling system to the brim and remove the radiator cap. Do this when the engine is cool. Start the engine and race it. If there is a compression leak and the gasses are going into the cooling jacket then the gasses will displace the coolant. Since the cap is off the coolant will be pushed out of the radiator. You probably have a blown head gasket.
OK, so we are pretty sure there is a blown head gasket now how can you isolate the cylinder that is leaking? Remove all the spark plugs. Get a cooling system pressure tester and pressurize the cooling system to specification, normally about 20 PSI. Leave the system pressurized for a few hours. Now lay down some clean paper towel along the cylinder heads where the spark plugs were. Crank the engine over for a few seconds. Since the spark plugs are not in place any antifreeze that leaked into the cylinder will be blown out onto the clean paper towel. Examine the paper towel for the telltale signs of antifreeze and you will be able to tell which is the guilty cylinder.
You can also look at the condition of the spark plugs. Any spark plug that looks different from the rest should be suspect. Of course if you can see antifreeze on a plug then you know that is the bad guy. If the plug looks cleaner than the rest or has a white powder on it then suspect that one.

[98blackbeauty]

these are good suggestions, if you do the second one pull the injector fuses in the under hood fuse box so you don't dump gas in the cylinders.

[bumpin_z]

Thankyou very much for the tips. Next weekend I will try them out and let everyone know what I find. Anyone know how prone these blocks are to crack or the cylinder heads?