Head gasket issue?

[Zenkiri]

Hey all first post here and a rather depressing one at that.

 

I bought a 05 BA MKII XR6T ute a few days ago that was modified with different valve springs, Full exhaust and a tune that apparently made it make 397hp at the wheel (Still to be confirmed) all was great except for it started to run a little rough yesterday and I thought it might just be spark plugs or a coil seeing as those were the common problems with the previous models I've worked with except this was my first dual cam engine falcon I've ever worked on.

 

I got it home and just as I was about to go out later that afternoon I started it and it started to misfire really badly and sounded like it dropped 2 cylinders out of no where not to mention the white smoke from the exhaust.

 

So instantly I thought "No not now I just bought this, I just lent my motorbike to my friend since his car is off the road and I can't afford this right now"

So I checked the plugs, They were old and looked like crap so I changed them.

Checked the coils, All are fine.

Checked intake gasket no leaks.

 

I was kinda just trying to hope it wasn't a head gasket but it most likely is.

I feel stupid for not inspecting it better but I'm not the only one in the world who has had this happen to them before.

 

So from my info there I would say I'm most likely up for a head gasket correct?

 

I haven't driven it or let it get up to full temp during my testing so I doubt it's warped the head or so I hope.

 

Any idea how much the rough cost to replace one is if I was to get a mechanic to do it?

 

I'm willing to change the gasket myself if I can find all the torque specs and info needed to do it just curious.

 

Thanks all.

[Head]

Sorry to hear your tale of woe, especially since you have only just bought it and you don't need any dramas so soon after a purchase. There'd be a heap of other testing I'd do before settling on a head gasket. What mods have been done, do you know? What boost is it running? And due to its age I wouldn't discount the coils, how did you heck them? Do you know if the head has been off before?
If the head hasn't been off before and it's not running a ridiculous amount of boost I'd be looking elsewhere.


I'm dyslexic and cannot turn off simple functions in tapatalk

[Zenkiri]

As far as I know It's got a X force cat back with what looks to be a 4 inch down pipe and cat, Bigger intercooler (Unsure of brand), Different intercooler piping, cold air intake, Uprated valve springs and Turbosmart Dual port blow off valve. As for anything else I'm not sure. I removed each coil individually while it was idling and all of them affected the engine. I bought another coil in case and tried swapping it out with others and that did nothing.

 

As for boost amount if I read the boost gauge it's got which is rather hard to read it gets up to about 10 psi at most which doesn't seem to come in until around 3k rpm otherwise it's usually sitting at 5 could of been tuned that way I don't know I'm not completely familiar with turbo cars even though I did own a xr5 turbo beforehand.

 

I didn't look into it properly to see if the head had been taken off but maybe it has maybe it hasn't I'm gonna be doing a compression test in the morning.

 

When I pulled the new plugs out all of them except for 1 and 4 looked fine. 1 looked black like it was dry compared to the other and 4 looked like it was wet and not firing but the coil works so that led me to believe that it's probably leaking coolant into cylinder 4.

 

I had the battery disconnected for a few hours before it started this so I'm hoping that it didn't effect the tune not that it should of.

Edited 11/07/17 10:49 AM by Zenkiri

[Zenkiri]

Update on this. When I went to work on it the next day I found a puddle of oil under it jacked it up and found the Turbo had tried to unbolt itself from not only the exhaust manifold but the core of the turbo itself.

 

Even after tightening it all up it's pouring oil out when running so it's most likely destroyed the oil seal on the exhaust side. So chances are the white smoke is from the turbo and the rough idle and occasional misfiring is because the O2 sensor is getting coated in oil by the turbo seeing as it's directly behind it that was my only conclusion.

 

Racq is towing it to a mechanic near me tomorrow morning and I'm getting the mechanic to go over the whole engine as per my request.

[NathanB]

At least you know what it is I guess.

Doesn't make it suck any less