I'm not sure where the leak Down form. The radiator was not bubbling so I do t think its the head gasket.

 

I hope your timing was right when your new cams were installed. Piston hit the valves?? How high did you rev? Sounds like you over revved the engine and part of the spark plug ruined your cylinder wall

 

i had bad leak down piston 4...no bubbles...no oil or coolant loss...it was still only head gasket...gaskets can be trickey...pull the head...and worst case is you build the motor...and turn up the boost....

 

is there a way of telling if its the headgasket for sure before I pull the head?

 

Crazy thing about the plug is the insulator is gone but its not showing much heat in the threads. What do the other plugs look like? Do you have a borescope to see what that piston looks like vs the other 3?

I am with 240Z, throw plugs back in it and see how it runs.

aaron

 

No!!!!!


Dude pull the head in the very least it will be a headgasket. Which means the head has to come off.

If its worse.......the head still has to come off. Even if the car starts running
'ok' you'll always be thinking "what if".

Head needs to come off.

I've been where you are.......3 times. It sucks and unless you were preparing for this eventuality (HTA 35 on a motor that high in mileage on e85 without a motor build fund was not wise) its a costly repair if not prepared for it.

Good luck.

And pull the got damn head. lol.

 

I put in new spark plugs. I been driving the car for the past few day on e85 with out going into boost, so far i driven about 250 miles and the car drivel perfectly fine. I'm not loosing any coolent or anything. I'm going to switch back to 91 octane tomorrow and hit a little boost and see how the car runs and to see if the car starts pushing coolent.

 

I've been fortunate enough to compromise the headgasket on my car 3 times....Everytime it would act completely normal until boost went over 20psi. At that point is would fill up the res. and spit coolant out on the ground. I would also notice little "specs" of black in the coolant or brown 'froth" in the rad. neck. Unless something went horribly wrong, the headgasket will remain intact and not actually blow out like fiber gaskets would. That's why I used the term "compromised" You'll know pretty quickly if it's bad after getting into boost. On my car, normal coolant expansion only raises the level in the res. about an inch. Anything over that I know i've potentially got a problem.

 

the other 3 plugs look fine. I don't have a borescope