well long story short ; car was on the dynapak this past weekend; after getting a baseline tune we started to turn the boost up and 3 pulls later (24lbs on an fpred) , we noticed a bunch of fluid all over the floor and we looked at the overflow tank and it was overflowing and bubbling.

judging by the guys that were there, they acknowledged that it was the symtpoms of a bad headgasket. : ( so we decided to call it quits and end the tuning session right there. took a chance by replacing the radiator cap, did another pull and it still was pushing coolant (not as much as the first time but still did ) mind you engine temps never went past 198-199 degrees.

now these past couple of days though, i got on it about six times doing some wot pulls and to my amazement it doesnt push coolant. weird. got on it some more throughout the evening and i noticed that about after a dozen wot runs, the coolant reservoir level only went about about an inch from where i had it leveled off.

the tuner said that its not my head gasket but the factory studs are lifting just enough to where there is probably a weak point in the gasket to allow air to work its way through.

he's saying to just get head studs and it shud be fine. please note that after a pull, you would think that the radiator hose would be stiff from all the pressure built up but we could squeeze the hose with ease.

my question woukd be, if i have a blown hg, wouldn't i be pushing coolant after every wot run? how come im not pushing coolant in correspondence to every wot run i do?

and another question would be, how come when i push coolant, it pushes out nowhere near the amount it spewed out on the dyno? about an inch increase after a dozen runs on the street vs. overflowing the resevoir on the dyno after 3 pulls?

 

It does sound like its either lifting the head( stretching the stud, or the gasket is starting to fail. They sell little tabs at auto part stores that you can test your coolant to tell if combustion gasses are getting in it. I would do a compression test and if it passes then maybe look into the studs. Are you on stock studs?

 

when u do studs just do the Hgasket also

 

You might be able to get away with doing headstuds with the 1x1 method, without removing the head. However, if there is already some point in the gasket, I wouldnt count on it working for too long.

 

Bad idea to do 1x1 at this point with a questionable head gasket.Im not a fan of the 1x1 method it's just to risky to do if there's fluids in the threads you run risk of screwing them up or even worst snapping the block.

 

yyes. im still in the stock headstuds. i know the 1x1 method is a much debated topic. ive never really seen any failed occasions of people that have done the 1x1 method and still blown a gasket.

doesnt mean its never happened but from what research ive done on here it seems that there has been more success than failures when done properly.

 

I have done the 1x1 method in the past and had no issue. But in your case, you may already have a small or partial fail in the gasket. Or as gordian said it could cause fluid to get into the threads. That's going to throw off your torque.

 

UPDATE : today i did a few wot runs again and now the coolant is back down an inch to where it was before...this is weird...

 

Pull the head before you do more damage

 

+1 no reason to change the studs and not put on a new gasket.

 

Yea, I should have stressed that with the leak already, its prolly not the best idea.

 

like i said just do the studs n gasket.. parts r under $200 n if u r doin it ur self or a mechanic, its worth the little extra work. then u can rest easy knowing the gasket is good too..