I bought an 88 NA for $300 bucks 4 days ago. It ran like shit and burned a lot of oil, so I assumed it was just a bad head gasket. It ran well enough to get it to the high school parking lot a few blocks away. After a few hoonish laps around the block the next day I realized that the cooling system was only half full. After adding at least two more gallons of water, I heard a faint trickling sound in the drivers side exhaust header. Because the battery had run flat while it was waiting to be sold, we tried push starting it to see if it would still turn over. The second I let out the clutch the wheels locked up and over a gallon of water shot out of the tail pipe. Later we tried jump starting it, and after sending almost another gallon of water out the tail, it started up and ran exactly as bad as it did before. After this I was starting to think that there had to be a crack in the head somewhere to let that much water straight out the exhaust so quickly.
We've started tearing down the engine during lunch and after school, and the results so far haven't been too great. There was a LOT of water in the oil, but there seemed to be little to no oil on the water. The passenger side valve cover was absolutely coated in milky sludge:
I'm not sure if there were any troubleshooting steps that I missed before tearing this thing apart, or if anyone has any tips on the next step to take. I am currently trying to get the 30+ hoses that are connected to the upper intake manifold off so I can get that out and have access to the drivers side head.
We've started tearing down the engine during lunch and after school, and the results so far haven't been too great. There was a LOT of water in the oil, but there seemed to be little to no oil on the water. The passenger side valve cover was absolutely coated in milky sludge:
I'm not sure if there were any troubleshooting steps that I missed before tearing this thing apart, or if anyone has any tips on the next step to take. I am currently trying to get the 30+ hoses that are connected to the upper intake manifold off so I can get that out and have access to the drivers side head.
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