I think I broke it. :(

[Mach Par]

I have a 74 Nova with a 355 sbc. It has TrickFlow heads, forged bottom and a small cam. The car hasn't ran for a while due to timing issues. I have never been able to get the distributor to point at the #1 dead on. Ever. But that's another story. Anyways, I was resetting the distributor getting everything all together I noticed the oil was a bit milkyish on the distributor. After setting the timing and firing it up, it starts to run like crap again.

I figure that I might need to pull the valve covers and adjust the rockers some. To my horror the whole drivers side valve cover is covered in thick greenish brown goop. To me this is a blown headgasket but it's not smoking out the exhaust. Anything else it could be?

[61ragtop]

the only way coolant would get into the oil is either head gasket, intake gasket, a cracked head or block. drain your oil and see what it looks like you will need t now anyway as it will be no good.

Try topping up the coolant and pressure testing to see where it is coming from if possible. Is it only on the drivers side? How fresh is the motor? Were the heads recently put on? Did you put thread sealer on the head bolts? Some of the head bolts go into the coolant passages.

I just went through all of this with my 383ci SBC and it turned out to be a porous casting in the head itself.

[Mach Par]

the only way coolant would get into the oil is either head gasket, intake gasket, a cracked head or block. drain your oil and see what it looks like you will need t now anyway as it will be no good.

Try topping up the coolant and pressure testing to see where it is coming from if possible. Is it only on the drivers side? How fresh is the motor? Were the heads recently put on? Did you put thread sealer on the head bolts? Some of the head bolts go into the coolant passages. I just went through all of this with my 383ci SBC and it turned out to be a porous casting in the head itself.

At first it was only on the driver's side. I pulled the other valve cover and it was blackish. I then started the car without the covers on to see if it was puking from the head bolts. Nope. But the passenger side started having milky color oil come out of the pushrods/rockers. Car will start but back miss like crazy and will die unless you give it a really high idle and is popping through the carb as if it's out of time. Verified it is in time.


Heads have been on the car for over 5 years and no issues with them till now.

[61ragtop]

I wouldn't run it until you can put a pressure test on it and hunt down the leak. Running it with oil like that will do no good to your engine and to get it to leak with it running you will have to run it to operating temp to get the coolant temp up.

[WS6]

Doesn't sound good that's for sure and Kevin's right. You need to figure out where the leak is coming from before you keep running the engine. Drain the oil and see what it looks like. This could be a simple intake leak. Check your coolant level. Go one step at a time but keep in mind the other problems. By that I mean get the leak fixed but while you're pulling parts, also keep an eye on whatever may be causing it to run poorly in case you see something incorrect.

[Mach Par]

Doesn't sound good that's for sure and Kevin's right. You need to figure out where the leak is coming from before you keep running the engine. Drain the oil and see what it looks like. This could be a simple intake leak. Check your coolant level. Go one step at a time but keep in mind the other problems. By that I mean get the leak fixed but while you're pulling parts, also keep an eye on whatever may be causing it to run poorly in case you see something incorrect.

I shut it down after I saw that it was coming from the other head. Really just running it to making sure that is in the oil and not just from the valve cover. I'll start taking stuff apart later this week.

[61ragtop]

Before you tear it down throw a pressure test on the cooling system first and see if you can locate the leak. Also you can put compressed air to each cyl and see if you get bubbles in the rad. What ever cyl you put air to and get bubbles if you do that will be the one where the leak is. It could just be milky on both sides due to running it not necessarily cause both sides have a leak. I would try to narrow it down before tearing it apart.

[Mach Par]

And the verdict is?

Water in the number 7 cylinder. Rusted the cylinder pretty bad so must've been a pretty good leak.

[WS6]

Yeah that sounds like it would be bad. Have you confirmed the source of the leak ie gasket or cracked block?

[Mach Par]

Gaskets looked fine to me. Didn't look the block over too hard.

[61ragtop]

Might be worth having the heads pressure tested and take a good look at the cyl walls for cracks.