Wow wish I saw this thread earlier. Could have posted some pics. Just finished putting almost everything together after replacing both head gaskets on a '97 Mustang. Cylinder #6 on the right side had 85 PSI and cylinder #5 on the left side had 150 PSI. The rest of the cylinders had around 180 PSI. Oil was in the coolant so I expected a headgasket. All thats left to do is add oil and coolant...and fix a fuel line problem.
A fuel line crossed over a valve cover and I thought I had to remove it. Ended up damaging the line...I'll probably have to buy the whole thing which will set me back $30-$50...I guess it could have been worse.
Getting very close to the end of major engine job where you start the engine and hope nothing goes wrong and there arent any leaks...I've done 3 deeper rebuilds (piston rings etc skipped rings this time as the oil pan is murder to remove on a Mustang) on 3 different cars before this and never had a problem...hope my streak of success continues.
Continued
After replacing the head gaskets on both heads and having the machine shop install new valve stem seals as well as machining the heads I started the car up.
Well, my worse nightmare came true.
The car started relatively easy for having sat still and having no fuel pressure for 3 weeks, but there was a loud ticking sound coming from the engine. I couldnt tell if it was coming from the lifters.
And it gets worse.
White smoke. Lots of white smoke billowing out of the tail pipe. The cloud had to be 6, 7 feet tall. And I didnt seal the thermostat right, coolant is gushing everywhere and onto the ground.
At this point Im gutted. I just sunk $450 into the motor to repair one leaking cylinder and I made it worse. Much worse. Where did I go wrong? I had replaced head gaskets on 3 different cars before this one, and I never had a problem. I followed all the instructions. Where was this ticking coming from? Why the smoke? Did the head gaskets not seal properly? Did I not torque the head down correctly?
The torque procedure for the head was odd and nothing like I've dealt with before. It required you to loosen one bolt at a time after torquing them (but you must re-tighten this bolt to the final step before loosening the next), and the final step required a further 180 degrees of tightening. I was able to follow that step by marking the bottom of the head bolt with a sharpie. So when the mark rotated to where it was facing up, I had tightened it 180 degrees.
The next day I turned on the car again. Surprisingly, the ticking wasnt as loud. It fact it was almost gone. I had put lube on the lifters and arms so if the ticking was going away because of built up oil pressure it made little sense to me, but I was relieved. The white smoke was still there though. Not quite as bad, but it was still there.
After some googling I decided to run the car for a few miles to see if I could "blow" the smoke out. I drove down the highway and back. And surprise, the smoke was gone! The ticking was gone as well. Apparently the car just needed time for oil pressure to build up and I had probably spilt some coolant into the exposed exhausts when removing the heads.
The only problem Ive had since is the check engine light coming on for the EGR valve. Turns out a hose had come lose because of age. I replaced it and the light is gone.
The car runs fine now.
