After replacing the intake, I did some driving.

I got on it a few times and the boost got up to 10 PSI.

When I returned home, I noticed that my oil/air separators had some water like stuff in them.

A quick check of the oil showed that I had milkshake. Damn.

Timing shouldn't have been over 17¡Ã† and AFR was around 11.8-12.0.

I did have some lean areas during part throttle 15-17 AFR. Could this blow a head gasket?

Anyways, here are the pics:

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

other side

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Shim removed:

This gasket looks all good to me...

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Looks like there was a problem in #5...

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Close up on #5

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Other side:

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

shim removed:

So would #5 be the root cause of the milkshake or am I missing something here?

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

yup, yo ulifted it on #5 pretty good. My last motor had 7 holes blown. Still ran fine except under boost.

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Another thing I noticed was that I had several exhaust ports with oil in them.

It appears that several of my valve stem seals from my Trick flow valvespring kit had risen up off the base.

At least one appeared to still be seated on a cylinder with oil in the exhaust port. Why the hell would this happen? I am positive they were properly seated when I put them together?!? Perhaps I did not oil the tops of the valve stems and friction between them and the seal pulled the seals up on the first start up??

The oil is clearly coming from down the valvestems.

No intake ports had any oil showing.

What would be the corrective action for this?

Tks

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Disney Lincoln

You say it looks like I lifted the head?

How can you tell this?


I have ARP studs torqued to 85 ft-lbs top and bottom and the lower intake torqued to 25 ft-lbs.

I have recently read that some people torque to top ~10 ft-lbs higher and don't go over ~18ft-lbs on the lower to prevent lifting.

The gasket blew on the top side...so perhaps I need torque the top higher and the lower intake only to 18 ft-lbs???

What other explainations would account for only this cyclinder having problems?

I guess if that injector is flowing less than the others it could be too lean...I guess I can try to see if there is a place local to flow test my injectors.

Other thoughts?

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

No other thoughts?

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

When you torqued the heads down what kinda lube did you use on the stud nuts? arp lube 30wt oil? Different lube requires a different torque value arp rates their stud torque values with their lube if you use oil the value is usually 10ft/lb higher than the arp lube.With this being said if you didn't use the proper lube and torque value the actual torque on the stud may not have been right this may have caused the head to lift and blow the head gasket.
Do you retorque the head studs after the first time you fire the motor.I like to go thru and retorque the heads a few times to make sure every thing seats.You will find the studs will turn a little the first few times you torque them down once they quit turning at the torque reading the heads have seated.I know this sucks to do but if it keeps you from pulling the heads I think it's worth the time.Some will say they get away with out doing this but every time I have retorqued the heads with a composition head gasket I was able to get at least a 1/4 out of the studs.

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

I used 5w-30 as per the instructions that came with the ARP studs and torqued them to 85 ft-lbs, which I believe was also in the instructions.

The theads were throughly cleaned in the block as well.

I torqued in three passes to get to 85ft-lbs and rechecked about a day later and found virtually no difference IIRC. I did not retorque after firing the engine.

I have done some more research on the valve stem seals, and the ones that come in the trickflow kit don't seem to have a good reputation (on the Corral.net).

I will be trying to get some Viton valve stem seals, which some people recommended. Are there any that are better?

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

I've heard that the ratings are a little low, 115lbs I think is what it is supposed to be if I remeber correctly.

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

I have run 110 ftlb on 302's but you are just about at the yeild strength of the stud.I beleive this was at 90% of yield.115 may be pushing it.351's with 1/2 studs are supposed to be 110ftlb if I remember right but we ran 140 ftlb on our nitrous motor with copper gaskets.I like the arp lube you can feel the difference over 30wt oil pulling it to the full torque becomes easier.When you put it back together maybe try the arp lube and 100ftlb then retorque after you have heat cycled the motor.

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Here is a pic of the valve stem seal riding up on the valve stem.

It isn't seated on the base anymore for whatever reason.

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

On the left is the TrickFlow valve stem seal that came in their $130 kit off of Summit.

The middle is the Viton Intake valve stem seal.

The right is the Viton Exhaust valve stem seal.

The Viton ones came in the HS9280PT-2 gasket set from AutoZone.

I wonder if the problem was related to TrickFlow using the same valve stem seal for both the intake and exhaust?

The Viton ones appear to be of a higher quality just looking/holding them...

Anyways, I replaced all of the TrickFlow valve seals with the Vitons.

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

Cleaning the heads up...

Got one of the chambers cleaned here. I had alot more buildup than I would have thought with only ~200 miles.

Maybe the intake valve stem seals were leaking too. Now that I think of it, they wouldn't be as obvious as on the exhaust side. The exhaust ports had dark oily/carbon flows from the oil. However, the air/fuel mix would likely clean up any oil leakage on the intake side pretty well....

Now I just have to wait until Thursday for another set of the copper shims to come in and I can put it all back together.

This stuff gets alot easier with some practice.

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1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

You didn't lift the heads you blew the gasket on #5. Lifting the heads you don't get a milkshake. When you use stock head bolts the upper bolts strech a bit and lift the head. ARP studs clamp the heads down good and you no longer lift you blow head gaskets.

 

1990 GT project: Part IV - Milkshake and other fun

After examining the intake ports, it looks like there was oil leaking into some of them as well as the exhaust ports.

I am starting to think that it was likely I was detonating due to oil consumption. This seems the most likely explaination at this time.

If you look at the pic of chamber 5 (next to gasket with 5-8 on it above), you notice what looks like oil. There appears to be oil on the head gasket as well.

Hopefully, the new seals will fix this problem.

I also plan to check and see if there is a local place that can flow test my injectors this week to see if there are any potential problems there as well. Does anyone know of any common places that are capable of this?