1st test drive....blew head gasket

Finally got everything together, and I blew a head gasket within minutes. So, I have a couple of questions about how/why this happened.

First, my boost guage was reading 0 boost. I thought perhaps the belt was slipping, but obviously there is no way I could have blown the head gasket if I was not getting any boost. I checked the guage with a pump before and after the disaster, and it works fine. So, I must not be reading it in the right place. Currently, I have a hose attached to an extra nipple on the bottom of my TFS intake. Then, I have a tee in that line. One side goes to the boost guage, and the other goes to the BTM. What am I doing wrong here?

Second, I didn't get very high into the rpm range, so my timing must have gotten really wacky, and I detonated. Or, possibly I ran out of fuel, but the timing is what I am curious about. First, how did you guys even get a timing light in there? I can barely see the marks, and they are really too hard to read. I got the timing pretty close, but I cannot say for sure where I was at because it is too hard to read. There is no just no room to see.

Lastly, I want to make sure this doesn't happen again. I am going to have it tuned professionally, but how am I going to get it to the tuner if I blew a head gasket that easily? I just need a way to run it safely to drive a couple of hours to get it tuned. Of course, that is once I put the thing back together again.

Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks guys.

Bob

Hopefully this post will have my sig, to answer the inevitable questions....

Bob, Your vacuum source for the boost gauge is fine. If the guage works with a pump then the only other option would be the fitting or possibly the line going to the BTM since they are tied together.

When you say that you had your timing "close" where exactly did you have it set (degree's?). Do you have alum. or stock heads? Not sure if that fell under the "etc.,etc." in your sig.

From your sig, you should have more than adequate fuel supply, so I would rule that out.

Off the cuff, my guess would be that your timing was way to high.

Two last questions, was it possible that you may have had a faulty H/G prior to the install of the Novi. What other mods did you do along with the Novi install (ie: intake, heads, etc)?

The heads are stock. It is possible the head gasket was questionable before this, but there is really no way for me to know. It has never been replaced, and the car only has 19,000 miles on it, so it is unlikely that it was bad.....but still possible. Pretty much all of the stuff in my sig was done at the same time. The etc, etc was just meant to cover the stuff that was not pertinent to the blower like wheels, suspension, and stuff like that.

I believe my timing was at the stock 10 deg, or very close to it. It was still running a little rough, but it was decent. I had a little trouble getting the idle down, but I didn't think too much of it. Maybe that was something I should have looked at more closely?

One possibility may have been a coolant leak on the lower intake, which in turn can lead to coolant being sucked into the cylinder & cause H/G failure.

What exactly are the symptoms present that you have indicating a failed H/G.

Search around for the recommended base timing (with spout out) for an "outta the box" Novi 2000. You may have to pull a couple of degrees of timing out.

I should be able to see for sure about the HG very soon. I just need to get the head bolts off now, and I will be able to tell. I have yet to get the motivation to get out there and do it today. However, the symptoms that led me to take everything apart were many. First, on the test drive, a huge cloud of smoke started coming out the back. I stopped, shut off the car, and coolant was spewing everywhere. Also, the coolant was murky, which appeared to be due to oil being mixed in. I pushed the car home, let it cool, and filled up the coolant. With the radiator cap off, I cranked it once to see what would happen. With one turn, a huge fountain of coolant shot out of the radiator fill area. The logical explanation for this was a cylinder full of water. If you see something I don't, please let me know.

Also, I need to find a better way to time the car. I just can't see well enough past all the stuff. Where did you get a timing light on the balancer? There is a very small spot I can see through, but it is so small that it is almost useless. Thanks for all your help.

Bob

If your having so much trouble trying to see the timing try removing some stuff off the front like the blower belt or pulleys etc. first.

I can see the timing marks decently with my Novi 1000 (old style), not sure what more stuff the 2000 has that would make it more difficult. One thing that I did to help is to put a fresh coat of paint on the timing marks. Use white, silver or any other light colored spray paint, spray a light coat, let partially dry and carefully wipe with a rag with some acetone or similiar crap. The paint stays decently in the timing marks & comes off the face of the balancer decently.

Also helps if you do it in a dimly lit area.

Here is an update on my little disaster. All of the evidence thus far indicates cylinder #6 as the culprit. The intake spacer was wet in that cylinder. The header was wet in that port, and there was water in the cylinder head. However, when i took the head gasket off, I don't see any visible signs of a rupture. I don't see any cracks in the head either. I know that cylinder was full of water, but how did it get in there? Any ideas would help. Thanks.

Are you certain your BTM is working properly? Timing seems like the issue, and even if the gasket looks fine, replace them, it might've not seated properly during install.

Since the head gasket looked OK, I spent hours going over the rest of the engine to try to figure out how the coolant got in my cylinder. I did find one issue, but I am not sure this could have caused the problem. Perhaps someone here can tell me. During my inspection, I noticed that I somehow (not sure how I could have done this) forgot to put the gasket between the throttle body and the upper intake. Since this is the first time I have taken an engine apart, I guess it isn't that much of a surprise. However, I don't see how this could have been the cause. Any thoughts?

If there was a way for the coolant that circulates thru the EGR Spacer to enter into the intake, then I'd say that'd be a strong culprit. I experienced a similiar issue with a bad EGR/T-body gasket, the coolant leaked there & dumped it into the upper intake, smoked a H/G.

Here's what I'd do for piece of mind.
1. Have a local shop check the heads over to see if they are warped.
2. Plane the EGR & T-body by lightly sanding the mating surfaces utilizing a FLAT surface, essentially lay a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface, then lightly run the mating surfaces over the sandpaper. You'll be able to see any imperfections.
3. Upgrade to ARP Head Bolts at a min. Don't waist your $$$ on Ford's torque to yield bolts.

This should get ya going in the right direction.

Do you have your spark plug wires tie-wrapped together on each side of the motor? On the 5.0 & 351W a blown gasket on #6 jug is often-times indicative of a 6/5 plug wire crossfire (the firing order is 13726548; 6/5 are separated by only 45 degrees of crank rotation - instant 45 degrees of spark advance with those two wires crossfiring).