Head
Gasket - Day 6
I started early (9:30 a.m.) hoping to get the engine finished and get the car insured and drive her home. After getting
everything together, I get the coolant in; the water outlet is leaking. Turns out the thermostat slipped down and wasn't
seated properly. An hour later another gasket arrives and get the outlet installed.
After triple checking everything, it is now time to crank her up. I hit the key; nothing. Doug jumps the solenoid with
a screwdriver and she fires up, a bit noisy for the first few seconds, but then she is quiet. I was nervous as there was
a lot of white smoke coming from the tail pipe, and I mean LOTS!
I was worried that I had put the head gaskets on the wrong way, but Doug wasn't all that worried.. .. yet. Ended up being
the coolant from when the head gasket blew; there was so much that it was running out of the seams of the mufflers when we
revved the engine up. It took almost an hour of running the engine to get all the "white smoke" to burn off.
I took her for a run around the block. What a blast. This thing hauls, and stops on a dime. Now I have to deal with some
electrical issues: no brake lights, no rear signals, no front corner lights/signals, the dash ABS & brake light flash when the brake
is applied, and there is a jumper wire from the heater fuse to the park lamp fuse.
No worries though, the toughest part is done. A special thanks go to Doug, without his assistance I would have had myself a
Super Flower Planter, and to the boys at work for pushing (all 3800 lbs. of what I now call Super Blue) in and out of the
shop every day for the past month.
All done, finally!
