I know a lot of you read my thread about my car having headgasket issues. It left me stranded on the side of the road, needing a tow back home, and leaving a sour taste in my mouth after all of the problems I've been having after adding boost. I was only running 11 psi that day and have only driven 2000-2500 miles since going turbo.

My thread was locked because I was hinting that I would be parting my car out and I haven't renewed my membership yet, so I wanted to be able to have people chime in here still and keep away from the for sale part altogether.

I found the white stuff (coolant/oil mix) coming from the coolant return/oil return part of my Garrett turbo. I guess not only do I have the headgasket issue, but a leak as well since it's coming from the hosing?

ChefJ has been nice enough to offer me his spare 3mm headgasket and his time to help me change the gasket out so I don't have to sell my car. I will be switching from my InlinePro gasket to the newer Cometic 3mm gasket, and keeping my ARP studs. I know that these are both of the "not trusted as much" parts as opposed to the Inline gasket and Honda head bolts so we'll see how that goes. Someone did suggest overtorquing the ARP studs to 95 ft lbs in 10 lb increments instead of the recommended 85 ft pounds in a PM, any thoughts on that?

 

why not just go the tried and true way and stick with IP gasket and oem bolts...... thats what i would do if i didn't want to have anymore problems.......

good luck

 

I know what you mean - money is very tight at the moment however as I'm trying to save for an engagement ring and this car stuff keeps setting me back! It's something to think about - or maybe I'll look into just getting the honda bolts and selling my studs.

 

i think you should bag it for now and just go back to NA, get the ring and make your girl happy.

but for some real advice, i agree with nate-dogg, and go IP and OEM.

 

Wrong, that is what i have, with a blown headgaskets...




Why are the arp headstuds 89 ft lbs and stock is something like 25

 

best thing to do is sell me that inline pro kit!!! to buy the engagement ring!

Other then that just do what you know people have done to are known to be reliable.

 

im sure you could make some good money selling all your stuff, and putting it back to stock for a while would definitely help you pay for that ring......


..... but, i would go the tride and true way of IP 3mm headgasket with regular oem headstuds.... Also, when your head is off, i would take it to a machine shop and check to see if the has head warped. Especially considering you drove it for a while without any coolant gauge... With a thicker headgasket especially, the little things like that will make or break the car running reliably for more than a few K miles. Good luck, and if you have someone who has already done the install before help, you won't have too many problems!

Good luck!

 

It's actually a custom kit with Lovefab manifold

Soul - that's a good idea. What type of machine shop would I need to look for? Just any place to see if it is actually straight or not?

Or should I just put on a stock headgasket and return the thing to stock and sell all the turbo stuff for 5k...? Or sell it all and compromise by slapping on a used vortech and pocketing 2k?

Such hard decisions

 

IF installed properly, it has a very reliable track record.

 

right..... dozens of cars on this board have the IP gasket and are running perfectly fine....

a head gasket can be a tricky job, i just did it on my car for the first time. and I can see how easy it would be to torq down a bolt or 2 out of spec. that could ruin the whole install. if installed improperly ANY head gasket will fail, including OEM