98 Sable head replacement

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About 5 weeks ago my wife ran her car a tad longer than she should have after a heater hose split behind the 3.0 Vulcan engine. Consequently, the temperature went up, she didn't see it, but noticed the car running rough and finally pulled off. This was 120 miles from home, of course, but a Good Samaritan actually helped re-hose the car and get fresh coolant. However, the care ran rough despite the work so it was towed back home.

Had to run the engine to get it into a driveway and we had the typical white smoke. Did a compression check with the front bank doing ok except for some oil on #5 and 6 plugs. On the other hand #1 had water shoot out of the cylinder while 2 and 3 were ok. Spark plug wire was toast as was the #1 spark plug. Tore engine done to remove both heads and saw water in #1 only. The back head also had a crack in #1.

Since both were off I decided to replace both with rebuilt heads so compression would be good and equal in all six cylinders. After that I got ambitious and decided to replace the timing set and oil pan gasket. That gasket was a mess and so was the inside of the pan. There will be no more leaks.

After checking everything I fired up the engine. Sitting in the car I heard a tapping so went to listen. It was a lifter from the front bank. Now when I pulled myself away from the open hood I caught a glimpse of white smoke. Sure enough it was there and billowed into a white cloud when hitting the gas. The engine itself ran absolutely great and did so for 30 minutes to make sure any water in exhaust was gone. Started once more for 30 minutes, tapping gone, but smoke still there with no overheating at all.

Now I need to go back in. Wondering if this could happen with a slight shift in the intake gasket? Do I go all the way and pull the back head off again? Haven't been able to go out to the car now that it is the weekday nights and some rain to maybe check compression or see if water spits out. Truly not happy and as for my wife, well...
 
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If I were her, I would not have any complaints. From your list of cars, I see 2 or 3 that I could drive and be perfectly happy while you continue to fix the 98 mercury
 
Especially that F-100
smile.gif
 
Drive it first, before condemning. I've had them get loads of water in the exhaust, and they would smoke for a bit, but start to go away. A road test would have it BELLOWING out for a few miles. So since it is running fine in the shop, road test it and monitor coolant.
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Drive it first, before condemning. I've had them get loads of water in the exhaust, and they would smoke for a bit, but start to go away. A road test would have it BELLOWING out for a few miles. So since it is running fine in the shop, road test it and monitor coolant.


^^ this^^ Just don't go far from home. I had a muffler full of coolant once. Looked like a steam engine for about 5 miles.
 
I hope the water entering the cylinder didn't bend a connecting rod. That can cause one cylinder to have less compression than others, and it would require an engine rebuild.

And loss of piston ring tension is very common in any abused engine.
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Drive it first, before condemning. I've had them get loads of water in the exhaust, and they would smoke for a bit, but start to go away. A road test would have it BELLOWING out for a few miles. So since it is running fine in the shop, road test it and monitor coolant.


Hard to work on it at night but that is what I did at 10:30 tonight in the driveway. Checked all plugs just to see if I see anything. Nothing. Checked compression with all 6 cylinders being the same as per two new heads. Ran the car up and down the street. Take off gave billowing smoke while cruising showed a little that started to diminish. Ran around a empty shopping center lot. Checked coolant. No decrease. Checked oil. Nice clear new oil. Temperature ran normal.

Ok, out onto the freeway for a 20 mile drive. Set on cruise control and the engine ran great. Temperature rock steady. Get home and coolant level unchanged. Oil unchanged. Still a little smoke when gassed in the driveway. Looks white but in the dim street light hard to be sure. Doesn't smell sweet. Will monitor the oil. Oh, and when first started there formed a growing puddle of water coming from the front seam of the muffler along with smoke. Looks like there is a hole there now and a new muffler in order. Watering sitting there 5 weeks made it's way through the seam?
 
Originally Posted By: tbm3fan
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Drive it first, before condemning. I've had them get loads of water in the exhaust, and they would smoke for a bit, but start to go away. A road test would have it BELLOWING out for a few miles. So since it is running fine in the shop, road test it and monitor coolant.


Hard to work on it at night but that is what I did at 10:30 tonight in the driveway. Checked all plugs just to see if I see anything. Nothing. Checked compression with all 6 cylinders being the same as per two new heads. Ran the car up and down the street. Take off gave billowing smoke while cruising showed a little that started to diminish. Ran around a empty shopping center lot. Checked coolant. No decrease. Checked oil. Nice clear new oil. Temperature ran normal.

Ok, out onto the freeway for a 20 mile drive. Set on cruise control and the engine ran great. Temperature rock steady. Get home and coolant level unchanged. Oil unchanged. Still a little smoke when gassed in the driveway. Looks white but in the dim street light hard to be sure. Doesn't smell sweet. Will monitor the oil. Oh, and when first started there formed a growing puddle of water coming from the front seam of the muffler along with smoke. Looks like there is a hole there now and a new muffler in order. Watering sitting there 5 weeks made it's way through the seam?


Sounds like you're on the road to recovery. After getting the engine that hot, you may well be stuck with a puff of smoke upon acceleration. Or if the air was a little crisp, you may just be seeing some water vapor from the exhaust- not uncommon.

Many mufflers have a small hole in them to drain out moisture from the muffler so it won't collect, so unless it's an obvious rust hole, I wouldn't worry.

One last thing- after re-reading my first post, I see that I made a typo... It shouldn't have been BELLOWING, but BILLOWING. No doubt you already figured out that your car wasn't yelling at you!
 
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