I think I screwed something up :(

[HRobertson1]

So I finally got everything in my car and it was running awsome. Set the boost at 23, watched the knock gauge and scanmaster when I went on a few test runs. 1 time the scanmaster read 2.3 retard but it was only once. On one run the wastegate rod popped off, the car bucked a few times. Today I noticed grey/white smoke coming from the tailpipe. Checked the oil and it looks fine (no water) but I can tell its burning off from how low it was. The engine has about 2k since rebuild, any ideas on what it could be?

 

[Steve]

How low was the oil? How much oil is it using? Is it sucking oil thru the PCV? Is the turbo seals leaking oil? From what you described you should not have hurt anything. I have been into turbo Buicks for 20 years and in that time I have done some pretty bad things that were way worse than a couple degress knock retard without hurting anything.

 

[HRobertson1]

not a lot of oil, but enought to be noticed. My water temp went up to 207 (usually runs 180 to 190). ScottATK is thinking head gasket, It makes sense considering the symptoms. I hope thats all it is. Thanks for the help

 

[Steve]

You can usually spot a head gasket problem just by looking at the plugs but a quick compression test will tell you for sure. If you blew a head gasket there was something going on besides the the 2.3 degrees of retard or else it was already injured from something else. I had my old ATR extrenal gate fail on me(they all failed-they sucked!) on a 10.60 Turbo T I had and the boost gauge went paste 30 psi and Direct Scan showed 38 degrees of retard and the head gaskets survived!