A new gremlin. Thoughts???

8

87natl

Fade 2 Black
Joined
May 20, 2003
When I'm WOT running in 3rd gear, I'm getting a sound from under the hood like a popcorn machine, or a bunch of pi$$ed off bumble bees in a jar. It's not registering as knock, and the car pulls hard right thru it.. but what that hell is it???????? Showed up all of a sudden. Here's what I've tried so far.

New plugs gapped at 32, wires, swapped coil pack. (not ignitiion module, but that might be next)
Checked all couplers numerous times.
Pulled cleaned and re-attatched positive battery cable and negative gounds.
Raised and lowered boost 18-22 psi
Pulled 2 degrees timing (21-19)
Fuel adjustments all over the board.
Even swapped turbos.

I'm running out of ideas, and would like a few new ones!!!!!!!!:mad:
 
Have you checked the belt tensioner? Might be weak and letting the belt flop too much under a load and that sometimes will make a popping sound.
 
Are all the clamps tight? Do a boost leak down test. Then you will know if its leaking air. Once I had a somewhat loose clamp and made a buzzing sound when boost would get past the clamp.

IMG00383-vi.jpg
 
my guess would be a blown headgasket out toward the exhaust between the head and block. heard that sound several times on different cars
 
lpaulabbott said:
my guess would be a blown headgasket out toward the exhaust between the head and block. heard that sound several times on different cars
Click to expand...

Ouch....dunno, it pulls hard as I was sitting in the pass seat most of the day while Mike and I went through all kinds of troubleshooting, but.........:(
 
The thought has crossed my mind...........

Mike, if you noticed several times during the day I kept pulling the dipstick after runs, looking for any sign of contamination. Also, when I was under the car this evening pulling the battery cable off the starter, I was looking for any sign of blowout at the HG, but didn't see anything unusual. Guess it's still possible...........

Certainly no catastopic failure there. Wonder if a retorque would help??? Hpw can I be sure short of pulling it? Crap, I'm going to end up pulling the heads.............. aren't I, buddy? LOL!
 
The popcorn sound

I have the same thing. On mine, it is an exhaust leak at the passenger side header.
 
87natl said:
The thought has crossed my mind...........

Mike, if you noticed several times during the day I kept pulling the dipstick after runs, looking for any sign of contamination.
Click to expand...

and i kept pushing the dipstick back in... i was frowning but keeping hope alive
 
X2 headgasket. Sounds like my buddy's when he blew his dual steel shim gaskets to the outside.
 
Dang. You'd think I'd be able to see SOMETHING. No carbon marking or anything visible. Gasket looks fine, what I can see anyway.

It only shows up once you're up on high boost, 18+. ANd I've put at least 200 miles on it...a lot of them HARD miles, since this began. Car runs fine otherwise. Mayb be lifting a head tho. I'm tempted to try a retorque first.

Where's ijames? He knows these heads..........you out there buddy???????
 
ey Mike. After the fact of putting this thing together, I got this info from a guy that knew the history of these heads...and their tendency to blow HG's:

"after the third set of blown head gaskets on
Aaron's car in maybe 5000......Aaron was showing us the heads one day at Vernon's (a shop
on Rt 1 across from the first McDonalds going south from NRH that does
good work on TR's and where lots of us hang out on random Saturdays when
they are officially closed)none of us saw anything to cause the
problems. Surface looked ok and flat, etc. Then Dave Warren walked by,
backed up, and said "those chambers are too big". I grabbed a souvenier
blown gasket off the wall and laid it on a head and voila, the fire ring
was hanging out in air where they had unshrouded the valves. "

Sounds like the A-hole up in Maryland that burned me once just got me again. Frack!
 
your head is lifting and it is blowing out the side dont keep doing this because your will torch the block or head. also what type of gasket is it. the graphite is probably gone and all that is left is the ring. jpratt from the board just went through this 4 times he had me go for a ride with him at the nationals and once the car hit 18 psi it would rattle out the side of the motor. he retorqued it and the bolts were loose but it didnt help.
 
I appreciate the response, and I've come to the same conclusion. Aparently the gasket is HURT, but not blown out....yet. Anazing considering that mcasteel and I were beating on it for 4 hours in 90+ degree heat yesterday, LOL!

The gaskets are cometics. There's no sign of damage anywhere I can see. And I just finished pulling and inspecting all plugs, they all look great. Car purrs like a kitten and runs great, but go to 18psi and above and the popping starts.
So...looks like I am looking at least at new gaskets, and probably ditching these troublesome if great performing heads. Damn. At least I don't believe I've hurt the motor.


So, now for the next great debate..iron or aluminum. Anybody have some nice flowing heads they want to get rid of? I can throw in a great turbo...and some questionable heads in trade. ;)
 
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