It's a bit of a stumper since some of the stuff I put into the car was precisely to PREVENT headgasket failure. I want to try and figure out what caused it so that I can address the issue and not do the same once I fix the car.
1- I'm thinking if perhaps overdriving the 94 blower had something to do with it. I've got the 10 rib ESM quick change set which I understand is about 12% overdrive. I know there are mixed feelings about putting a 10% overdrive pulley on a 94, so im guessing that perhaps going with the 10 rib kit was the cause of my hg failure. I'm not sure though, since alot of people have not had problems with 10% overdrive on their cars with the late style blower. I had a free flowing exhaust (kooks midlengths, and 2 1/2"-3"-2 1/2 cats and resonator w/no muffs), ARP head studs and not many big induction mods, and stock heads.
2- Another posibility was that i just screwed up in the re-assembly process since this was my very first rebuild even though I used Fel-Pro gaskets (no multi layer) on block/heads that were checked for squareness, and torqued the ARP studs to the correct torque in the correct sequence.
3- There's always the possibility of the heads being cracked, but they were checked in the machine shop and came out ok, aaaand, if they were faulty then the problem should have appeared even before I had the mods in place. I drove the car for about 2000 miles before doing most of the upgrades (ESM kit/exhaust) and the car ran fine.
4- Was it perhaps a lack of tune? The car had a small idle problem and was running a bit rich according to the EEC codes (o2 sensors), A/F ratio gauge and black smoke in the tail pipes, but I really didnt upgrade much electronic stuff. Still running stock 30Lbs injectors, and a MAF thats calibrated for those injectors. I doubt that the slight increase in displacement messed with the overall programming of the EEC (block was bored 20 over).
Just a bit of detail, after adding the go fast goodies and exhaust upgrades I took the car out for a drive, it responded great and had a mean sound ( a bit too loud b.c of no muffs but tahts another story) so I got on it pretty good. When i get back home from the test drive I see bubbles in my coolant bottle and the upper rad hose was expanded, but no white smoke or any other signs of blown hg's (oil in coolant or vice versa). I had to perform a sniffer test to confirm that the coolant is getting pressurized with exhaust gases and only after getting hot. AFter re-starting the car when cold there are no bubbles but as soon as it gets hotter, u see the bubbles.
What do you think caused my blown hg's?
1- I'm thinking if perhaps overdriving the 94 blower had something to do with it. I've got the 10 rib ESM quick change set which I understand is about 12% overdrive. I know there are mixed feelings about putting a 10% overdrive pulley on a 94, so im guessing that perhaps going with the 10 rib kit was the cause of my hg failure. I'm not sure though, since alot of people have not had problems with 10% overdrive on their cars with the late style blower. I had a free flowing exhaust (kooks midlengths, and 2 1/2"-3"-2 1/2 cats and resonator w/no muffs), ARP head studs and not many big induction mods, and stock heads.
2- Another posibility was that i just screwed up in the re-assembly process since this was my very first rebuild even though I used Fel-Pro gaskets (no multi layer) on block/heads that were checked for squareness, and torqued the ARP studs to the correct torque in the correct sequence.
3- There's always the possibility of the heads being cracked, but they were checked in the machine shop and came out ok, aaaand, if they were faulty then the problem should have appeared even before I had the mods in place. I drove the car for about 2000 miles before doing most of the upgrades (ESM kit/exhaust) and the car ran fine.
4- Was it perhaps a lack of tune? The car had a small idle problem and was running a bit rich according to the EEC codes (o2 sensors), A/F ratio gauge and black smoke in the tail pipes, but I really didnt upgrade much electronic stuff. Still running stock 30Lbs injectors, and a MAF thats calibrated for those injectors. I doubt that the slight increase in displacement messed with the overall programming of the EEC (block was bored 20 over).
Just a bit of detail, after adding the go fast goodies and exhaust upgrades I took the car out for a drive, it responded great and had a mean sound ( a bit too loud b.c of no muffs but tahts another story) so I got on it pretty good. When i get back home from the test drive I see bubbles in my coolant bottle and the upper rad hose was expanded, but no white smoke or any other signs of blown hg's (oil in coolant or vice versa). I had to perform a sniffer test to confirm that the coolant is getting pressurized with exhaust gases and only after getting hot. AFter re-starting the car when cold there are no bubbles but as soon as it gets hotter, u see the bubbles.
What do you think caused my blown hg's?