General Tips for DIY Head Gasket Replacement - 99 s70 na Topic is solved

[smacknab]

Well the first 205k were driven by someone else so who knows what it was. Do you think 89 is fine moving forward?

Noted for the compression, thanks for the reassurance! When the first cylinder read 150 I was pretty frustrated, but when they all read the same I felt much better.

[smacknab]

Since finishing the head gasket, I've felt like I'm still getting alot of white smoke from my car, even for it being winter. Im feeling like it has a coolant smell but I'm not sure, or maybe I just can't handle the thought of there still being a coolant leak.

Today I swapped my power steering pump and noticed a leak from my thermostat housing gasket/junction. I managed another 1/8th-1/4 turn on the bottom screw of the housing, so I'm hoping that solves it. But is it possible that leak could be letting coolant into the intake and causing some white smoke?

[abscate]

Are you losing coolant from the reservoir or is it stable? that will tell the tale.

[smacknab]

It had been stable for the last couple days/week but I drained some coolant again to do the ps pump, so I'll see if it burps a bit and how the level does over the next couple days. I found some drips from the hoses which I had tightened up and the water pipe junction has looked dry. I checked the water pump about a week ago and that seemed dry too. I'm pretty confident that the thermostat housing to block junction was leaking, so let me see how the next couple days go!

I read elsewhere that other issues for white smoke could be air/fuel mixture issues. I still have the evap code p0452 for my pressure sensor and maybe I could have a small intake or exhaust manifold leak? I'll try to go through and recheck the torque values on me manifold bolts today too

The mistake I realized I made when doing the head was I didn't attached the thermostat housing before putting the head on, which made accessing those torx screws really really hard.

[abscate]

Careful on those manifold bolts, torque is relatively low

19 Nm is somewhere between wrist and elbow strength torque , but no where near shoulder strength.


You can look for a leak by monitoring fuel trims, too.