Hey, im new to 3rdgen.org, seemed like an awesome place to
discuss 3rd gen camaro stuff, obviously.

Anyways, I just got back from a tour in Afganistan, and my parents
had let my camaro sit for the entire year i was gone. My alternator
was dead and wasnt charging the battery, so they didnt feel obligated
to jump it at least once a week. I had to replace the whole top end of
the motor (throttle body, waterpump, distributer, etc.), and its still
running like crap.... ANYWAYS, so my question is:

Ill start it, itll idle fine, then start acting like it has a vacuum leak. I
replaced every sensor under the hood, checked every possible
leak source, etc. AND its overheating wayyyy too fast, even with
the fan on. So, I cleaned off the engine the other day, and there was
still some soap on the block. I started it, let it run, and when I turned
it off and stared at the engine, there was air bubbles forming in
between the head and the intake manifold, an air leak. I know this
is my problem, I was just asking for an opinion on it being either
A. The Head gasket or B. The intake manifold gasket. And if it is
indeed the intake manifold gasket, would an air leak that small cause
the car to run like crap?

More info: My car is a 1988 Camaro SC with a 305 TBI, 700R4. MOSTLY
stock. Any help on the subject would be appreciated.

Thanks much, God Bless.

 

Well there's a lot of things that could cause a car to run like crap but for a moment lets put that to the side. First thing ide want to know about is like you said the head gasket possibility as if thats blown it dosnt matter if everything else is perfect it still wont run well. Now what im sort of wondering is this the quickly overheating thing how fast does it overheat? I mean are we talking like 5 mins its buried in the red or...? I ask because thats a typical symptom of a blown head gasket. Now the air bubbles between the head and the intake, Its interesting because air bubbles wont form if air is being sucked in atleast not that you can see. Air bubbles are formed when something is being blown out like if you were to do this on a tire to check the bead's seal against the rim it would work great. Whats interesting is that I assume you see no water leaking and if its a vacuum leak it would suck air in not blow it out so the fact you see bubbles is again odd. It could lead back to the head gasket issue as what happens if its a leak between the water jacket and the cylinder the high cylinder pressures blow hot exhaust gasses into the water jacket causeing it to over heat fast due to a combination of over pressureizing the cooling system and the acutal temp of the gasses themselves. This over pressureization of the cooling system in combination with the fact that its introducing air in the system may be how air is being blown out between the head and the intake from the coolant ports. Though this is kinda of a long shot and i would make sure something is being blown out and that the bubbles arnt being formed naturally by the fact the motor is just hot which is probably more likely. Now one way to test for the scnario described earlier is watch the overflow tank and start the car. If you see bubbles forming in the tank its probably a head gasket (assuming no leaks or anything like that) but further tests can be done to confirm it like a pressure test of the cooling system or the leak testing kits that use the chemicals added to the coolant that change color if they have been exposed to exhaust gasses.

 

Oh and by the way on a lighter note welcome home!

 

Thanks, feels good to be back home.

With the car, it overheats in about 10 minutes of running. not pegged
out to the red, but def. over the half way mark. Theres also a ton
of pressure building in the the upper radiator hose, going into the intake
manifold. And yes, when it overheats, its not bubbles that form in the
overflow reservoir, its more like the coolant is being sent to it, shot out of the
radiator because its getting so damn warm.

ill check out the intake manifold obviously when i get ready to due the
head gaskets. i just wanted to make sure it couldnt have been
something else. ive never dealt with a blown head gasket. is that what
could be the reason that there is an extreme lack of power when its
driven? thanks again.

 

Well coolant will be sent into the reservoir tank as the car heats up even under normal circumstances. Your radiator cap is like a pressure relieve valve as temperature builds the water expands and pressure builds when it hits a certain pressure its allowed to pass by the radiator cap and into the overflow tank. If it didn't work this way something would blow out like a hose or gasket. The air bubbles are important because what that shows its that combustion gases, by nature of the fact that the cylinder pressure is greater than the pressure in the water jacket, are being forced into the coolant system. This pressure is again is vented out by the radiator cap into the overflow tank in the form of bubbling in the tank. So if you dont see bubbles I wouldn't be too concerned just yet (unless your seeing like quarts of coolant overflowing the overflow tank when it was properly filled to begin with then we may have to look deeper). The other thing is do you have coolant in the oil? It will make the oil look kinda like a milk shake after the cars been run for a bit. What about white smoke (another typical blown head gasket symptom)? Ide just hate to have you tear the motor down to do the head gaskets when all it was, was something stupid as it usually is. Now yea a blown head gasket could cause it to lack power but then again so could a lot of things. For example if your fuel pump was shot or fuel injector plugged (gas today hates to sit and has a nasty tendency to gum things up) it would cause the car to run lean which would yield terrible performance and cause the car to over heat due to the lean mixture. I think the best thing to really know for sure is pressure test the coolant system and or get the kits from your local parts store that can detect if the coolant system has been exposed to exhaust gasses maybe even a compression test is in order. This is really the only true way to know whats up. Once we can confirm that the head gaskets good or bad we can look further into other possibilities.