hey all, I got my swap done and everything was going great but I had a water line bust when i was test driving it checking things out, I got her towed home now i have water vapor coming out at idle and blue smoke when accelerating. now I still have my 2.8 engine, and I'm thinking I have a cracked head on the 3.4.
how close are the 2.8 heads to the 3.4 heads and if I put the 2.8 heads on the 3.4 would I lose anything? basicly what is the pro and cons of using the 2.8 heads on a 3.4?

 

exactly the same heads. Put them on as theres no difference. Unless you have a pre 1984 engine (carbed 2.8L IIRC)

 

cool thanks, I just pulled the plugs and I got water on #3 I'm hoping for a blown head gasket but prepering for the worst

 

Drain out your oil in that engine asap just in case you have coolent in there. Check the oil and see if its mixed... which i hope its not, but if so you can still be ok. I had that happend about 1 year ago and didnt have any immediate issues once i put it back together.

 

Oil is fine, it still looks like it just came out of the bottle, but once I put it back together it's getting an oil change any way. Hoppfuly I will have her running by the end of the week

 

Well today found water in the oil, that oil is gone. Got the head off, can't see any cracks, the block is holding water for about 12 hours now(filled the water jack to see if it would leach in like it did when I had it setting), head gasket dose not have anything standing out as an issue. I'll try to post some pic later. Found oil and water in the intake to cylinder #3, all the other cylinder are clear. Is there anything else I can do besides putting it back together, or taking the heads to a shop? I'm planning to make sure the heads are still true this after noon.

 

Just take the head to a shop and make sure its not warped. Buy new head bolts, gaskets, toss it back together and do a compression test before you put the rest of the engine back together.

Take some picks of the cyliner, heads, and post them up if you can.

 

I'm going to check them this after noon, and get the pic's. I just want to do as much before hand so I don't get a repeat

 

ok just checked the head and block and both come out true, here are the pic's I promised

 

Head gasket looks a little iffy, but Id still get those heads checked by a shop just to make sure there not warped.

Is it only the one side you had a problem with??? Which side is that driverside?? #6? Closest to the firewall?

 

it was #3 (center passanger side) I was not going to reuse the gasket, I am actualy going to pull the other side of to and just put new gaskets and bolts all around just so i don't have this again

 

Yea get some new gaskets. Also get some new head bolts for piece of mine. There about 25 bucks at autozone. Felpro ones.

 

Hey thanks for the help, everything is back together no smoke, had a little water vapor when first started but heated up and went away. Thanks again

 

Good stuff, glad to see it worked out for ya!