this is my first post ever and it's to report bad news. I purchased a 1995 convertable Z28 about 4 months ago and it started out great. The car itself ran perfect and gave me no trouble at all.

This morning I drove it to school with no overheating and nothing out of the ordinary. Went into for class around 8 and came out at 10:00. Got in my car and went to crank it and there was a huge pop right under my feet and it would not turn over.

I had problems with my s10 doing the same thing so i put it in nuetral and it had a very very ruff start. I checked all my gauges while it was running and no overheating but just a nasty ruff sound from the engine. About 3 mins of running white smoke started to poor out of both my tailpipes and more water was coming from the the left side. I immediatly cut the car off.

Now I beileve its the head gasket. I am far from a good mehanic so any info would be appreciated. Also would you suggest a rebuild with a visit to my nearest machine shop or just buy a new block altogether. Thanks in advance,


-Justin-

 

how many miles do you have on the vehicle ?

 

Its got just over 106,000. I was wondering if the tranny is sound would an LS1 bolt on or is there more to that?

 

Don't quite undertand your post. Was the smoke and water coming from the Camaro or from the S10 or both. By not "turning over" did you mean that the car would not start, or that the starter would not turn the engine? If you blew the head gasket, the cheapest option would be to resurface the head and replace the gasket.

 

I was using ths s10 a an example of the sound the car made when i tried to start it. The smoke coming from the engine had water spraying out with it. the starter tried to turn and the engine would just lock after that point. I did however finally get the engine to start while in nuetral. And thats when the smoke showed up. I hope that clears everything up.

 

did the smoke and water come from under the hood? or are you saying it was spraying and smoking out of the exhaust pipes?

 

Drain the oil and look to see if there's any coolant in it. Water coming out of the tailpipe isn't too uncommon when the car first starts and until it warms up. White smoke is also normal on a cold day. It's also possible you have water in your gas. If that's the case, you can drain the gas and put in some better fuel. Or you could try putting some alcohol in the tank to absorb the water, or buy the additive that they sell in stores.

Before you break down and rebuild the engine, make sure the easier items have been looked at. Earlier this year, I pretty much stole a Corvette ZR1 of off someone due to some bad gas. The car only had 5k miles on it, thus the gas hadn't been used and went bad. This made the engine sound terrible and knock like crazy. Did a simple tune-up with some fresh gas, and wouldn't you know, the thing purrs! BTW: the dealership gave them a $5,000 quote for repairs on that engine.

 

Well I finally got around to giving the car a good look and heres the info i got. There is alot and I mean alot of water in my oil. The engine will start but after running for a couple of mins (White)smoke comes out of the tailpipes followed by water. I've been told it's a head gasket. Now what comes to mind is this a do-it-yourself or take it to someone who owns a shop?

 

Most likely you have a blown head gsket or an intake manifold gasket letting water in. You can verify with a compression test, but most likely you will have to start taking the engine apart.

 

All aluminum head engines are real prone to head surface warpage when over heated, I'd suggest removing the heads and take them to a reliable upscale machine shop that has the capability of pressure testing and resurfacing them. I'd do both heads because of the necessary resurfacing. Get a Fel Pro head set and after cleaning every surface very well and draining the oil, Reinstall the parts using all new gaskets. Always replace the oil after an overheating as it tends to break down under these circumstances. Good luck.