My afrs weren't terrible but in the lean range. I stayed out of boost for the most part. I'm considering starting over and building the motor again just to get everything cleaned up. I'm at work for a couple of more hours so as soon as I get off I'm gonna go tinker with it some.

 

The key here is figuring out the problem
If you simply rebuild, there's a strong chance you'll dump a bunch of money for no reason
troubleshooting sucks, tedious work, but kinda mandatory

 

No, although it may cause danger to the manifold and blow the welds on your intake.


The head gaskets in the '94 and later engines are made of three thin layers of steel, rather than the composite material most of us are familiar with. They're pretty hard to kill, but also less tolerant of warpage / unevenness in the block or head mating surfaces.

Have you done a warm compression test? That will likely give some idea as to whether the head-to-block mating interface is faulty. Likewise, you could run the engine (while cool) with the radiator cap removed and look for bubbles coming up out of it.


The fact that you've scored a trifecta here (smoke, coolant in oil, oil in coolant) is confounding, but there are a pretty finite number of places it could be happening, and most of them are in the mm or so between the block and the head.

 

Josephus speaketh the truth

 

That clears a lot up. I am gonna pull the plugs out tonight and try to get a compression test. It currently isn't wanting to start. So I will have to do it cold.

 

What is the mm?

 

the millimeter is a measurement of space

 

Nvm I feel stupid now I had to retread what he wrote before.

 

When I've built the engine, during the break-in I saw oil in the coolant. I changed the coolant twice and I never saw again. It was the honing at the machine shop: every coolant route was filled with oil.
Can it be your case?

 

mayhaps?

 

Should be sent through a parts cleaner before assembly, right?

 

They didn't. I cleaned what I could, but I focused on the oil passages.

 

I think I may be mixing up threads here.

Did I imagine it where the OP said he was getting smoke out the tailpipe? Or was that a different thread?


Regardless: the engine overheated and now it won't start. This doesn't sound like residual machining oil.

 

You may of imaged it I never said that lol I'm home now trying to find my compression tester.

 

Too many weird problems going on at the same time...

I'm now far less certain that the problem is at the head-to-block interface. A crack somewhere is likely.

Do a cooling system pressure test.



And let's have some more detail on this "no start" condition. Does it crank over freely but merely won't fire? What was really going on when it overheated and shut down? Did the engine act as though it was siezed when you tried to re-start it immediately thereafter?

 

1 160psi
2 175psi
3 155psi
4 165psi

 

not too bad

 

...how lean were you running it? AFRs to the first decimal point, please

 

 

I was staying in the 13-14 range no boost. Some times 15 by not running it hard.