white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

hey guys, I have a fresh Flathead big bore in a 32 roadster. it has less than 70 miles on it. I noticed right after changing the oil that I'm getting white steam from the breather, especially after I shut the motor off. Antifreeze is also pushing out the overflow more than I would expect. There is little to no smoke from the exhaust,. But today an awful lot of water came out the right side tailpipe after I started it hot (I had just driven it for about 15 minutes.). I ran the test in the radiator to check for combustion. IT was clean. Edelbrock heads are toqued at 55 lbs. Everyone I know keeps telling me I'm just paranoid. But is seems like something is going on. Im at a total loss here.
any help is appreciated.
thanks in advance

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Maybe a 60 or 80 over would have been better? Block was pressure tested?

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Pull the plugs and check for moisture . Are you sure its steam and not just oil vapor ?
Have you retorqued your heads , usually 3 hot cold cycles .
More info , your location , motor specs , who built the motor, when , type of gaskets , radiator should find its own level and stay , dontkeep refilling , check temp it runs at , vacuum gauge reading , is it steady ? Sorry , no coffee yet .

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

re torque the heads

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

I retorqued the heads after 3 heat cycles. Car runs teady at 165 while driving. I will climb to 185 at idle. I used copper head gaskets. Let’s face it. I’m scared shirtless there is a crack in the block. But again, there is NO combustion gases in the radiator

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

copper gaskets on aluminum heads?? do as Ggmac stated and see which one is leaking. are the head gaskets made for big bore?

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Short drives can lead to moisture buildup. Drive it long enough to heat things up to evaporate any moisture. It doesn't sound like you really have a problem. You've read too many tales of woe.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

This sounds exactly like the combustion/compression leak that I had last year on my way to Auburn, Indiana, driving my '35 fordor sedan. After dealing with this problem while in Indiana for the EFV-8 Club's CNM, and then driving back home to Maryland, I had to stop to add about a gallon of coolant every 75-100 miles. We later found the problem to be caused by a blown head gasket at #5 cylinder. Coolent was getting into that cylinder on the down stroke, super heated on the compression stroke, and forced out between the head and deck of block at the front of left side head as steam. This was apparent by seeing an area on the block and head that had been steam cleaned to a bare cast iron surface.
After removing the head, cleaning the deck, and mating surface of head, we used a Best Co. composition head gasket and bolted everything back together. I've put over 100 miles on the car since then, and all is now doing well. No coolant is being pushed out of the radiator overflow, and the engine is running much cooler at idle and when driving at normal highway speeds.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

I've never had problems with Best brand composite head gaskets. I have 2 cars with Edelbrock heads, 1 car with stock aluminum heads, and 2 with stock iron heads.

You may be putting too much water in the radiator and the excess is getting pushed out.

Antifreeze coming out the tailpipe is not a good sign. Are your head gaskets correct for the bore? How big is your "big bore"?

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

You say antifreeze is coming out the over flow, but is the liquid coming out the tailpipe antifreeze?
Touch your finger to the liquid and see if it is sweet.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

UPDATE...last plug on passenger side appears oil soaked

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

I’d post a pic but have no idea how

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Here is the plug. I hope it goes though

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Attachment 431105Here is my oil. It is champion, which is normally blue in color. Just the top of the bowl is blue now. The rest is green

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

well it is not that cylinder, water will wash off all the carbon. we had a 40 engine which the owner insisted on changing to aluminum heads, had leak problems on one side-we used best gaskets and used them again but torqued to a higher number and then we had no problems

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

do tell us the year of the engine and your general location

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Could be miss firing plug loading with unburned fuel.
Did you check to see if the liquid coming out of the tailpipe is antifreeze?

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

If you have a compressor , rig up a tool made from a old gutted spark plug to an air line ( or use the hose from a compression tester ) add air to the cyl and listen in the oil galley , intake and tailpipe . To test tailpipe and intake both valves need to be closed . I usually add 80 lbs , but start low . Dont forget to look in the rad and have its cap off .

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Sorry. I’m from upstate NY. The engine is a 51 8BA.
I did a compression test. All cylinders are at about 185 lb. I put new oil in it. Started it for like 5 minutes and oil is getting milky. Also antifreeze came out of right tail pipe

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Just had to replace both head gaskets on my '51 8BA. Had a smaller problem than what it sounds like you're seeing. My first sign was foaming coolant, and it would always push a bit of foam out after a pretty hard run. But it never ran hot, and never saw any signs at the tailpipe. Did the "bubble test"... disconnected fan belts so water pumps weren't turning and filled the radiator to the neck. Started and revved up a bit and saw a number of large bubbles, indicating combustion gases getting to coolant. I had read that the analyzer system that looks for hydrocarbons in the antifreeze is not reliable, so I skipped that test. Found about two areas per side that looked like the sources of leaks. Also saw 3 cracks from water passages to bolt holes... ignored them. Fortunately, no other cracks worthy of concern. New gaskets and all is great. Hope you're fix is without further headaches!

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

It’s a wait and see thing now. I have new big bore gaskets coming. However, if I was a betting man, I’d. DY there’s gonna be a major catastrophic failure in the block.. is a crack

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

It sucks because of the time and money I have in vested in this engine. The guy who built it is t going to cover anything. Probably 70 miles on the damn thing.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Ceramic Block sealer

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

“I retorqued the heads after 3 heat cycles.“ Did you torque after each time you got it hot or once after you heated 3 times?..... I’m hoping for the best outcome...... Mark

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

I’m pretty convinced the block is cracked in a cylinder wall. I’ll be pull the heads this week and will let you guys know. This was a 9k motor.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Retororqed again yesterday. They are at 55lbs

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

get a can of zotight problem over

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Have you done a compression test and a leak down test? Much easier than guessing.

Update: Ok, see you did the compression test (which looked good), now you need to do the leak down.

Was the block pressure tested before you started the machine work?

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

For 9K if someone didn't pressure test the block, I would be very upset.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

It was supposed to have been tested and crack free. I think I have a crack in a cylinder wall. Pulling the heads will tell
More

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

The one plug looks like it is not firing - change it and see what it does.

If you're getting milky oil, that is a bad sign -- either cracked block or blown head gasket or both. What overbore on the block? Hopefully you have just a blown head gasket - usually the plugs will be washed down as a result.

If you find a blown head gasket, then switch over to the composite Best Gasket head gaskets - they are really good (other then when you need to change a set! LOL). If you need additional review, feel free to DM me or give me a call - be happy to try to be your "Virtual Flathead Doctor". ;)

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

I´m kinda amazed over all this low mileage high $ builds that people try and troubleshoot on distance.
If i had built the engine it was back to me for free and i sort it out...what i don´t accept is engines coming back in a basket with a warranty claim.
Doesn´t the engine builders take any kind of warranty repairs for 9K ???

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Can you tell I’m pissed? Lol

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Ouch didn´t know that guy was involved...
Eric must be carrying 4 sparetires whenever he parks out of sight nowdays...
Maybe you should have someone go over it and verify what is done and if correct...atleast pressuretest and verify boresize and clearances before worse things happen and you have to spend serious $ again...

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Do we have an emoji for shaking your head?

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Was it sleeved ? Hopefully its easy fix especially with the $ spent . Wishing you the best .
Keep us posted .

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Thanks everyone. I’m thinking of selling it as is and building a nice merc motor.. It’s too bad that we have people like that in our hobby who take advantage of people. I’m not a rich guy who has a spare 9 grand lying around. Carla will get that cocksucker some day.
In the meantime if anyone wants a Skat crank and rods, Ross pistons, and a 400jr cam let me know.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Don´t give up yet !
Some of the known good guys to the rescue here ??
A couple of days work will probably sort this out...just has to be done right...
And even if the block is the issue it must be cheaper to adress it then start over from scratch.

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Here is the cylinder with the issue. No visible crack but it had water in it and is all washed including valves

Re: white steam from breather and water tailpipe
 

Could be just a head gasket issue. Best gaskets are the best.


Could be something else. Where is your rebuilder at this point? Not involved? Usually not how it's done. You won't see a crack or an issue by eye.


Long block or short block from the builder? (heads and intake on or not)



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