So I did my head gasket on my 90 loyale turbo and it went very smoothly, everything looked as it should, cept there were weird minor scratches in a couple of the cylinders. I put it all together and fired her up and it runs great, quieter and smoother than before but I am still loosing coolant, a lot less than before though. I checked the piston that definately leaked before and found no sign of coolant in the cylinder( I stuck a paper towel in and rubbed it all around and looked in with a flash light...no coolant). No coolant in the oil or vice versa. I am hoping the problem is in the turbo cuz I have always been suspicious that it leaked oil internally. What are some of my options to finding out what the problem is. Thank You

 

Joe

Compression test, both wet and dry. Remove the radiator cap, let the car warm up and burp, top off coolant, and look for bubbles.

 

nipper

You may have cracks in the Exhaust port of the heads. Did you inspect the exhaust port to look for cracks?

If the car was overheated, chances are that the heads are slightly warped. Did you have them checked by a shop for warpage or just put them back on with new gaskets?

If the car was overheated, chances are that the heads are slightly warped. Did you have them checked by a shop for warpage or just put them back on with new gaskets?

 

If it was leaking at the Head to block seal he'd have oil in Coolant/ coolant in oil, or Coolant in Cylinders. He says that is not the case. Being as it's a Turbo I'm sad to say it's probably a cracked head in the exhaust passage. Look in my member photos for a pic of the cracks.

 

Here a link someone else posted with good pics as well.

http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b260/soobscript/ValveCracks/

did the heads go to a shop or get tested/millled? hopefully you did, that should always be done, particularly on a turbo.

 

check the turbo and turbo related lines, now would be a great time to go ahead and replace those anyway, any hose, gasket or o-ring associated with the oil and coolant supply to the turbo.

 

an easy place to leak is also the intake manifold gasket. were the mating surfaces of the intake manifold and head cleaned and not marred? i've seen very deep grooves in intake manifolds before, though i don't know how they get there. and...did you use Subaru gaskets or aftermarket?

 

check all of your hoses and clamps, were they replaced or did you reuse the old ones?

 

a compression test may or may not help. it's very common for compression tests to not tell you anything on a subaru. if the tests are bad, then that's conclusive, but even bad headgaskets can pass a wet and dry test just fine.

There is definately zero oil and coolant coming out of the exhaust so wouldnt this rule out the head gasket or heads being the problem. The smoke comes out right around the heat sheild and under/around the turbo but definately not from the engine. There werent any cracks like that on the heads and the engine has never even come close to overheating. Hoses were all new and the turbo was used when put on and smoked right from the get go, thats why I tried this new one that is more than likely bad cuz it dont run anymore.