head gasket repair question.

[colbystephens]

So a friend and I just replaced his head gasket on a 2001 nissan sentra. pretty straight forward. We pulled the head, had it pressure tested (checked out okay) and machined, replaced the gasket and put it back together. The car runs great.

However, I detect a slightly sweet smell from the exhaust. I can't really remember what gasoline exhaust smells like but it does have a distinct sweetness to it... and that makes me uncomfortable. The oil is clean.

We just finished yesterday, so I can't tell yet if the coolant is low because these cars are notorious for being difficult to completely fill with coolant... infact, to do it right you have to have some special tool for installing coolant. stupid design. We're still working on completely purging the air - but I think we've pretty much got it.

The exhaust doesn't seem to run abnormally white either.

Any thoughts?

 

[brian wafer]

you can try and bleed at the heater hose! maybe just prestone that stayed on the pistons from lifting head takes a while to dry up!

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

I've been in this same situation, fixed a head gasket only to start it back up and smell/see coolant out of the exhaust


IME, it was residual crap in the exhaust and went away after a few hours of running and was trouble free after that. So I'd say don't worry yet and give it a little time

 

[katugly]

Check near the top of the engine for a burp plug.

 

[NorCal_Chris]

qr25?

I swapped a ka24de in my 510 and they have the same problem with burping. They have a burp screw near the head on the intake, but what i would always do is jack the front of the car up... pull the radiator off the mounts and elevate it up so it is at the highest point. Unplug my elec fan and turn heater on and let it run for a few mins. keep coolant topped off and give the bottom tube a squeeze a couple times and mess with it like that for about 5 mins and it was golden.

Good ole nissan

 

[katugly]

So like on the 1% chance this helps you i went and took a picture of what i was talking about

 

[colbystephens]

I've been in this same situation, fixed a head gasket only to start it back up and smell/see coolant out of the exhaust


IME, it was residual crap in the exhaust and went away after a few hours of running and was trouble free after that. So I'd say don't worry yet and give it a little time

Well, that gives me a little bit of relief! Thanks!

Check near the top of the engine for a burp plug.

These engines do have an air purge plug right above the thermostat housing. We tried releasing that quite a few times to no avail. Ended up jacking up the driver's side as high as we could and popping that valve again a couple of times and it helped significantly. This damn process took us over an hour! Something as simple as adding fluids to a vehicle shouldn't be so complicated!

So like on the 1% chance this helps you i went and took a picture of what i was talking about

Well, I need to anty up on my subscription before I can see those. I'm not too concerned about the coolant level anymore. I'll have to ask my friend how much white smoke he's seeing now.