Blown Head Gasket Or Turbo

[fr0st]

Hey Guys,

I recently cooked my RB20 after my bottom coolant pipe came off during a country trip. The engine got baked hard as I didn't catch it until I could smell it, because it dumped all the coolant the needle stayed at the normal level

At the moment the car is blowing steam out the exhaust and in general running like shit... but its still running. The turbo is starting to squeal so its definately on its way out so I'm a bit unsure if the steam is coming from the turbo or head gasket. Is there any way to tell before I start pulling things apart?

The oil definately has no water in it and the steam seems to be fairly regular and doesn't rise too much with the revs. The car misses a bit but it could also be due to baking the stock coils which were already on thier way out. The engine only has to last another month (or atleast a few weeks till I can ride again) so hopefully some SilverSeal will sort the HG.

Cheers

-Matt

[GTRNUR]

With the engine cold take off the radiator cap and check the coolant level. Check around the radiator cap for signs of oily residue. There can be fuel that has made it into the cooling system if you have a gasket issue.

Top up if necessary and start the car with the cap off. If there is no combustion to coolant gallery leaks you should only see the coolant pulsate a little.

If the coolant level in the radiator is bouncing around and its blowing bubbles or overflowing you have done a head gasket for sure.

Another test is to pull put the spark plugs and check the colour. If they are burining fuel with coolant in the cylinder the plugs will be steam cleaned. They should be all equally carboned up.

Then there is they hydrocarbon contamination test that most radiator places can do on the cooling system as well.

As for the turbo... well if its making noises thats a dead give away. Possibly the bearings have died as a result of being lubricated with super heated oil and not having any coolant when the engine was fried.