Anyone want to tell me what would cause this kind of damage to a head gasket?

[JC316]

If it's detonation, that is a good sign, there is nothing really wrong with it, just have to get it back together and find whats causing it. 132K on stock O2 sensors seems like a good place to start.

[Mysticcobrakilla]

You do have some cylinder scoring going on.

If you're gonna slap it back together I'd start at the injectors.

[JC316]

You do have some cylinder scoring going on.

If you're gonna slap it back together I'd start at the injectors.

The scoring is minimal, can't even see it with the naked eye, the camera flash picked it up nicely though. Could be the injectors, my money is still on the oxygen sensors, hell, it could even be a vacuum leak. Going to have a lot of digging to do.

[robert]

I rather have a blown Gasket than blown motor

[garycrist]

I would vote for head bolt /torque issues. Also I noticed the head bolt holes were still dirty
and unchaced from the prior rebuild..

[greenbullitt]

Looks like it. Stupid lean.

Just an FYI, head gaskets are the first consumable for an engine just to prevent damage to pistons, heads, liners ect.

being an optispark car, someone could have messed that up..

[JC316]

being an optispark car, someone could have messed that up..which cylinders are those? Im gonna venture to say 5 and 7

**edit** I see it is 5 and 7...that says alot

3 and 5 on that side, then 4 and 6 on the passenger side.

[greenbullitt]

3 and 5 on that side, then 4 and 6 on the passenger side.

forgive me for that post.make sure the heads and deck are straight and clean. pics are hard to see how bad it really is. Perform a solid head gasket swap and pay close attention to the optispark setup when done

[JC316]

forgive me for that post.make sure the heads and deck are straight and clean. pics are hard to see how bad it really is. Perform a solid head gasket swap and pay close attention to the optispark setup when done

No biggie, my pics make it difficult to see. Fixing to head out and clean everything up and check it out. The funny thing about this car is that it ran, poorly, but it still ran. It rolled across the auction block and I drove it up on the trailer.

[greenbullitt]

No biggie, my pics make it difficult to see. Fixing to head out and clean everything up and check it out. The funny thing about this car is that it ran, poorly, but it still ran. It rolled across the auction block and I drove it up on the trailer.

It didn't run well! lol...install new head bolts too...they are tty on lt1

[ktm300hater]

What's the trick on the optispark. I just recently bought a 95 Z28 for my kid and I'm sure before long ill be going into it

[lowthreeohz]

What's the trick on the optispark. I just recently bought a 95 Z28 for my kid and I'm sure before long ill be going into it

Don't fuck with it unless you're doing a water pump swap or it dies. They're evil. I've always heard once you start replacing them, they seem to die quicker. thankfully my 97 never had any issues. I think the early and late lt1's had 2 different optisparks, one maybe is vented and the other isn't.. something like that.

[Baron Von Crowder]

Don't fuck with it unless you're doing a water pump swap or it dies. They're evil. I've always heard once you start replacing them, they seem to die quicker. thankfully my 97 never had any issues. I think the early and late lt1's had 2 different optisparks, one maybe is vented and the other isn't.. something like that.

You are. Early was not vented, the later has a vac line to the engine to suck moisture out.

I replaced one 3 times before deciding to run an MSD replacement, and that's been going strong for the last couple years.

[shumpertdavid]

I have a buddy with an old headgasket from his Couple hanging on the wall. The nitrous solenoids stuck on his dry kit. He backed off the throttle and noticed it wasn't right, he was going to try and pedal it to see if they would close and before he could crack the throttle it let off a huge backfire. He cut the ignition, closed the bottle valve and opened the hood. His discharge tube was coated in a sheet of ice between the blower and throttle body. He pulled the coil wire, spun the motor over a bit and tried to start it. Ran like shit.

We tore the heads off and it completely blew the compression ring out of one cylinder and had the compression rings curving into the opposing cylinders of the one that fubar'd.

[JC316]

We have a winner. Both of the upstream 02 sensors had shit the bed. They were leaning it out as far as it would go. I can only imagine driving it like that, the detonation must have been terrible. Wouldn't even idle once it hit closed loop mode. Swapped them out, fuel trims are normal and it runs like a champ.