help! just did a headgasket..

iirc theres an Oring over there thats pretty important.

i tried replacing that o ring already . didnt fix the problem. Thanks for the quick reply though

something blocking the way? try pulling it all apart again and cleaning everything in that area, and then reassemble, hell I didn't replace any of those things and mine doesn't spray oil out

hmm i doubt that will help but i'll give it a try. does anyone know if there is suppose to be a gap around the distributor shaft and the valve cover/ cylinder head hole. The valve cover gasket section that is around the distributor dont seem to be mating to anything... if someone can take a close up picture of what their engine looks like it would be great.

my 4ag did the same thing, it turned out just to be the valve cover gasket. Check that it gets sort of pesky at times.

they are fairly cheap

Gasket Sealant

I just replaced a head gasket on a 7A-FE. If it is like the 4A-GE, you will need to apply a small amount of gasket sealant (recommend Permatex Ultra Grey Silicone) around the exhaust camshaft cap where the distributor and exhaust camshaft meet. There will be a picture of this in a repair manual. I agree that it is most likely related to valve cover gasket not sealing properly. You can get one from the dealer for about $20. As long as you torqued everything correctly, there should be no problems. Then watch your oil level daily for the first 500 miles.

Bitter said:

iirc theres an Oring over there thats pretty important.

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yea dude its definetly prob that ring or the valve cover gasket. dont you hate it when you fix something only to make another problem did you replace the o-ring with a new one or just re-sit it. I would defintly just replace the o-ring in general with a new one and defintly do a new valve cover gasket. my rule of thumb is to replace the valve cover gasket every 50k and or any time I remove the valve cover after 20k has been put on that certain valve cover gasket. you could also check to see if you just pinched the gasket some where on that side making it not seal properlly.

i found the problem. i installed the half of the housing the distributor slides into backwards so it doesnt seal.. i feel like an idiot:lol: . The car still smokes.. i did a compression test and it was 180,180,165,190. doesnt look that bad.. could you have a leaking gasket and still have 165 psi compression?. any other ways water can get into the engine and get burned.. like coolant leaking into the throttle body or something? any input appreciated.

Could be rings. Get somebody to rev the engine while you watch the exhaust. Got smoke? rings. Otherwise if it's valve seals you will get smoke on start-up after it sits overnight.

I just re-placed rings and valve seals about 450 miles ago for the same reason. So far not a drop of oil is gone. I'm happy so far. I was burning about a qt every 700 miles b4.

If you can do a head gasket you can do rings and valve seals. It wasn't terribly hard. Engine stays in the car.

89corolla4wd said:

i found the problem. i installed the half of the housing the distributor slides into backwards so it doesnt seal.. i feel like an idiot:lol: . The car still smokes.. i did a compression test and it was 180,180,165,190. doesnt look that bad.. could you have a leaking gasket and still have 165 psi compression?. any other ways water can get into the engine and get burned.. like coolant leaking into the throttle body or something? any input appreciated.

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Water can get in if you have a cracked block. If you didnt seal the headgasket or it ripped while replacing it could cause a leak. Your question is a bit unclear. You mention the engine is smoking and the dizzy isnt installed properly, and then you jump from that to water being burned or some kind of coolant. What is the actual problem that you seem to be having now?

I read quite often in forum messages that after changing headgaskets and valve oil seals many people find that they need new rings. I was wondering if anyone primes the oil system before starting the engine after doing major engine work? Without oil in the oil galleries, it would take time for pressure to build up and the rings would wear more.
No oil pressure at startup is one of the leading causes of engine wear.


h3tc

you can always leave the plugs out and spin the starter a few times... or just take the plug wires off to run oil through the engine..

diver9000 said:

Water can get in if you have a cracked block. If you didnt seal the headgasket or it ripped while replacing it could cause a leak. Your question is a bit unclear. You mention the engine is smoking and the dizzy isnt installed properly, and then you jump from that to water being burned or some kind of coolant. What is the actual problem that you seem to be having now?

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what i meant is that i corrected the distributor issue. Now the car is smoking. Cant really tell if its water or oil. i know water is white and oil smoke is bluish but its hard to tell. So now i checked the compression and its 180,180,165,190. its greater than 10 percent difference . i'm thinking it means number 3 cylinder is the culprit. I was just asking can anything else cause excessive smoke coming from the tail pipe such as water leaking into the throttle body from the coolant passages in the throttle body some cars have. Not sure about the corolla.

89corolla4wd said:

what i meant is that i corrected the distributor issue. Now the car is smoking. Cant really tell if its water or oil. i know water is white and oil smoke is bluish but its hard to tell. So now i checked the compression and its 180,180,165,190. its greater than 10 percent difference . i'm thinking it means number 3 cylinder is the culprit. I was just asking can anything else cause excessive smoke coming from the tail pipe such as water leaking into the throttle body from the coolant passages in the throttle body some cars have. Not sure about the corolla.

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yes the water from the throttle body can cause smoke... are you consuming any oil? you probally have a bad pistion ring on cylinder 3 and or the new headgasket got pinched there and is still leaking into the cylinder. pull the number 3 spark plug and look to see if it has oil on it, or is wet from coolant

White smoke from the exhaust indicates coolant leaking into the combustion chamber. Watch your antifreeze level to see if it goes down. Also watch the oil level to see if it goes up. These conditions are usually the result of a head gasket not sealing properly. If you have a problem with the rings, it often shows up in the form of oil consumption. Check your spark plugs and match them to an indicator chart to find out what is going on in the combustion chamber.

It shouldn't be hard to tell if the smoke is blue or white. With mine it was very noticebly dark blackish blue. White is like the steam you see from the exhaust of all cars in the winter.

But as you're being told, watch your fluid levels.

I would have to say that it isnt torqued properly or you ripped the gasket. Did you replace your head bolts? From what I understand they stretch and they need to be replaced when replacing the headgasket.