Engine failure

[Mad1186]

Alright, hey guys I’m pretty new around here and I’d like to show off my 2016 Ruby Red Mustang GT.

I occasionally track the car about 3 or 4 times a year and a lot of road trips. I Recently built my 2016 5.0 coyote because of bad rings on the original motor.

View attachment 765781
So i went with a brand new Gen 3 block still the same heads and upgrades as follows.

-Boundary OPG and crank sprocket
-Boss 302r exhaust cams and valve springs
-Ford Performance chain
-ARP cam cap bolts and crank bolt
-Apex Torque head studs
-High RPM Competition Pulse Ring
-All new seals
-GT500 valve covers
-MMR Valve Seals
Other then new seals and stuff that’s all that’s been upgraded. The only things that stayed the same are the valves themselves and the same gen 2 heads but resurfaced and cleaned.

Finished product came out perfect and i really took my time with this to do everything right. So far 8k miles on the build with no hiccups or problems BUT…

I took a trip to NYC and i was on the back roads, usually the car is fine in high RPM and I’ve never had a problem with temps, so this time i was focused on the road more instead of the cylinder head temps and all of a sudden the warning light for over heating came on, the temps were at 264 degrees!! I shut the car off immediately. When i popped the hood coolant was everywhere and i lost a lot of it, after it cooling off for about 45 mins i drove to the closest store to put more water in. Now as i limped it home temps were all over the place between 185-220.

I waited till the next day and started the car, it sounded fine on startup but once “it got to temp” it started to idle rough and temps kept climbing, white smoke as well . i replaced the thermostat and water pump again to see if that was the problem but it wasn’t. Still temps climbing past 200 on idle, white smoke and a puttering like a misfire almost that you can only hear on the left. Fans where on and working fine also, but i checked the spark plugs and cylinder #8 had some oil on it. Can it be the rings on 8 went out? Or the head gasket went out? Or both? I need some help and what could have really caused this to go wrong, I’ve taken it to the track before and this has never happened and creeped out of nowhere. Some input would be nice thank you!

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[Cory S]

Head gasket I’m guessing. All of the potential symptoms. What’s the oil look like?

 

[JetGray_Mach1]

Sounds like you may have blown a head gasket from overheating it. Oil and coolant must be mixing up in the combustion chamber due to the head gasket. White smoke out the back is very common with blown head gaskets. Sorry to hear hope you get her up and running. If your oil is milky is another sign, also check your coolant reservoir for contamination.

 

[Marketplaza]

Definitely your head gasket. You can check for oil in your radiator and I bet it’s there. I had the same exact symptoms on my old car. Once you fix it find out why it blew in the first place.

 

[ice445]

Wonder if your head studs backed out, another member had a similar issue. If the head lifted due to loose studs/nuts then the head gasket is the first casualty. Hopefully the heads/block aren't warped from the overheat since it sounds like you spent a lot on this build

 

[Keeffa]

Did you retourqe your head bolts after running engine in.

 

[JetGray_Mach1]

If the proper torque sequence is followed on correctly machined heads/block. Heads should never need to be retorqued. or am I mistaken?

 

[K4fxd]

If the proper torque sequence is followed on correctly machined heads/block. Heads should never need to be retorqued. or am I mistaken?

This is gasket and fastener dependent. If you are using TTY bolts and factory style gaskets, you won't need to re-torque. Head studs is probably a good idea to do it.

 

[Mad1186]

Head gasket I’m guessing. All of the potential symptoms. What’s the oil look like?

The oil looked fine but i haven’t got the chance to drain it yet since i am shipping the car back to South Carolina, once i do, I’ll have an update.

 

[Mad1186]

Sounds like you may have blown a head gasket from overheating it. Oil and coolant must be mixing up in the combustion chamber due to the head gasket. White smoke out the back is very common with blown head gaskets. Sorry to hear hope you get her up and running. If your oil is milky is another sign, also check your coolant reservoir for contamination.

Oil didn’t look milky at all but maybe I’m not really sure how it would look i can post an

Wonder if your head studs backed out, another member had a similar issue. If the head lifted due to loose studs/nuts then the head gasket is the first casualty. Hopefully the heads/block aren't warped from the overheat since it sounds like you spent a lot on this build

i hoe so as well I’ll post soon once t take the motor out back at home.

 

[Mad1186]

Did you retourqe your head bolts after running engine in.

I did not

 

[Mad1186]

So the car hasnt been running for 2 days and this was the oil so far, i think it is a head gasket because this oil only has 1k miles, if this is that “milky” texture everyone is talking about then you are right, thing is when i drove the car back home after it over heated, it was about an hour away of just limping it home. The oil looked exactly like this as well before when i brought it back and checked right after. My nose isn’t very good but i was told it smelled similar to coolant.

 

[Cory S]

That’s not milky. This is milky.

 

[Mad1186]

That’s not milky. This is milky.

Ouu that looks very bad, shit I’d probably have to wait to drain it then because I’m honestly lost on what it is because my oil looks nothing like that.

 

[Cory S]

Ouu that looks very bad, shit I’d probably have to wait to drain it then because I’m honestly lost on what it is because my oil looks nothing like that.

A head gasket failure doesn’t always allow coolant to contaminate the oil. Depends where the gasket blows out.

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