head gasket advice?
 

i developed a sudden missfire and power loss a few weeks ago. i have been tuning up every bit of my 383 stroker engine with no improvement. today i noticed a lot of water in my exhaust and bubbles in my oil. my motor has between 30000 and 50000 miles on it and i ride her hard. i have been advised that changing head gaskets will cause another part of my engine to fail. the motor ran flawlessly until recently. can i get away with simply changing head gaskets or will i have to swap out the cam, rings,... what are the chances that i can save my engine?

Re: head gasket advice?
 

Never heard the "Changing the gaskets will make something else fail" scenario?

But then again I'm not a Motorhead, I can't see why you couldn't do just them.

Re: head gasket advice?
 

Change the gaskets.

Re: head gasket advice?
 

agreed

Re: head gasket advice?
 

If the miss IS from coolant getting into a cylinder, the top of the piston will be clean. Pull the spark plug on the suspect cylinder, turn the crank until you can see the piston thru the spark plug hole. If it is covered in carbon like the others, not a head gasket. Antifreeze in the oil destroys the bearings, it bonds to the bearing material. If the oil doesn't look like chocolate milk, you are probably ok. An oil change with a can of motor flush will "cut" the antifreeze from the bearings, if you do it before damage is done.

Re: head gasket advice?
 

:agree:

Re: head gasket advice?
 

thanks for the advice, i'll just pile on another project. i'll come back if i hit another problem im not sure about.