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Possible Head Gasket issue
Hello PC, I may not have died from COVID I did get it as a few friends but we survived however 2020 is ending with a bang for my genny it seems .
Afew days ago the Genny overheated with temp 220 . Now as to why it was allowed to go that high is another issue .
Then their was white smoke out the exhaust with the engine stuttering and then I shut her down . I then needed 1 gal of 50/50 mix to fill her up . Upon restart I noticed brown exhaust seeping from somewhere on the back side of the engine along with a stutter while running . I did not like the sound or the smoke so I shut her down .
With the storm moving out and major roads cleared we plan to cut the trip short and head south . Do you think I blew a head gasket or even a cracked dead ? I welcome your thoughts .
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62 Replies
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Should it have shut it self off when it got hot? Isn’t there a sensor for that?
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One way to check for head gasket is to fill up with coolant, leave coolant cap off and start the generator. After it warms up and the thermostat opens, if you see bubbles in the coolant it would indicate a head gasket problem.
You can also use a combustion gas leak detector (https://www.harborfreight.com/combustion-leak-detector-64814.html)
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Toilet now Genny, I sure feel for you Al, hang in there…
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Thank’s for the coolant tip .’
Tom , as my cousin the surgeon used to say ” nobody died” I ,like most of us knew coming into this Hobby/Lifestyle there would be days like these hahaha
Stuff like this puts updating on hold . Like they say Form Follows Function 🙂
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ck color of oil on you dip stick..If brown or high level don’t run. water in oil can trash a engine quick.
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No increase on dipstick . I’m leaning toward head gasket and will not run her again till she is check out . Thanks for the tip .
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You can go to the auto parts store and they will loan you a cooling system pressure tester. It is a cap with air hose that fits on the radiator. Fill to 10-15 psi and you’ll know real fast if there is a coolant leak.
If it is not a bad leak sometimes you can loosen the head bolts, retorque and all will be good.
And an alternative to the cooling system check is to use a leak down tester on the cylinder, screw the hose into the spark plug hose and used compressed air through two gauges.
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I think if there is a bad head gasket or a cracked head the coolant will either end up in a cylinder or in the crankcase.
Since it is not in the crankcase according to Al my guess is at some point if someone tries to start it the engine will not spin due to hydraulic lock because a cylinder is getting the coolant.
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Don’t know about why it was low on coolant, but that could be from over a fairly long period of time. If it’s not getting coolant in the oil I would look close at the injectors. An injector dumping fuel into a cylinder will make white smoke and with the loss of that cylinder it’ll run rough. 220 is a little high on the temperature but it probably has a 195 degree thermostat in it.
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Today will be a good day to check . We made it to our factory in S.C. and temps expected to be 50 . Thats better than 0 to 10 where we were . I like the idea of the pressure gauge sounds easy .
It was even hotter than 220 maybe 260 as the gauge only goes to 250 and it was buried. When I opened the doors steam and a burning smell was strong. I used to think it strange needing to add coolant after 6 days or so . I could see small puddle on ground near the overflow tube but since she would run I ignored it . After all it only had 1,100 hrs on her .
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The steam is hard on cooling systems. It can wreck radiators, check your tubes and make sure they haven’t gone from eliptical or flat to round, and end up not letting air flow through.
1999 XLV X-6872, liberty #440 -
Not trying to hijack the thread here, but while on the subject of overheating, I thought I would ask…..My Powertech generator (20k) has always run cool. Gauge reads 165 degrees F most all the time. I have a friend with a sister coach to mine and his temps are more like 199 degrees F.
I had my thermostat changed recently with a replacement thermo I ordered directly from Powertech thinking it was stuck open, etc., and after the change, it still runs right at the 165 it always has. Seems this is the temp it’s designed to run.
I have even check the head temperature with an infared gun and it’s definitely running around the 165 mark. Gauge and the sending unit have been swapped with new, so I’m pretty confident the gauge is correct. To make it even more vexing, my friend with the sister coach recently had his thermostat changed (his was running hot and shutting down) and his ginny is now running around 165 degreees F.
I noticed above that someone referenced 199 degrees F for the running temp. What is the correct temp for our generators? Seems to me a diesel would run better closer to the 199 degrees, but two new thermostats installs indicate 165 is the number.
Thoughts?
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Never checked my thermostat, but my Powertech runs about 160F.
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Marshal, our Powertech should run 167-185 . Prior to this issue these were the values I would see.
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Awesome! Thanks for the info. I’ve
been worried for nothing!
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