i changed my oil today and noticed a crack in my valve cover. i dunno when it happened or how bad it was. i thought - perfect time for a mitsu cover. had someone take me to the junkyard and Iended up witha 2.0 dohc valve cover off of a talon.

my valve cover gasket is like a month old - so i wanted to just re-use it. it didnt fit just right once i took it off my old valve cover. pulled on my pcv valve from the plastic piece and it broke when taking my old cover off. i got another piece of hose and slid it overtop of where the old one went. its a tight seal. replaced my coil pack and the breather filter, then plugged in my wires.

you start the car - coolant leaks out between the head and valve cover at the back by the coil pack (seal didn't work I guess) right onto the exhaust manifold

and the car is burning anti-freeze. thick white smoke pours out the back, and if you use more than like 1/5th the throttle the car sputters bad and doesnt want to move itself. its not just burning off of the manifold - it is coming from the tail pipe.

and as soon as you start the car it wants to rev to 3000 rpms. the idle is terribly and dangerously erratic. it jumps and goes crazy.

what did i screw up now?

 

wait how do you get colant out you valve cover gasket?

 

sounds like your head is cracked and that would explain why your valve cover cracked.

 

yeah - i have no clue. i guess it could burning oil - but it smells really sweet.

 

head gasket?

 

Did u pull ur spark plugs out and get oil or something down in the pistons? Check ur oil for moisture.

 

this head has been on the car for like 4k miles. its off another dohc car that had 80k on it. the head gasket and complete set was replaced when i had it done. the car ran just fine before i changed the valve cover - even if the old one was craked. i dunno if it craked recently or not. it was hairline, tiny. i just didnt trust it. i really dont think the head is cracked.

 

i never touched the plugs- just the wires.

 

i drove the car 80 miles back to school like this. it didnt burn very much at 2300-3000 rpm. it seemed like the more you oppened the throttle body- the worse it got. like its carrying crap down the pcv valve thing and into the intake manifold. it actually drove just fine after about 10 minutes of bein on the highway. if you had to stop and start going again though - it let out a thick cloud.

 

You put your pcv back on there right? Besides that, its all i can think of. Sorry.