One white valve

[Robliepse]

My 440 recently started smoking from the right side under the following conditions
~ When engine is first started all is well, maybe a bit of a misfire but appears to be drivable.
~one the engine warms up, cooling system starts to pressurize, white smoke from right exhaust.
~ I built the 440 7+ years ago, stock heads, Comp cam and it has always been a good running car.
~ Started disassembling it yesterday and noticed that one of the valves was snow white. (see pic)
~ Couldn't find the "smoking gun" issue with the head gasket but based on the symptoms and my understanding of the fail points it looked like a head gasket and a great opportunity to replace the stock heads.

Would a coolant leak via the head gasket cause this white valve? If not what would cause this?

 

[WileE]

Coolant entering cylinder : Failed head gasket, crack in head, crack in block.

 

[Robliepse]

Coolant entering cylinder : Failed head gasket, crack in head, crack in block.

Is there any area I should focus on to see if I could have a cracked block? If possible, I'd like to avoid getting into the short block

 

[WileE]

Rule out 1) head gasket 2) cylinder head. Before you hopefully don't have to address the block possibility.

 

[Robliepse]

Rule out 1) head gasket 2) cylinder head. Before you hopefully don't have to address the block possibility.

thanks, nothing obvious on the head gasket, it is interesting that there was no smoke until the cooling was heated up and system tried to pressurize. Engine has a couple 1,000 miles (highway and in town) since I built it 5 or 6 years ago. never had an issue and as far as I know it was never over heated or raced.

 

[Fran Blacker]

Some pictures of the block deck surface of white valve cylinder same for the head. Also both sides of head gasket of white cylinder. Lighting is important for pictures. The cylinder run piston toBDC and have a look.

 

[Robliepse]

Some pictures of the block deck surface of white valve cylinder same for the head. Also both sides of head gasket of white cylinder. Lighting is important for pictures. The cylinder run piston toBDC and have a look.

 

[PRHeads]

Maybe it’s just the rather low miles, but there looks to be a fairly generous area in the chamber on the intake valve side that seems suspiciously lacking any carbon deposits.

Are the other chambers like that as well?

 

[Robliepse]

Top dead center

 

[Robliepse]

Maybe it’s just the rather low miles, but there looks to be a fairly generous area in the chamber on the intake valve side that seems suspiciously lacking any carbon deposits.

Are the other chambers like that as well?

 

[Robliepse]

Smoke

 

[eldubb440]

???

 

[Robliepse]

???


View attachment 1900317
View attachment 1900320

are you seeing something iin the circled areas?

 

[Jeff Peterson]

are you seeing something iin the circled areas?

in @eldubb440's highlight, the block looks cracked!

 

[eldubb440]

are you seeing something iin the circled areas?

a crack from the bolt hole to the cylinder.... I think

 

[eldubb440]

 

[khryslerkid]

I'd like to have a closer look here also. Drop the piston down and look at the cylinder wall here.

 

[Fran Blacker]

I have a magnifer option and it looks like it could be a crack. Did you notice when you loosened that bolt it wasn't as tight as the others. Amazon.com : dye crack check

 

[Robliepse]

I have a magnifer option and it looks like it could be a crack. Did you notice when you loosened that bolt it wasn't as tight as the others. Amazon.com : dye crack check

all bolts were tight. Is it possible to do a dye pen test without disassembling the engine?

 

[khryslerkid]

all bolts were tight. Is it possible to do a dye pen test without disassembling the engine?

View attachment 1900427

View attachment 1900428

View attachment 1900429

Would it be possible to get a picture of this side of the cylinder where the suspect bolt hole crack might be.