Steam in the exhaust?

[cstobe]

In another post Thirdbird said that he replaced his heads to to steam coming out of the exhaust. What fault of the heads causes this? My wife & I have noticed this a few times with our 98 271.

[Audiofn]

Originally Posted by cstobe

In another post Thirdbird said that he replaced his heads to to steam coming out of the exhaust. What fault of the heads causes this? My wife & I have noticed this a few times with our 98 271.

It can be very normal it depends on exactly what it looks like. It can happen when the temperature and humidity are at a certain point. Do you have the same amount of water coming out the exhaust? I know once in a former life I had a water pump go bad and got a lot more steam out the exhaust because I was not flowing enough water.

Jon

[ThirdBird]

Audio is right, sometimes steam comes out even if the engines are perfect. Mine had alot coming out all the time. It can be caused by leaking head or intake gaskets. Sometimes it's nothing more than burining off condensation in the crankcase.

Mine was due to fine cracks in the heads. Let cooling water into the comustion chambers. Not much, but it doesn't take much. My heads were pretty much shot, surprised it ran as good as it did.

Now that it's all redone, there is no discernable steam (or smoke) coming out.

[mopower]

You have hot exhaust and water coming in contact with each other so steam is a possibility almost anytime at least is small amounts. Like Audio said a bad waterpump and reduced flow can allow water iin the manifold to boil and cause more steam.

[cstobe]

This was just an every once in a while thing we have noticed. So I won't worry about it until I get ready to supercharge it & get the heads worked over then. The water pump has a season & half on it so I'm going to replace it before I put it back on the water next spring. Thanks for the info

[berns29scarab]

hmmmmmmm i have 502 mpi's and noticed that one engine steams more then the other...rut roh