tracking my b18c7 and i think i blew my headgasket? could be wrong, advice needed!

[Dinhii]

Hey guys,

I was on the track today and i blew something on one of my runs. I dont know if it is the headgasket but my first guess was that the car overheated, therefore the gasket failed.

Details of what happen:
- I felt a loss of power so i looked down initially thinking my engine was overheating.
- I only have a stock gauge and when i looked it was still at operating temp.
- So i dropped gears and continued, midway down the straight a huge puff of black and white smoke went out the back and my engine switched off on its own.
- As i was rolling around the bend to pull over i noticed the temperature gauge beginning to rise....(could it be that the gauge wasnt accurate and was too slow to detect the engine overheating?)
- When i got back in, assessing the motor i saw oil on the block (no signs of a crack in the block unless it was under the aircon bracket?) but the oil appeared to be dripping from left to right just under the head dripping down all over the block. I noticed that i had not lost any oil from the rear of the engine just the front, and that the oil was not dripping to the floor or anything just soaked from what i think was the initial bang.

I haven't tried to start the car yet, and the oil/coolant does not seem to have mixed which is puzzling me.

What do you guys think it could be? Any suggestions?

I plan to rip the head off and have a look but want to know things i should check before hand.

[DC2-PWR]

Something was blocking something,

you loose abit of power, then it builds up force, goes bang, shoots out smoke, engine gets tooo hot, probably weakend gaskit and oil went through it.

Hmmm need to do re-search.

[Bludger]

Doesn't sound good.

If engine stalled by itself then I doubt you will be able to start it again. You won't see the coolant and oil mix until after a period of driving with a BHG.

Either way, sounds like it has to come apart.

[Mattski_VTIR]

If you can get the car to start without any bad noises, i would try using a head gasket/combustion chamber leak detector, take your radiator cap off and sit the tool in its position, if the fluid turns yellow (normally blue) then you have exhaust gasses (testing for Co2) leaking into your cooling system (make sure you dont suck any coolant up in the tool, or the fluid is fked), this means the head needs to come off and be measured for warpage/damage. (kits can be brought from auto barn ect). Not hard to do but check out this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU76osq6BRk) Hope this gives you a starting point for diagnosis!!