Coolant in exhaust 88 Grand Voyager

I have an 88 Grand Voyager with the Mitsu 3.0L V6. Last summer I
replaced the heads on it, but I had the Distributer off by 1 tooth and
it overheated. I fixed it and it ran fine for 9 months. Then all of
a sudden it has lots of coolant in the exhaust. I put in new head
gaskets but it is doing the exact same thing. I do not see any
exhaust in the coolant, nor do I see any coolant in the oil.

Could it be a cracked or warped head? Would a problem like that come
on all of a sudden?

The body of the van and everything else is in great condition. I
don't want to trash it for something that I may be able to fix
realatively easilly. As you can tell I don't mind tearing into the
engine.

Any ideas?

 

Yes you have a cracked or warped head,(s) Assuming you installed the
headgaskets correctly. Did you by any chance put a straight edge across the
heads before assembly?

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Alas, no I did not. I'll remember to in the future.

Is there a way I might be able to find out which head? A friend here
at work suggested drilling a small hole in the front exhaust manifold,
which I could tap and plug with a bold to seal afterwards. I could
then smell for coolant in the exhaust from the hole.

-- Paul

 

I hope that friend at work doesn't work on cars for a living!! If you cant
see coolant on the spark plugs you will have to do a cylinder leak test.
Special tools are needed for this. If you are gonna look at the plugs pay
close attention to the middle ones. Number 4 and 5 cylinder

 

pull the head off and send it in and have it checked for cracks