Chevrolet Repair: getting water vapor in my carb, blown head gasket, chevy elcamino

Question
van i like to say thanks for the response and the info. i would like to clear up a couple of questions you asked. so you diffinitely you do not think that i may have a cracked head? i see no signs of white thick smoke which would clearly indicate to me that i have a blown head gasket. but i do have very small amounts of what appears to be clear water with a little smell of coolant inside of my intake after i took off my carb. i have ac inside the car but i have not run it for years as a matter of fact the vaccum that controls the blowers are not hooked up. how can i tell if i am losing coolant other than an noticable leak, which i do not have? -------------------------
Followup To
Question -
"i have a 1981 chevy elcamino with a rebuilt 350 about 1 1/2 old. i recently had the trans overhauled and the radiator changed about 2mos.ago. car ran fine but i would notice some oil blow buy on the engine, my wife drove the car and it stop on her on the express, she desribes that a cloud of white smoke came from under the hood, and she notied water under the car. i had the car towed home. i tried to start it a couple of days later, after a couple of tries it started but would not stay on unless i kept giving it gas, it appeared to run fine when it was on. i notice when i opened the hood that there appeared to be bubbling coming from the carburetor, i took it off and there was water dipping on the intake. several mechanics told me that it might be moisture from the gas and suggested that i use a water remover additive. i am not sure. could it be a blown head gasket or a cracked block. i am at a lost, what could be causing this to happen? Help. "; I wrote this same question to rich on 6/29/04 and received no answer. i would appreciate any help that you could give. thanks

Answer -
Hello Dwayne,
Several things come to mind. I am curious about exactly what you saw as bubbling.
If you are not loosing coolant, then the water comes from ice forming somewhere, then melting.
The most common place for the ice is in the heater/air conditioner on the evaporator core, then draining out the drain tube.
Another place it can form is under the hood on the lines and reciever drier.
That is all a/c related, and usually means a slightly low charge of freon.
There is another place I have had ice form, and that is on the base of the carburetor. The ventury effect that makes the carb work, also makes it very cold below the throttle plate.
If your cooling system is extremely efficient, and you don't have a thermostat, then that is a possibility.
Chevy tried to compensate for that cold trait by placing a crossover tube in the intake manifold, and a heat riser valve in one of the exhaust manifolds to force the exhaust from one side of the engine to cross under the carburetor, and exit on the other exhaust manifold. This would help the car run better when it first started, but if some of that stuff is removed or bypassed, that port can plug up, and the carb ice up, having nothing to do with water in the gas...it is humidity in the air freezing on a cold object, and when you stop, it just thaws out, usually before you get the hood open to see it.

OK..another possibility I can think of is the PCV valve. Make sure it is connected, and the port in the manifold under the carb isn't plugged. The hose can sometimes get soft and suck flat while running, then the engine blowby doesn't get drawn into the engine, and needs a place to go. That would explain oil on the engine.

Both oil, and water/steam would look like a cloud of white smoke. I had an old Olds that iced up like I said, and it was real hard to find till I jumped out and opened the hood real quick.

Now the bubbling, I need to know if something is bubbling out past a gasket, cause there is coolant sealed bu the intake manifold gasket. There is also a head gasket possibility, but I doubt you would see that near the carb.
If there is liquid laying on top of the intake manifold, weather water, coolant, oil, or heavean forbid, gasoline, it could be just boiling from the heat, and look like bubbling.


Hope something here gives you some help.
Van

Answer
Water and coolant inside the intake manifold after removing the carb....
Hmmmm...
There is a crossover port in the intake manifold that coolant passes through.
If the manifold is cracked, coolant could leak, or be sucked through the cracl.
But a cracked head...I wouldn't expect the coolant to get into the manifold from that, although I guess it is possible.
The way to know if you are loosing coolant, is you need to occasionally add coolant.
If you never need to add coolant, then I doubt that is coolant in the manifold.
It could be water from the gas tank, or thawed ice from the carb iceing up.
Pump a little ges into a clean, clear jar from the fuel line, let it sit for a few minutes, and see if a little slug of water forms in the very bottom. May be hard to see.If there is some, run some "Drygas" in the tank.

Van