# Coolant in cyl 1, misfire, smoking.



## Pirotec354 (Dec 7, 2020)

Hey guys and gals, Im new to this forum and have been reading through quite a bit of the discussions over the past few weeks and have picked up quite a bit of knowledge from some of the members here already.

A little bit of an intro: 2015 Cruze RS, has about 75k miles on it and Ive owned it about 2 years now. Ive been frustrated with this car since about a month after purchasing it. Its been to the dealer for repair about 6 times now I think for various things.

So about 1500 miles after my extended warranty coverage ended it overheated on my girlfriend on the highway just after the dealer had replaced the valve cover for a faulty pcv. I went and picked the car up and it was low on coolant. Filled the reservoir up and it was idling rough and blowing smoke out of the tailpipe. Got it back to my shop and put a scope down into the cylinders and cyl. 1 was wet with coolant.

So I started tearing it down for a headgasket replacement, everything went fine with that and got it all buttoned up and it ran perfect for about 5 days and then started idling rough and blowing smoke again. New head bolts and all new gaskets were used on the reinstallation.

Tore it down again and brought the head to be Fluxed and checked for warping. Machine shop said it was not cracked but slightly warped and took .004” off. Checked the block to make sure there wasn’t any pitting or anything, cleaned mating surfaces with brakleen and buttoned it up again with new bolts and gaskets.

Ive let the car run for a while and made sure the coolant was cycling, low speed fan is functioning correctly, also installed new water pump since those seem to be an issue on these.I was pretty sure all the residual coolant in the exhaust/ intake was burned off.

Well now the car is idling slightly rough again and looks to be smoking a bit, Im thinking its going to get worse but not sure yet. Brand new plugs were installed on the first head gasket replacement. Im going to do a compression test tomorrow but am looking for some advice on any other things to look for. I was very careful and tedious when reinstalling the head both times and am at a loss because Im having a hard time understanding why Im still getting coolant into the engine. Actually Im not certain its coolant this time because it doesn’t smell the same as it did the last two times it was smoking. It had a terrible burning plastic smell but its different this time.

Im not very familiar with this car yet mechanically speaking so Im not sure if theres some obvious things that I should be looking for. This car is turning into a huge headache for me and I'm beginning to run out of patience with it so any advice or tips any of you can send my way Would be greatly appreciated! Please if theres any more info you need from me please ask as Im sure I may have left some important info out.

Thanks guys!


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Set it on fire and watch it burn 🔥
You'll feel great for around 30 seconds until the oh **** factor kicks in! 

Just kidding. Welcome to the forum.

Do you have any trouble codes?


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## Pirotec354 (Dec 7, 2020)

JLL said:


> Set it on fire and watch it burn 🔥
> You'll feel great for around 30 seconds until the oh **** factor kicks in!
> 
> Just kidding. Welcome to the forum.
> ...


lol Ive been considering that option! The only trouble code Ive been getting is a cyl 1 misfire code.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Pirotec354 said:


> lol Ive been considering that option! The only trouble code Ive been getting is a cyl 1 misfire code.


As I'm sure your aware several important items are made of plastic on the cooling system, including the thermostat housing and the water outlet. Both of which are notorious for failing if the engine gets too hot. I agree you should perform a compression test. Also the coil packs are known for failing if the get too hot.


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## Pirotec354 (Dec 7, 2020)

JLL said:


> As I'm sure your aware several important items are made of plastic on the cooling system, including the thermostat housing and the water outlet. Both of which are notorious for failing if the engine gets too hot. I agree you should perform a compression test. Also the coil packs are known for failing if the get too hot.


Yes, Ive been learning a lot about those parts here on this forum, kind of surprised by all the plastic actually. I did a pressure test on the system earlier and didn’t notice any pressure loss. Still have to do the compression test yet. Still scratching my head though. I just cant figure out why Id be getting coolant in the cylinder after doing this head gasket twice. I did notice though when I had it all apart both times that there was a lot of sludge build up underneath the oil cap and in the valve cover ( Im assuming from the coolant burning in the system since it was an off white color). I just feel like Im missing something obvious here but I just cant figure it out.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Pirotec354 said:


> Yes, Ive been learning a lot about those parts here on this forum, kind of surprised by all the plastic actually. I did a pressure test on the system earlier and didn’t notice any pressure loss. Still have to do the compression test yet. Still scratching my head though. I just cant figure out why Id be getting coolant in the cylinder after doing this head gasket twice. I did notice though when I had it all apart both times that there was a lot of sludge build up underneath the oil cap and in the valve cover ( Im assuming from the coolant burning in the system since it was an off white color). I just feel like Im missing something obvious here but I just cant figure it out.


Is cylinder #1 still wet? And are the other 3 cylinders dry?


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## Pirotec354 (Dec 7, 2020)

JLL said:


> Is cylinder #1 still wet? And are the other 3 cylinders dry?


Ok so heres what I found after work today. I pulled all the plugs with the engine cold. Cylinder 1 had the most coolant in it, maybe a half oz or so. Cylinders 3 and 4 were wet and cylinder 2 was dampish lol. Started the car and got it up to operating temp and then did a compression test. I was alone doing this test so Im not sure exactly how accurate it was because I couldnt keep my eye on the pressure guage while cranking so I did the best I could and cranked each cylinder an equal amount of time. 

Cylinder 1 was 155
Cylinder 2 was 147.5
Cylinder 3 was 165
Cylinder 4 was 155

After doing that I pressure tested the cooling system at 20psi and stuck a scope down in each cylinder and noticed there was no coolant leaking into the cylinders with pressure on the system. I also found that the coolant hose that runs behind the exhaust manifold heat shield is leaking a considerable amount of fluid out. Before seeing that, I did not realize this turbo had a coolant line and an oil line running to it.

Also, after putting it back together and starting it up again it ran like it has pretty good vacuum leak. Pretty much exactly like it does if I pull the dipstick out or remove the oil cap. It did not run this bad before putting pressure to the cooling system. So now Im wondering if this is a turbo related issue and its pulling coolant into the turbo and cycling it through the engine. That would explain a lot but Im still not certain. Whats also peculiar is the leak from that little hose isn't noticeable when the car is running and leads me to believe the turbo is pulling coolant and air through there. Could explain the vacuum leak symptoms but again Im not certain. Now its off to check out some parts online and do a little more research.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Pirotec354 said:


> I'm wondering if this is a turbo related issue and its pulling coolant into the turbo and cycling it through the engine. That would explain a lot but Im still not certain. Whats also peculiar is the leak from that little hose isn't noticeable when the car is running and leads me to believe the turbo is pulling coolant and air through there. Could explain the vacuum leak symptoms but again Im not certain.


I think you're on to something.....


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## Pirotec354 (Dec 7, 2020)

Im curious now if ZZP would be able to rebuild this turbo or send it off to be rebuilt for me. I live like 2 miles from there so it would be convenient since they sorta specialize in this particular gm stuff...


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Pirotec354 said:


> Im curious now if ZZP would be able to rebuild this turbo or send it off to be rebuilt for me. I live like 2 miles from there so it would be convenient since they sorta specialize in this particular gm stuff...


I would get myself in SO much trouble in I even lived within an hour of ZZP. They have I'm upgraded turbo they'll sell you. I have one of them sitting in a box just waiting to be installed. I've done business with ZZP through out15 year with 3 cars. They do great work.


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## Pirotec354 (Dec 7, 2020)

JLL said:


> I would get myself in SO much trouble in I even lived within an hour of ZZP. They have I'm upgraded turbo they'll sell you. I have one of them sitting in a box just waiting to be installed. I've done business with ZZP over 15 year with 3 cars. They do great work.


Lol yeah Im hoping it doesn’t become a problem for me but I do have a history of dumping unnecessary loads of money into cars 😆. They do have a very good reputation around here and their cars always run very fast down at the track.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Pirotec354 said:


> Lol yeah Im hoping it doesn’t become a problem for me but I do have a history of dumping unnecessary loads of money into cars 😆. They do have a very good reputation around here and their cars always run very fast down at the track.


Me too...I've spent over $5,000 on EACH of the 3 cars on mods throughout the years.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

The valve cover is just a symptom and it did not fix the PCV issue.

*2011-2016 Cruze 1.4 PCV Valve Cover/Intake Manifold Issues*


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## Pirotec354 (Dec 7, 2020)

Update: Ordered a new turbo and replaced it today. Car is running much better now, not chugging anymore and idles smooth. Still smoking a bit but Im hoping its residual burning off. Ill be heading back tomorrow to pull the valve cover off and clean it. I have to clean out the pcv line and a few other things yet and replace the turbo coolant return line fitting because I royally f’ed it up lol.

Also, once I had the old turbo on the bench I noticed a huge crack in the housing so that was definitely an issue. The new turbo I put on was a cheap amazon turbo so we’ll see how long it lasts. Im going to see if I can get the old one fixed for a backup but Im not real optimistic about that lol.
I will update again once Im 100% sure the issue has been resolved.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

Glad you found a solution


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## Thebigzeus (Dec 2, 2018)

Just an FYI, the cracks by the wastegate are considered normal.


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## frankh (Aug 25, 2014)

Did we get a resolution to this issue.. Its been 6 months now, was the turbo leaking coolant the issue?

The only Issue I have with the suggest root cause is that the engine overheated, so in theory a LOT of coolant would have had to be lost through the turbo seal.

The thing you could have done to eliminate the HG as the cause was to pressurise the cylinders to say 80 psi... Then if the HG was blown you'd almost certainly get lots of bubbles in the coolant.


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