was toasted turbo; now head gasket

[Tom Nestor]

Well it turns out that the problem was most likely a head gasket leak. The
head is now off, but there are no obvious signs of damage to the gasket. I
did notice that the two rear most head bolts appeared to have less torque on
them than the others. The gasket that was removed is a standard composite
type of gasket that is actually stamped "20V TURBO". There was no mixing of
oil and coolant. I should also mention that the vapor cloud was present only
before the motor was completely warmed, after which the vapor was just
barely visible at the tailpipe (expansion of the head/block sealing the
gasket?). The new gasket about to go in is radically different than the one
that came out. It is a multi-layered, steel/aluminum sandwich, held together
with four rivets, and no fire rings; a very odd looking head gasket. The
gasket set, new head bolts, timing belt, and H2O pump for $270 from Northern
Foreign in Nashua, NH. With any luck, I'll make it to the mountain sunday.

Tom Nestor
91 200 20v tqa