1997 TransAm 5.7

Some questions to help the Zen diagnosis process..

How long did you drive it for with the blown hose?

Why did the hose blow?

Did the motor overheat?

Lets start with some of the basic testing.

Have you checked all the fuses especially the one for the ignition circuit?

Check the coolant level in the radiator/header tank, has the level dropped since you filled it last night? If yes, check for leaks, find out where that coolant went.

Check the Engine oil, has it turned a greyish/caramel colour? If No look elsewhere. If Yes, you have a blown head gasket. Book a tow truck to take it to your favourite mechanic.

Remove and inspect each spark plug, you are looking for signs of, coolant ingress, or extreme sooting(very black clotted carbon deposit). If its sooty look elswhere, If there is coolant you have a blown headgasket/cracked head. Book a tow truck to take it to your favourite mechanic.

Just to be cute, remove the distributor cap and observe the position of the rotor button, turn the engine over with a brief hit of the starter motor, has the position of the rotor button moved? If yes then that is ok replace the distributor cap. If no, then book a tow truck to take it to your favourite mechanic.

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That would be my first check. Ar the hot water was sprayed all over everything, it turned to steam, and went everywhere. After the engine cooled, and condensed, there was water coating most surfaces. If the air was able to pass over it, it might evaporate. But not much air movement inside that distributer cap.

If it was in my care, I would use a soft paper napkin to absorb the water, then a spray of WD-40. It is a water displacing formula.

Once you have done some of the checking previously mentioned, if necessary you may wish to do the following:

Note that this is not an all-inclusive list, and it is possible under some circumstances to add or delete items. It is a basic performance testing menu.

Basic testing sequence:

Pre (cold) start attempt:

Check for proper battery voltage

Install fuel pressure gauge

Check for pressure and volume (check spec table in repair manual)

Install engine analyzer

Check for spark at a minimum of two cylinders

Check for injector pulse at a minimum of two cylinders

Pull codes

Check ECM/ECU data stream

Attempt to start: if starts and runs:

During running, recheck:

Fuel pressure/volume

Primary/secondary ignition scope traces

ECM data stream

I agree with TOBUGRYANBAK, and suspect a blown head gasket. Combustion gases leaking past the head gasket will over-pressurize the water jacket, then when the engine stops the coolant will squirt back into the cylinder drowning the sparkplug. Wet electrics under the bonnet may be only part of the story.

You might be lucky and it might be only a perished hose. But it one's perished, the rest are probably on the way out too. Consider replacing the lot.

The easiest sign of a blown head gasket is to see milky-brown (emulsified) oil on the dipstick or PCCV breather. Another is to start the engine cold and observe high pressure in the radiator hoses before the coolant gets hot. The mechanic's test is to crank the engine with a compression test gauge stuck down each spark plug hole in turn.

Best not to drive with a blown head gasket as the hot gases quickly erode a channel into the alloy head. Even worse, coolant can get into the engine oil and wreck journals. Minimum repair for a blown head gasket is to machine a few 'thou off the head and shave the block by hand. It's usually a thousand dollar defect. Best of luck.

There a lot of good suggestions posted. All I can add is my two cents. The 350 is very hard to kill. I have tried to as a experiment. The fact that you 1: Drove home, 2: Can still crank it, eliminates the big stuff. After having hot glycol spraying the engine bay, it is time to break out the power washer. Clean and Dry. Compressed air on all the electrics and yes good old "WD-40" If your model has a ignition module inside the distributor, underneath the rotor. They have a odd habit of failing, when something else happens. I stripped down and repaired a short block and it would not start. It did before. It was the module. Note: If you blew A head gasket: The evidence would be in the exhaust system. There would be, either fresh glycol or cooked glycol present . A cracked cylinder head will have a tendency to blow the coolant out of the system, through the coolant recovery/ expansion tank. The three things that were drilled on to my head were: fuel, air, spark. You have air, you can smell the fuel. That leads to the spark. A very simple and cheap way to test for spark is to pull a plug wire, and insert the best fit screw driver into the connection in the boot. Put the shaft of the driver near a good ground on the car and crank. Good luck and if you can let me know how it went.

Only one thing to add to your fine post. The screwdriver test may not be the first test in this instance. Electricity will follow the path of least resistance. If there is water inside a distributer cap, or a puddle of water on a plug wire, the electric energy may follow that rout instead. Or the screwdriver may be an easier path, but the spark plug may be be harder, and the screwdriver may show good spark, but the plug would not. In this particular case I would first look for water inside a cap.

You are quite correct. Yet the screw driver is a simple and cheap test. It gives you a start point. Than one can work their way back to the real problem.

GA

Occam's razor suggests that there is coolant all over the engine, shorting out the electrics.

High pressure is caused by a sticky thermostat, this high temp creates pressure which might blow hoses and "MAY" blow a head gasket. But since you drove home okay, the problem is NOT a sticky thermostat or a blown head gasket or fouled plugs or bad gas or thown timing, or pretty much anything else. Spark is not getting to the engine. Find out where it got to.

Oh, and let the fumes of the wd-40 disperse a bit before you go spark chasing...there was this time back in the day when my neighbour seared his eyebrows off...but thats a story for another day.

If the spark is good, you have have a problem unrelated to the blowout, in which case you start the diagnostics because it could be anything then!

You got your 'Opti-spark' distributor unit wet. They are famous for failing on the LT-1's. Very very common problem. These units fail due to moisture damage, usually from condensation.

If the unit is original '97, you should probably replace it even if you get the car started. Before it leaves you stranded somewhere...

Good answer. I had forgotten about that system. Always seemed like a poor place for high voltage.

Cute...love your attitude!

Good answer!

You are correct about small block Chev's. I had a 85 Chev van with a 305, that had over a million KM on the odometer when it stop reading. I had to retire it a couple of years later as everything but the motor was either dead or dying.