Changed head gasket.. Now car runs horrible??? 2005 equinox
 

Hi guys! I recently had antifreeze in my oil & as its a common problem with the Equinox the head gaskets go. I've been lucky and did mine at 185,000 miles. I only did the front gasket. I took everything off both intake manifolds and the front head. Took off the rocker arms off and pushrods from front and rear head to change gaskets. I put everything back together. Fired it up and it sounded like no compression? So I loosened the front rocker arms. Then the car started up but is running like complete crap. Sounds like it has a cam in it. The exhaust pressure is crazy and its sucking my hand in. Exhaust smells bad too. So is there a way I over tightened the rocker arms? I torqued them correctly. To 31 ft lbs around. I heard you should do it when it's running. Originally I tightened the rocker arms really tight by mistake. Can't figure this issue out. Could I have messed up the valves or pushrods? Car barely wants to run. I heard that if exhaust is sucking it's something with the exhaust valves open. Any help I would appreciate.. Maybe someone could tell me how to tighten rocker arms properly. Because as of now I'm without a car lol! :o

so you had both heads off but only replaced one gasket??? If that's the case that's probably the issue

Ohh no. I didn't remove the rear head. Just the rear rocker arms and push rods to replace the intake gasket... Car runs and shoots so much exhaust out and runs horrible. Like there's a cam in it?? Could I have skipped a tooth on the cam? When I over tightened the rocker arms maybe? Runs horrible.

if you mixed up your push rods its a good chance you bent a valve.did you pay attention to the push rods as you took them out.there is a diffirence in the lenght between the intake and exhaust push rods and if you put them in the wrong place its a good chance that you bent a valve.the intake push rods are shorter in lenght and the exhaust push rods are longer.when taking apart an engine you must pay attention when removing the push rods on a 3.4 engine.best way is when you remove the push rods is to use a piece of card board,mark the corresponding cylinders and push rod locations.this will help you with reassembly.your probably going to have to remove the heads now in order to repair your engine.