Head gasket symptoms.

[bigcountry78]

My truck has recently started blowing white smoke on startup, and has developed a rough idle in the last few days. I need to k ow what symptoms go with a blown head gasket, and if that is what's going on, is this something a shade tree mechanic can tackle easily?

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[yevgenievich]

Could be intake gasket. Sounds more like an intake gasket with smoke on start up vs all the time

 

[89Suburban]

Are you loosing coolant?

 

[bigcountry78]

Are you loosing coolant?

Yes, had disappearing coolant for a good while now. Never any milky looking oil though.

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[1987 GMC Jimmy]

I would suggest borrowing a radiator pressure tester from Autozone or something. Just to see if you can stimulate a leak/see if you loose pressure while it's pumped up. Just to be safe, I'd look at the carpet, floor, and mats on your passenger side to see if they're damp or wet so you can rule out the heater core. My heater core's leaking on my Caprice, and it overheated as I pulled in my driveway today. I leave for school in less than 24 hours so I'm annoyed about that. Finally, I would borrow a combustion leak tester from an auto parts store. Like the pressure tester, you stick it in the radiator, but unlike the pressure tester, you do it with the car on. Just make sure if you do it to drain a good bit of coolant out of the radiator so you don't get coolant in the combustion leak detector. If you do, it'll contaminate the test. Finally, don't let it overheat while you have the cooling system open. It should show after a few minutes. If it doesn't change colors, you don't have exhaust getting into the cooling system.

 

[bigcountry78]

It's got a relatively new heater core so I think I'm good there, but I'll double check. Thanks guys, now I have an idea of where to start.

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[smoothandlow84]

Signs of steam vapor out of the tailpipe?.....radiator low, and running hot...then its the head gasket. My previous square (1978).....had those symptoms and swapping out the head gaskets AND head bolts fixed the issue. My leaking head gasket led to burning up coolant and not contaminating the oil

 

[BR@NDON]

My truck has recently started blowing white smoke on startup, and has developed a rough idle in the last few days. I need to k ow what symptoms go with a blown head gasket, and if that is what's going on, is this something a shade tree mechanic can tackle easily?

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I wouldn't say head / intake gaskets are easy, but they are rather simple. Have a place to work that is clean and an area where you can lay all the accessories and parts down that you have to take off to get to the manifold and heads. And make sure you torque things up properly on re-assembly. A manual from Autozone or 'Reily's will walk you through the process.

 

[bigcountry78]

I wouldn't say head / intake gaskets are easy, but they are rather simple. Have a place to work that is clean and an area where you can lay all the accessories and parts down that you have to take off to get to the manifold and heads. And make sure you torque things up properly on re-assembly. A manual from Autozone or 'Reily's will walk you through the process.

I have a Chilton manual and a torque wrench. And a dry shop to put the truck in. Dad mentioned having the heads checked while I have them off. And I'll go ahead and have valve seals done as well. Truck hasn't run hot, but I'm not 100% sure the temp gauge is accurate. The truck was run hot several years ago when the radiator busted, but hasn't overheated since according to the gauge.

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