another head gasket question

[blkstangman88]

i recently posted a thread that was like, "where else my radiator could be going?", but i just noticed that the top of my #6 piston in my 302 is a white-ish color, and the little space between the piston and where the water flows is white. is this an indication of the head gasket being cracked? if so then the gasket was shot and the block not cracked right?

 

[jrichker]

Stock answer: buy or borrow a compression tester and do a compression test.

With the engine warmed up, remove all spark plugs and prop the throttle wide open, crank the engine until it the gage reading stops increasing. On a cold engine, it will be hard to tell what's good & what's not. Some of the recent posts have numbers ranging from 140-170 psi. If the compression is low, squirt some oil in the cylinder and do it again – if it comes up, the rings are worn. There should be no more than 10% difference between cylinders. Use a blow down leak test (puts compressed air inside cylinders) on cylinders that have more than 10% difference.

Other answer: get the leak test kit or fluid added to your radiator that changes color when combustion gases get into the coolant.

 

[blkstangman88]

its sort of hard to do a compression test when theres no intake or heads on the block. i was planning on replacing the rings and head gaskets cuz when the car was running, there was massive white smoke coming from the driver side pipe. and thise question come from that idea. since the engine has 230,000 miles on it, i was going to replace the rings anyways, but is that whit-ish color a sign of a head gaskets that WAS bad?