blown head gasket or somthing else?

bgjohnson · Nov 16, 2004

hey guys, a couple of weeks ago i thought i blew a headgasket, due to popping up top in the rpms then smoke coming out of the back end after idleing, then pulling into my drive way and it still was smoking. now i havben't really even looked at the car since then, but i did start it up to verify that it was still smoking, I did and it didn't smoke after startup. but then a couple days later i thought to let it warm all the way up then check, so i warmed it up to operating temp and once it starts to warm up it starts to smoke again. i was just wondering if you guys have any ideas why it would do that, i don't have to much experiance with blown headgaskets so would this be normal at all with a blown headgasket.

i have yet to check compression, but the coolant is crystal clear and so is the oil. and the smoke isn't really thick,so throw some ideas out if you have any, thanks.

chris

The Shape · Nov 16, 2004

What color is the smoke? Are you sure it isn't just normal steam because it is getting cold outside? These 5.0 engines produce alot of steam when warming up, and mine doesn't start to steam untill it idles for a few minutes. If the oil and coolant are clear and it isn't running hot it probably isn't the head gasket.

bgjohnson · Nov 16, 2004

it floats too much to be steam, like it will fill my garage and hang in the air, and i'm not to expericanced with colors of smoke but i'm gonna take a stab at it and say white, it's hard to smell because at idle my car is rich enough to make your eyes water. my thought is maybe it's an intake gasket that only leaks when the thermostat opens, sound plausible?

89white50 · Nov 16, 2004

white smoke would make me think its antifreeze getting in. I had a blown headgasket last summer, the oil and anitfreeze look perfectly fine...and there was no smoke...pressure testing couldnt even sshow me the leak. there was a very small amount of antifreeze getting into the motor and only at very high pressures...the weird thing it went 1500 miles before the oil even turned a extremely slight greenish color...it was really hard to even see a color difference. the only way i could tell something was wrong by the texture the oil was getting. But didnt replace the gaskets fast enough and the crank bearings washed out...and i mean there was almost nothing for 1500 miles. SO i had to completely rebuild the motor, it was terrible. so i guess my moral is get it check asap. a master ford mechanic couldnt even figure out the problem till it was too late

stealthracing · Nov 16, 2004

i had just blown/ melted my head gasket at the last race this year, the car would barely run, although it wasn't putting out the common white smoke, the oil was full of water. n2o can be a B****, but its a blast!

EMW150 · Nov 17, 2004

89white50 said:
white smoke would make me think its antifreeze getting in. I had a blown headgasket last summer, the oil and anitfreeze look perfectly fine...and there was no smoke...pressure testing couldnt even sshow me the leak. there was a very small amount of antifreeze getting into the motor and only at very high pressures...the weird thing it went 1500 miles before the oil even turned a extremely slight greenish color...it was really hard to even see a color difference. the only way i could tell something was wrong by the texture the oil was getting. But didnt replace the gaskets fast enough and the crank bearings washed out...and i mean there was almost nothing for 1500 miles. SO i had to completely rebuild the motor, it was terrible. so i guess my moral is get it check asap. a master ford mechanic couldnt even figure out the problem till it was too late

Any time I ever blew a head gasket, this is how it started out. A slight symptom that only existed at high rpms. Time is the burden of proof. If you keep running it, you'll eventually end up with a crankcase milkshake. I bought one of the combustion gas cooling system testers from The Eastwood Company. It works well because you can have someone in the car hang some rpms on it while you draw vapor out of the radiator. If the fluid in the tester turns yellow, combustion is present. They're a nice tool to have and pretty reasonable priced too.

bgjohnson · Nov 17, 2004

i may have to invest in that, hmmm.

i started it back up today, and it had to go all the way to operating temp before it even started to mist out smoke, i mean it's so thin you can't even tell what color it is, it;s really thin smoke. so i took it out and got on it pretty hard and i didn't really see anythick smoke coming out of the back, even at 5k+ under big load. and after that i let it idle some more and still just a little bit of smoke. it's still not as bad as it first was. i'm racking my brain here and i had one of the master techs that know look at it and he has no clue either.

89white50 · Nov 17, 2004

man i didnt even to the point that the crank case was building all that white crap up before my bearings went...i wish i had that tester setup....but i also did notice that top end problem you mentioned

blown head gasket or somthing else?

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