head gasket or intake gasket?

greengoblin95

Member
Sep 29, 2009
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I have noticed just recently that when my car is running im misting white smoke and i see droplets on the ground. i havent heard or seen a car with a blown head gasket to run good and strong in the rpm band. i was wondering if it would be an intake leaking water perhaps? im smoking on both tailpipes and im just baffled to see what it is. im going to be buying both sets of gaskets and just pull the upper end off and replace them. im just hoping that i dont have a cracked head or heads or block. this is getting aggrevating, its one thing or another :nonono:
 
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Have you verified that you are losing coolant, or are you presuming it's coolant from the look of the exhaust? Mustang exhaust does condense water, so dripping water from the exhaust is common. Steam does come out of the tail pipes when it's cold out, even here in Los Angeles. Does the exhaust smell sweet at all? Are you actually losing coolant?
 
the car was misting at 58 degree weather for 10 minutes, i had my hand behind the pipes catching the fluid coming out on my hand. couldnt smell gas or even taste it. when i came back in, my shirt smelled as if oil had been sitting with water (like a sulfur or just a bad smell). my radiator has a crack in it so i leak from there so i cant gauge it through the motor. if i rev the motor high, i burn black smoke since i am on the rich side.
im going to do a compression check sometime this weekend to see if i see any odd numbers. my car sputters sometimes from either my ignition or bad fuel. i have to get some additive to my fuel incase i have water in there from bad gas. but again i dont know if its from the gas or water going in the combustion :nonono:
 
if it was a head gasket you would know it. I don't think that is what you have going on here. I think its just condensation. this time of year its hard to really tell. If you take a drive for an hour getting that exhaust nice and hot and its still doing it consistently then i'd look into it further but its more than likely just moisture.
 
well its a blown head gasket or both. i pulled the radiator cap and i see milky liquid in it and in the bypass resovoire. guess ill be ripping the upper end back off next weekend. on a positive note, ill take the heads in at the race shop and get some work done on them and wrap my exhaust in heat tape. thanks for the input guys.