Blown Head Gasket? (1 Viewer)

[nikos8]

I noticed a leak under the wagon last night. When I went to check what it was, I found it was antifreeze. The funny part was that it seemed to be leaking from the joint where the exhaust manifold meets the exhaust pipe. Blown gasket or cracked head? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Texx]

Start and run the truck, if you see and smell white smoke that smells sweet, you have one or the other. Check your oil cap and see if it's milky colored on the bottom....bad sign of one or the other. Leaks from the engine can travel and be blown back to almost anywhere...start and run your truck in place over a clean spot on the drive...follow leaks straight up!

 

[nikos8]

I failed to mention that the truck was running at the time. I did follow the leak and it ended at the exhaust manifold - exhaust pipe connection. Is there any way to find out if it is the gasket or the head before I start taking it apart?

 

[brett76]

if you look right at the firewall on the manifold side the hose comng from the heater core comes out there and into a pipe by the end of the air rail above the manifold. that is where mine was leaking from. after extensive looking and shaking of the head going WTF? with the exact same symptonms as you. but my hose was just split on the end.

i would put MONEY on that being your problem

 

[nikos8]

Now you got me thinking. I'm goint to check the hose out to see if it is leaking. I think I will also do an oil analysis to see if any antifreze is in the oil.

Thanks guys.

 

[Mark W]

A blown head gasket will not always result in coolant in the oil. If it is bad enough that you are getting coolant showing up at an exhust seam, you will almost certainly be blowing clouds of steam. You will almost certainly be overpressurized the cooling system and blowing colant past the cap. You willalmost certainly be overheating. You will almost certainly have low/zero compression on one or two cylinders.

Usually if you have a headgasket/cracked head situation, yiu will have to pull it (ya gotta do this anyway) and inspect the gasket and get the head pressure checked or at least magnafluxed. Often you can visually detect a crack in the head. But not always.


Mark...

 

[nikos8]

Ok, but I am getting the clouds of smoke. I'm not overheating, but then again this started just last night. I'm going to check the compression on all the cylinders. Also I just noticed yesterday that my exhaust is leaving a big white cloud behind which was not there a few days ago.