HG gone?? Unusual Symptoms

[nopistons96]

truck: 94' 187K miles

background: 12-23 4pm loaded the family and drove the truck to my parents house about 6 miles away (mostly highway). it was pretty cold out, i would guess about 15-18 degrees out and windy. i parked in the driveway and went inside for a few hours to spend some time with family. about 9pm i went back out to start the truck and warm it up, and now about 10-12 degrees and the wind was still blowing. i let it warm up for about 20 mins while we got the kids ready to go. loaded them up and headed for home. a few blocks away the truck started missing heavily. i wasn't concerned whether or not we were going to make it home but i knew it wasn't going to be a speedy trip. the truck did not have enough power to get over 45mph. and the idle was terrible. enough where i didn't think it would keep running at the stop light with my foot on the brake and the tranny in "D". when i got home it went directly into the garage. i pulled the plugs because i hoped it just needed some new ones or maybe i had a bad wire. i pulled #1 first and it was wet with gasoline and definately dirty. #2 looked clean but well used. i pulled #5 and #6 and both were clean but once again well used. put everything back in and switch 1 and 2 around and fired it back up. it was still missing and i since i had the door closed, the garage was filling with white smoke. i knew that wasn't good so i checked the dipstick. it was clean. no milk. the bottom of the oil fill cap has some milk in it but nothing more than expected. now i am confused.

question: i've done a bunch of searching on here in the last few days and every thread, guys are talking about water in the oil. as of right now, i have no traces of that. has anyone ever had their head gasket go without water in the oil? is there an intake gasket that could have gone bad?

im sorry i got long winded i just wanted to put it all out there right away. any help is appreciated. thanks guys.

mike

 

[MLX450]

Check the wire harness behind the egr. Did you inspect the all the plug wires? How about the cap and rotor? Hopefully its these little things.

 

[Ruadhrigh]

Do you have any engine codes?

I know you don't have ODB2 but you could jumper the diagnostic box, and count the blinks.

When my HG went I had gas leaking from the top of the Y pipe. So your excess gas kinda worries me.

How does your coolant reservoir look? Does it look low?

 

[nopistons96]

hey guys. thanks for chiming in.

no CEL. im not as concerned about the miss as about the white smoke. im obviously burning water and i since i dont have any water in the oil it must be coming from some where. the coolant is a little low but nothing alarming. at least not for a 6 of 7 mile trip home. and as far as the plugs go i think i will go ahead and replace them to see if i can eliminate the miss firing. they look like they should be replaced anyways.

Ruadrigh, did you have water in the oil with the y pipe leaking?

 

[sseaman]

are you sure about the white smoke, with the colder temps, the cats may not be fulling doing there job yet. just a thought

 

[landtank]

white smoke can be from un burned gas. I'd pull the spark plug wires one at a time ond see if when doing so one wire makes no difference to isolate it down to which cylinder. If it followed the spark plkug then it could be a bad plug.

If you don't know how old the ignition stuff is just replace it all.

 

[firetruck41]

white smoke can be from un burned gas. I'd pull the spark plug wires one at a time ond see if when doing so one wire makes no difference to isolate it down to which cylinder. If it followed the spark plkug then it could be a bad plug.

If you don't know how old the ignition stuff is just replace it all.

On my old 93, I tried this diagnosis, and didn't find a problem wire, but replaced them anyway since they were original, the new wires fixed it. My symptoms were very similar to yours. I would replace the plugs/wires/cap/rotor for good measure.

 

[Ruadhrigh]

Ruadrigh, did you have water in the oil with the y pipe leaking?

I did not have any water in my oil, or vice versa. But I did have a blown head gasket.

white smoke can be from un burned gas. I'd pull the spark plug wires one at a time ond see if when doing so one wire makes no difference to isolate it down to which cylinder. If it followed the spark plkug then it could be a bad plug.

If you don't know how old the ignition stuff is just replace it all.

I think this is a good idea, but OEM wires are expensive. When diagnosing mine I replaced the wires, plugs, cap and rotor. Didn't help me but my symptoms were a bit different.

 

[nopistons96]

are you sure about the white smoke, with the colder temps, the cats may not be fulling doing there job yet. just a thought

i couldn't tell on the drive home at all so i had the heater on in the garage when i fired it up to check. i am sure its smoke.

On my old 93, I tried this diagnosis, and didn't find a problem wire, but replaced them anyway since they were original, the new wires fixed it. My symptoms were very similar to yours. I would replace the plugs/wires/cap/rotor for good measure.

my wires are original. i replaced the cap and rotor when i replaced the timing chain, tensioner and slider last winter. but the price of new wires was tough to swallow at the time. so maybe thats my first step. i need them whether the HG is bad or not.

white smoke can be from un burned gas. I'd pull the spark plug wires one at a time ond see if when doing so one wire makes no difference to isolate it down to which cylinder. If it followed the spark plkug then it could be a bad plug.

If you don't know how old the ignition stuff is just replace it all.

i did do this at the beginning. when i pulled #1 wire and nothing changed i figured that was the bad plug. thats the one that was wet with fuel. when i switched out plug 1 and 2 then when i pulled wire 2, the idle didn't change. so i figured it was a bad plug. im going to try to find some NGK plugs in town tonight and that'll be my starting point. we'll go from there.

thanks for all your help guys. its appreciated.

does anybody have an easy quick way to get a hold of CDan? i pm'ed him a few days back about a top end kit and haven't heard anything back. hopefully i wont need it right now, but its nice to have things lined up.

 

[elmariachi]

does anybody have an easy quick way to get a hold of CDan? i pm'ed him a few days back about a top end kit and haven't heard anything back. hopefully i wont need it right now, but its nice to have things lined up.

1-800-432-6668, option 8. Leave a VM, he will call you back.

 

[e9999]

there is a simple resistance test for the plug wires in the FSM, although that may not eliminate an erratic discontinuity I guess...

 

[nopistons96]

i got the new plugs in this morning. my miss is gone but that white smoke still remains. shoot. i have the FSM and im gonna give CDan a call later today for the gaskets. is there any thing else i'll need for the job? hints, tips, tricks?? thanks guys.

 

[firetruck41]

Idahodoug has a DVD available on the HG replacement. I have the DVD, but have not had to do the HG yet, so I'm no more help to ya.

 

[Ting]

i got the new plugs in this morning. my miss is gone but that white smoke still remains. shoot. i have the FSM and im gonna give CDan a call later today for the gaskets. is there any thing else i'll need for the job? hints, tips, tricks?? thanks guys.

Take a look at these threads on FAQ here...

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/71980-head-gasket-thread-faq.html

 

[Beowulf]

i got the new plugs in this morning. my miss is gone but that white smoke still remains. shoot. i have the FSM and im gonna give CDan a call later today for the gaskets. is there any thing else i'll need for the job? hints, tips, tricks?? thanks guys.

Before you pull the head, check for bubbles in the overflow. Rev engine to 3,000 RPM after the thermostat opens. Bubbles will tell you if it is a blown HG. If you are still not sure then consider having the coolant tested with one of those NAPA kits that checks for exhaust gasses.

-B-

 

[campoj2]

When my HG went I had the following symptoms:

Missing coolant from the resv. and Radiator
White smoke with an usually sweet odor
Interminent Cabin Heat
Occasional rough idle
Moist #6 plug

When HG went I had chocolate milk laced engine oil and then the bearings stated making a bunch of racket and went south. Once it gets to this phase there are only a few EXPENSIVE options left. Don't let it get this far.

Dan has all of the parts you'll need and then some. All nicely labled so there is no confusion.

 

[JerseyCruiser]

When my HG went I had the following symptoms:

Missing coolant from the resv. and Radiator
White smoke with an usually sweet odor
Interminent Cabin Heat
Occasional rough idle
Moist #6 plug

When HG went I had chocolate milk laced engine oil and then the bearings stated making a bunch of racket and went south. Once it gets to this phase there are only a few EXPENSIVE options left. Don't let it get this far.

Dan has all of the parts you'll need and then some. All nicely labled so there is no confusion.

I had some of the same symptoms. If there is any coolant in that white smoke it will have an unmistakable sweet smell to it kinda like a maple syrup smell. I had a rough idle for two days then it started to over heat the coolant resv. was overflowing the top radiator hose was dry and it was blowing heavy amounts of steam from the tailpipe.

Good Luck
Happy New Year

 

[franku]

Check your fuel pump relay - there is a good thread on how to clean it for a temporary fix.

 

[nopistons96]

Idahodoug has a DVD available on the HG replacement. I have the DVD, but have not had to do the HG yet, so I'm no more help to ya.

Take a look at these threads on FAQ here...

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/71980-head-gasket-thread-faq.html

thanks for that link Ting. i spent the weekend reading every thread. and i think i can do it without the DVD but its good to know that its around if i need it.

Before you pull the head, check for bubbles in the overflow. Rev engine to 3,000 RPM after the thermostat opens. Bubbles will tell you if it is a blown HG. If you are still not sure then consider having the coolant tested with one of those NAPA kits that checks for exhaust gasses.

-B-

bubbles ya say?? yep i got 'em. i didn't think of checking for them till you mentioned it. thanks B.

When my HG went I had the following symptoms:

Missing coolant from the resv. and Radiator
White smoke with an usually sweet odor
Interminent Cabin Heat
Occasional rough idle
Moist #6 plug

When HG went I had chocolate milk laced engine oil and then the bearings stated making a bunch of racket and went south. Once it gets to this phase there are only a few EXPENSIVE options left. Don't let it get this far.

Dan has all of the parts you'll need and then some. All nicely labled so there is no confusion.

I had some of the same symptoms. If there is any coolant in that white smoke it will have an unmistakable sweet smell to it kinda like a maple syrup smell. I had a rough idle for two days then it started to over heat the coolant resv. was overflowing the top radiator hose was dry and it was blowing heavy amounts of steam from the tailpipe.

Good Luck
Happy New Year

thaks campo / JC. i cant tell if the coolant is low. this truck has always seemed to vary on the coolant level. so maybe its been going for a while. the smoke has that sweet smell to it but the cabin heat seemed to be consistent. it was definately rough at idle. more so on acceleration. and when i pulled the #6 plug it wasn't wet but it was cleaner than the rest. like bright white clean. i dont have any oil on the dip stick but the cap is milky. hopefully i caught it before the bearing start to go. that would suck.

i did tear into it on Monday. i have it down to the head. i need to make the decision to pull the wire harness or not. i may go robbies route and pull the ecu side. i know Doug left the lower half of the intake in the engine bay but i dont like the thought of not being able to torque the intake bolts. but i am electrically ignorant and all those wires are concerning. hmmm. i want to get the head to my engine guy to get milled this week so i need to make the decision soon. i hope to have it off tonight.

thanks for the help guys. its appreciated.
mike

i am going to call CDan this afternoon. after doing some reading, is there anything besides the fuel filter, PHH and the head kit i should get from Dan? i dont think i am missing anything but i guess i can ask him too, when i have him on the phone. later.

 

[cruiserman]

Before you pull the head check the valve clearances. Do all the heater hoses while you're in there.