SpeedCrazy

Hey fellas,
It's been a long time since I've posted here, but honestly that is a good thing because it means my truck has been running well.
But.... that changed Monday on the way to a job site. I have both formed and received opinions on what happened but I'm going to start by listing the symptoms in the order I noticed them so that those of you wiser than myself can think it through.

3 months ago I pulled to the side of the interstate puking radiator fluid all over my windshield. Was towed to a local shop and discovered that both the oil and coolant were empty (1 week after an oil change and fluid top up, so not a direct result of poor maintenance). Mechanic filled up the fluids and started the truck only to discover the main weld of the radiator had failed. He replaced the radiator and sent me on my way with no explanation of where my oil went. But the truck ran like normal and I was broke so I didn't press the issue.

4 days ago on the way to a jobsite I started noticing white smoke coming from my tailpipe while stopped at a traffic light. All gauges showed normal so I kept going. At some point a light shuddering began, and then some smoke was noticed exiting from under the hood, oil pressure would drop when in neutral but read normal while driving. At this point I arrived at my destination and did my job.
Coming back to the truck I discovered that it would not crank, the truck would lurch and halfway turn over, but no dice. I let it roll down the incline in gear and then it started fine when I tried the ignition, but immediately released a huge amount of white smoke. I killed the motor and popped the hood.
First observation was smoke from the exhaust manifold presumably indicating a crack or hole somewhere.
Second observation was that my oil was too low to register on the dipstick, 2000 miles since last oil change so unlikely to be my slow leak causing the issue, but possible I guess. Being in a hurry and stupid I filled the oil back up and didn't check any other fluids.
At this point she cranked first try but it was very obvious that I was running on 3 (or less) cylinders. But there was no more smoke (more on that later). So being in a hurry to get home, and figuring if it was screwed it was already screwed, I drove home slowly. A little blue smoke at stop lights, but nothing else of note.

Now the proper investigation began.
Oil was not found to be significantly lower after those 3 miles, but the radiator was found to be low on fluid with an empty reservoir (hence the lack of smoke??? white smoke is coolant right?).
Running my finger around the tailpipe revealed a good bit of oil, but I've never checked before so I don't have a reference point.
I pulled the spark plugs and found #2 to be significantly fouled (brown and caked).

At this point my mechanic buddy said head gasket, so I started fitting everything into that assumption and prepped for tear down. But after reading several threads on here about the milkshake it struck me as odd that there was no coolant under my head cover when I pulled it off. Further a good gallon or so of filthy coolant came out when I drained the radiator. Seems like the goof who replaced my radiator didn't flush anything, and possibly just used water?? given the amount of rust in my lines. Could I have multiple failures under pressure in some other area of the engine?

So, my question to you fine gentlemen is as follows, do I tear down and replace my head gasket hoping that was my problem, or do you think I am dealing with something else?

Jimkola

First. Block test. Quick and conclusive. Many of the chain auto parts stores have them in their tool loaner program, you just have to buy the fluid. If not, the kits are fairly inexpensive on Amazon.
If it fails block test, then do a compression test. Wet and dry is a good idea on each cylinder, and do all of them. You want to gather as much data as you can. Once you loosen the head bolts you'll never get another chance. Armed with this info you know which cylinders to home in on, looking for explanations why certain data may be showing concerns.

SpeedCrazy

My apologies for not keeping this updated. I will add pictures when I find my photo bucket login 😂

I got started the day after I posted, so before this helpful response.
I tested each cylinder by pulling distributor wires. Pulling #2 made no difference. I pulled that plug and it was pretty badly fouled. Knowing that I went ahead and pulled the head off. Cylinder 2 was bright and scoured clean, the exhaust port was also very clean while the others were the normal carbon coated gunk. So #2 was definitely taking a bath. There was clear head gasket failure between #2 and #3. There was no obvious failure around the coolant channels, however the shim was misaligned, or had been deformed under pressure, and appeared the have been hammered back out of the way by the intake valve. This resulted in visible damage to the cylinder head and the valve. Further testing with a precision straight edge suggested the head was warped.
I did all this in my uncovered gravel driveway, so dropping the block and replacing the cylinder is somewhat out of the question.
But on the bright side my wife gave me the go-ahead to park it and start prepping for the diesel swap I've been talking about for the past 5 years.
So I just added a 2008 rav4 to the family for my dd until I get that swap done.

SpeedCrazy

Oh and I'm pretty sure someone dumped radiator sealant in the radiator when it was replaced, "just in case" because my coolant channels were CLOGGED!