scumrunner

i know i know its been covered befor .head gasket im sure .

but heres my symptoms ,a few months back i noticed that my runner would sometimes but not always blow white smoke but really not often ,so i didnt think to much of it .my cooling fluid levels looked good .
so 2 weeks ago i lent mt truck to a friend to run to the next city and back 65km away ,he said all was good on the way there then on the way back it started to over heat so he pulled into a gas station checked coolant and their was none . so he put more coolant in drove back with no broblem .

the next time we started and it it worked fine for a few minutes then startred smoken i also noticed that the rad was hissin some steam lifted the hood to see that the rad was cracked around the base of the cap. the rad was empty over flow was full ,oil levels are really high and milky ,all the stuff i have read aboot .

why would the rad blow is there more goin on ?
my mecanic says the head could be cracked as well as gasket being bad .yes no ?
eb or toyota gasket?
theres also a sensor or something that i have read u need to replace while in doing the gasket what is it ?

im starting my list of crap i need.

Kaydon

The head gasket is the only thing keeping water/coolant from entering the cylinders really, and when it fails you'll start burning coolant which would be your white smoke usually - sometimes it's oil but that's usually got a blueish tint to it.

If it's milky, then it's your gasket. Water mixing with oil causes that golden color milky consistency.

Here's a picture of my oil. http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/5874/yota087zi5.jpg

Everyone says use OEM parts, but I don't personally.. Engnblder has a nice gasket that's steel with graphite inserts, but I use felpro copper gaskets.

The head could potentially be cracked, but I would definitely get it resurfaced and checked for cracks at a machine shop rather than a mechanics shop - some, but not all, mechanics shops can be shady.. Plus you pay by the book.. not good.

I dunno about any sensor, but a lot of people say to replace the timing stuff so if you've got a lot of miles, your guides are worn to nothing... replace that too. It's not too expensive.

SEAIRESCUE

Depending on how the gasket failed, you can see different symptoms. Coolant passage to oil passage is bad. It dumps lots of water into the oil and trashes everything as the oil dillutes. Cylinder to oil or cylinder to water will cause blowby or radiator rupture. You may or may not see white smoke out the tail pipe. You may or may not see moisture under the oil filler cap.

Pack your lunch, you got a tear down on your hands. Stop running the engine before it becomes no longer repairable. MARK EVERYTHING.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

And the sensor you have heard about is the Knock sensor. Its buried under the intake, and it andthe wire attached to it has a high failure rate. Trust me, you dont want to have to tear your intake off afain just to replace that when you could have replaced it while it was already apart!

TNRabbit

Bumpin' Yota, justinking060310, and TNRabbit have all had extensive threads on this. Do a search on their threads & ye shall find the info! My best advice is READ READ READ BEFORE you start!!!

HairyTheWombat

also, the rad probably blew because when you run an engine out of coolant it begins 'percolating' or boiling what little is left in. this causes steam and pressurizes your coolant system. you should count yourself luck it did not crack the block.

TNRabbit

*deleted double post*

89whitetoyota

Just a quick tid bit, clean the mating surface of the block real good so that nothing is left when you put the new gasket on or you might be doing it again in the near future. Get a scraper, some break cleaner, and get it nice and clean.

scumrunner

hey thanks for all the replys you all said exactly what i was thinkin i just wanted more then my own thoughts .
now im about to go to jamacia for a week and florida for another week after that , its to late now to change my oil as i leave in the morning , will it have any ill effects on any thing motor wise to leave the contaminated oil in it for 2 more weeks just sitting ?

Kaydon

I let mine sit for about 3 months.

HairyTheWombat

biggest issue I can think of is it may be a bit harder to flush the system after all the gunk sits and coagulates

Kaydon

Best bet for that would be to use a cheap oil first time you fire it up and let it cycle through for literally only a couple minutes if that and then dump it, also use a fresh filter for this too. Then add a better oil and filter. Even still, I'd change the oil again after 1k miles or so.

HairyTheWombat

Agreed. it will probably take a few times to flush out all that gunk.