Trinok

Hey people... ;D

The other day while driving my truck, one of my cylinders stopped working at really low rpm's. I was able to get home fine, so I left it parked over night hoping it would fix itself over night. Obviously, that didn't seem to work. When I started it in the morning, TONS of blue/white smoke spewed out the exhaust and one cylinder was totally dead.

So, have any idea what it could be? blown head gasket? valve guides? .....?

Here's my trucks info:

1990 V6 3.0L 3VZE 248,000 miles

JEDI87

Sounds like time for a rebuild to me.I am in the same boat with my 91,it only has 198,000.With that many miles it's a good idea to rebuild rather than stick in new head gaskets.

Yota4runner

I agree with Jedi, it sounds like a HG problem, but I would rebuild it, not just throw some new HG's on it.

gonzo

white smoke sounds like coolant
smell it you'll be able to tell pretty easy. can't mistake the smell of coolant

Trinok

jedi87- hmm, that's what i figured. i've been driving it pretty hard lately. plus, the water pump (i think) was leaking and i was losing coolant. it overheated several times, that's probably the reason this happened. how long do you expect it to take you to rebuild? i've never done it before. i might even just buy a newer engine and swap that in. either way, i want my truck back! AaaahhHHH!!!

yota4runner- hmm ok.

gonzo- it smells REALLY sweet. i inhaled a lot of it in and it made me sick as hell heh. sweet means coolant right?

any of you know where i can find really cheap rebuild kits that are good quality?

marko3xl3

Sweet means maple syrup ... what did you do....

Anyways, from what I know, coolant smells like something bad. It smells like something very bitter and nasty, not sweet at all.

Yota4runner

Not nessecarily true there Marko , I just did a search for sweet smelling exhuast and 90% of the threads I read were pertaining to a HG failure. (not that I have this problem, but I thought that when the coolant is burnt it does smell kinda sweet)

Take off your oil cap and look for a milky residue, pull the plugs and see what they look like. I really think chances are your HG failed.

marko3xl3

I never said anything about burning coolant . Thankfully, this has never happened to me and I have never come across a car spewing white that I could smell.

But to actually help out the thread, I am going to support Yota4Runner here. Especially since you said white and blue smoke (white = sweet smelling coolant, blue = oil) there is a very high possibility that the HG is blown, allowing free transfer of those fluids into the cylinder and getting burnt in the process and out the exhaust they go. Pulling the plug on your bad cylinder will give you a good sign if it's the HG or not.

JEDI87

I'm doing it the fast and easy way.Take out engine,just unbolt and yank whole engine,take to machine shop,he will rebuild and put back together,I will pick it up and drop it back in.It is going to cost $2,000 and about a 2 weeks at the shop(no hurry).

steveh

I just found out my '90 V6 has a dead #3 cylinder. No smoke or anything, just a regular miss. I've heard the valves tend to tighten up on that engine, and it's probably a burnt valve. I'm thinking of just pulling the one head and maybe just replacing that one valve if the seat is okay - I need a water pump anyway, might as well do it all at once. The engine only has about 100 k on it (140k when the hg went, 240 k now). Do you think I need to do the other side too? Compression on the others is consistent.

JEDI87

I would,I mean,while you're in there it's a good idea just to do all of them.What if you get it all back together and another goes?Yeah,chances are slim but it's good insurance.

Toysrme

Blown head gaskets.
Get the heads milled flat & some kind of valve job if you feel like it. If you got an extra couple hundred, get a 3 angle valve job & the heads ported & polished.
Anywho Don't go down the road of just replacing the head gaskets. At the very least you need to check the block & heads to see if they're warped. I've beent here.
This weeks project is the 5th set of head gaskets on my Lexus 3vz-fe LoL! Why? Because Lexus didn't mill the flat to begin with under warrenty work.

Trinok

hmm... wow, $2,000 jedi? i'm going to try and do it myself with my uncle'e expertise. i'll take it to the shop to get it machined tho. i need to save as much cash as possible. i hope i dont end up spending that much :|

JEDI87

The dealer wanted $8,000!I am pulling it and installing it myself,just having the machine shop do the rebuild.I don't have the time to do it all myself again.I just did my 87 3 months ago.