My 94 Pickup with 22 RE exhibited normal symptoms of a blown head gasket, coolant disappearing into engine, white smoke etc.

Truck was driven no more than 15 miles under these conditions. At first coolant was just disappearing and engine was over heating. (It took me a bit to diagnose!)

A local shop said it would need a whole new engine after only pulling the dipstick and seeing what the oil had become. Is this correct?

Looking for any advice in diagnosing condition of the bottom end/rest of the motor to see if it is worthwhile. Truck has less than 150,000, new brakes and clutch and is in great shape other wise.

I recently did timing chain on my sons 22RE truck and feel up to the task if it is simply a head gasket replacement.

Thanks!

 

If only 15 miles it should be fine change the head gasket put in new oil and it'll be fine. The shop probably said it needed a motor because it's better for them to fix it right the first time by getting a guaranteed good motor than it is to replace the gasket and then have something else go wrong and them take the heat

 

You will need to weigh your options on what you want to do. Replacing a Head gasket is a job in itself as the whole top end (Heads) will be removed just to get to the head gasket.

A few things to start off:

Is this the original motor?

Has it been regularly serviced through out its life (tune up, timing, normal maintenance)?

As long as your engine block is not warped or damaged due to the over heating, there is a good chance you can use or rebuild your current engine.

If this is the original motor, and if the short block is still in decent condition you might be able to get away with just replacing the head gasket. However, an engine with this many miles, you will be replacing/fixing something on it and if you are willing to do the head gasket, you might as well rebuild the engine as it is halfway apart.

Otherwise, keep us posted on what you want to do and if you have questions.

 

Depending on how hot it got, the head could be warped. It doesn't take temps much above 200 degrees to warp the head. I would remove the head and have a good machine shop check it and do a valve job on it before putting the head back on.

 

If you run the normal coolant (antifreeze/water mix) and it mixed with the oil .

Good chance the antifreeze has or will take out the lower end.

Antifreeze and bearing don`t play well.

If I did not know you and pulled your dipstick kinda looks like a milkshake I would say you need to look at a engine.

Used engine or pull this one apart and look

In my youth I tried to go cheap on one did the heads it lasted about a week

Normal Head Gasket failure is most often coolant to the combustion chamber allowing most of it to go out the exhaust .

Your there on the scene we can only make educated guesses

It depends just how much coolant made it`s way into the oil enough to impact the lubricating properties or not.

 

Thanks for all of the responses! I will drain oil and see how it looks. I appreciate the advice to not cut any corners!

 

Drain all the coolant out of the motor.
Drain the oil and fill it with cheap 5w30.
start the truck and let it run for about 30 seconds.
if oil pressure is good and there is no knocking you may be lucky.
if so dump the oil you just put in and replace the head gasket.

Yes it would be good to just rebuild the motor but not every one has $2500 laying around to rebuild 20+ I year old trucks. A head gasket job will cost you a 1/3 of that. Plus it's a good time to do timing chain, valve adjustments, and oil pump.