A buddy and I were on a camping trip in his 82, we were out on a trail, when all of a sudden smoke started coming through the shifter boot. Shut it off, and popped the hood. It had no water in it. We were about 5 miles from camp, and about 1 miles from a water source, didnt have any on truck, so we just went. Made it there, and engine was definitely hot, it was revving real high, and diesel bad when shutting it off. We discovered that a heater hose had come off, letting all the water drain out of the engine!. Oh crap we thought. Well, I know this sounds bad, but we used the creek water for the radiator. It was brown, but no chunks, or anything. Well it steamed an popped for about 15 minutes, but eventually quiested down. He went to start it, and it fired right up! Ran fine ever since, no more problems. No loss of power, misses or anything. We got back home, and checked oil, no water. Today we went to look at it, and it had a lil white crap at the very top of the dipstick. The rest of the oil looked a dark brown, but otherwise good. We checked the oil cap, it had a bunch of white gunk in it, cleanes it up, and ran engine, and a lil white stuff showed up, but not near as bad. We did a compression test to check for hg, and compression is the same that it has been since we can remember. So my what is WHAT IS THIS WATER? He runs it without the vent for the valve cover. Maybe water got in there? Maybe when it was super hot, it expanded the metal enough to allow a lil water, then it cooled, and sealed back up? The engine runs fine, no misses, no overheating, nothing. We are gonna change the oil, and run it to see if it clears up.

 

Have you flushed your radiator since the adventure?

Maybe monitor your coolant level for a little while. If it starts to disappear, you might be looking at a bad HG. You probably ran it really hot when you lost all that coolant which can lead to the HG's early demise.

 

i don't know, if the compression is good, I would say its not the HG. Just watch it closely.

 

Thats what I was thinkin. Never seen a hg go without shwoing on a compression test. My next thought would be Timing chain wore through. But the guides are still there. Anybody else have any ideas? Has anyone seen a hg blow and still give good compression results? Id hate for us to pull it all aprt, just to find out it was in vain. Give some ideas please.

 

As i mentioned, don't do anything for a couple days. Just watch it very closely. If water keeps appearing in the oil I think a tear-down is in order.

 

i think the hg got a little parched, u can check the head bolts tork. maybe they got a little slack with the super heat. just my 2 cents.

 

I will check the torque on em tommorow. If it turns out he needs a head, what should we have machine shop do? Just pressure check it? I had them do mine, and the pressure checked it, cleaned it, and did a valve job for 100 bucks. Pressure check alones is 30, should we cough up extra cash for cleaning and valve job? Also While I have head off, should I replace the rings, since Im there anyway, Im not gonna pull motor out, just pull oil pan, do you think its worth it? Also has anyone replaced main and rod bearings with the engine still in the truck?

 

i think the hg got a little parched, u can check the head bolts tork. maybe they got a little slack with the super heat. just my 2 cents.