I searched but didn't find anything about the aftermath of a headgasket job.

I currently did all the repairs, and I'm very confident it went smooth, I got her fired up today, just for a few seconds, because I have not added coolant yet, and she was still smokin out the tailpipe. My question is, is that common or normal, being this is my first hg repair?

 

Forgot to state details. 90 4runner 3.0 motor

 

smokin as in what color? when u first start any car it has some vapors coming out and if it got water down the tail pipe it might take a little bit to burn all that put and need to get coolant in the rig then let it get to operation temp and see how things are. i dont think it was anything too bad yet, if the motor sounds good then finish up but dont run with out coolant unless u want to be doing the job again,

 

Smoke was white, or at least from what I could tell in the dark, and I only ran her for Like 8-10 seconds at the max. Adding coolant and gonna let it warm up to temp tomarrow. But I'm guessing there is probably coolant in the cat that needs to be burned out so it should smoke for a little while??

 

Probably a combo of both vapor in the exhaust and the remaining water in the engine itself. a few seconds isnt enough to say.
Odds are, the cat is toast. They are pretty sensitive about oil, coolant, etc. being burned through them.

 

yeah u will get a little smoke from the exhaust as it warms but after it is warm up it shouldnt smoke any more, but might still have a light white color or so if its cool out. but if it stays a solid white for too long then i would be a little worried. now if its a light color but nothing too solid it should be water vapors due to being cold,

 

It's gonna smoke for a while. Depending on how long you drove it with the bad head gasket and how full of anti-freeze the exhaust is, you're looking at 10-20 miles on average. Mine was like that and I've seen plenty of people on the trail fill their exhaust with water from the mud pit and it always took quite a while for the water to dissipate.

 

I think your cat is fine. My HG blew last year around this time. I didnt replace it and I had to go through DEQ (emissions testing for tags) About 2 months ago and it passed just fine.

I drove 15 miles with it blown by the way.

 

Ok fired it up again today and was still smokin white, actually alot, but I didnt drive it, Im guessing the converter is pretty soak up with coolant? Kinda waiting till it gets dark to go for a test drive, but I check the oil again, and the oil is clean, and the truck is idleing perfect, just gotta drive a few miles and clean it out..

 

took mine like 30 40 mins revving the truck to get rid of most of the water when the headgasket was changed and there was still a little bit smoke

 

Yeah, everyone Ive talked to said its normal to still smoke heavy like Too $hort, for the first 10-20 miles, but Im going to wait to night time so the neighbors dont think my garage is on fire.

 

When I fired mine up, I let it warm up before I drove it, there wasnt much white smoke but lots of blue (put oil in the cylinders so I could get the dirt out and such) But there was some white smoke, like other said, it goes away.

Just keep an eye on your temp, oil and coolant levels/color

 

I drove from Reno, NV to the California coast and back over a 3 day weekend with a blown head gasket and still passed the emissions testing for that year. Then I replaced the HGs and still passed emissions. Your cat should be fine. In fact I'm still running the same cat and shouldn't have any problems passing the smog test...not that i have to do that anymore.

 

Im not too woried about if the Cat will still be good, Im just trying to figure out how to run the motor and not have the neighbors think my house is on fire, cause thats the look they were giving me today!LOL gotta sneak out at night and drive it

So my thought is I dont know how long the previous owner drove it with the blown headgasket,? And unburned coolant made its way through the exaust and now is stuck in the Converter. I just need an open spot to run it and drive it to get it to cook out.

 

Drill a drain hole in the cat.

 

u dont want to drill a hole in your cat, just drive it tell it goes away, if not after a day of driving and it lot getting lighter or stopping then i would look into some more serious problems, like a cracked head or bad valve covers still letting in coolant. but by checking the levels over the next couple days u will see if its loosing any coolant or anything.

 

Yeah, I'm not drilling a hole in the cat

 

Did you get a better answer on Pirate?

 

not a better answer, just more confirmations that its normal to smoke a little.