Yesterday, i drove for about 10 minutes from my house to my dads shop. Stayed at the shop for about 30 minutes, then drove about 7 minutes to the store. I religiously check a the gauges an instrument cluster while driving and didn't notice any rise in temperature. Went to leave the store and tried to start the truck and it cranked over once, locked up for a second, then started and ran rough. I then gave it gas and nearly choked on the white smoke pouring out the exhaust. I then drove it about 2 minutes back to my house and let it cool down. After cool down, i started it and moved it to a different place in my driveway. It ran really rough, and almost stalled while i was trying to move it. I'm thinking that the thermostat locked up, causing it to overheat without me realizing it, which i guess blew the HG near one of the exhaust valves and possibly burnt a valve or cracked the head. I'm sure someone has had a similar problem, and money is kinda tight right now, so im really hoping its not something to serious, but if it is ill just have to figure something out. I know a guy that has a brand new in box head for $200 if i need it. What do yall think it could be? If i have to replace the head, what else should i do? My truck has 196,000 miles on it.

 

Well sounds like a blown headgasket.

 

Thats what i was thinking, but i thought i would ask anyway. Do you think it damaged the head/valves? I might as well buy that head and replace it anyway just to be safe. If i do the head ill also do the timing chain. Here's another idea, I've had a surging idle for a while now and I've heard that can be caused by the coolant temp sensor. Maybe the coolant temp sensor failed completely causing the engine to not cool down, thus overheating it?