I've had all the symptoms of blown head gaskets in my 3VZE over the past few months - white smoke out the tail pipe, drinking coolant, external oil leak and "chocolate milk" looking oil.

I did the head gaskets this past weekend and sure enough they were shot. To clarify the truck has never overheated and still ran very smooth. They were simply leaking due to age. The cylinder heads are straight.

Finished up the job and the truck runs really well however I'm still getting white smoke at start up, for about the first 10min. It also appears the coolant in the reservoir is still going down.

When taking everything apart I noticed some serious sludgy buildup in the intake manifold which was interesting. This is obviously pre- head gasket so I'm wondering if I have a coolant leak elsewhere as well? Any ideas?

Pics for pics sake...

 

The white Smoke if your lucky might just be coolant being cooked out of the exhaust.

One of your best tools is a pressure tester I use mine all the time .

It will tell you if you have a coolant leak and maybe even help you find it.

Did you drop the oil pan to remove the sludge in the pan??

 

No I didn't clean out the pan. Honestly I just ran out of time. I'm planning to do another oil change after a couple hundred miles so I'll probably do it then.

Considering the truck still seems to be eating coolant I'm afraid there's still a leak somewhere and not just residual burn off. I've put 100 miles on it so far. It's at least sipping as opposed to guzzling now.

When you say pressure tester are you talking leak-down or something that pressurizes the coolant system? If coolant, what's the PSI supposed to be? I assume you look for a lower than spec number meaning there's a leak?

 

Cooling system pressure tester

If the gauge does not hold pressure after you pump it up to the pressure rating of your cap.

quite easy to see you have a leak and if your really lucky you can spot where it is

 

Does anyone know if the coolant valve in the throttle body can be replaced and what the part number is? Can't seem to find it in any of the fiche diagrams.

 

You did send the heads to a machine shop to be checked for straightness and cracks? And possibly a valve job?

 

Yes, machine shop verified they're straight. Truck never over heated, gaskets just failed after 234k. Valves were sealing well during a leak down test so I left them alone. ...not that those have anything to do with coolant.

 

You are correct, valves don't have anything to do with coolant, but leaking valve stem seals will cause white smoke at startup. If I had the heads off at over 200,000 miles, I would have done a valve job, but that's the mechanic in me coming out. Those 3VZE engines are notorious for head gasket issues. It may be the intake gaskets leaking. Could be an air pocket in the cooling system but it looks like you have driven it enough to get that out..