Thread: oil in radiator, smoke and water from exhaust

Hi everyone

I have this problem with my car 04 gp gt2 when the weather gets colder the car smokes horribly, and drips some water from the exhaust also it burns some oil, I have to add a quart every 1,5k-2k miles, also I found oil residue in the radiator cap.
After doing some research I decided to change the head gasket, it did not help too much, it just changed the way the smoke appears: there is no smoke right after I start the car but after few minutes I see clouds of smoke then about 20 min later only a little bit of smoke and it doesn't seem to be smoking at all when I drive.
Right now I'm thinking intake manifold gaskets but the guy at the auto store says that it probably has something to do with the block.
What do you guys think?
here is the picture of the radiator cap
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looks like dex sludge + green coolant.

when you switched to green.... how thorough was your flush?

A year ago I went to pepboys they flushed the coolant and put the green one in

Probably just residual junk in there. I flushed my system twice before putting green in and I still see a few specks of loose junk from time to time when I check the fluid. As for your exhaust, if it's more than the normal water vapor when it's cold then you have an issue. Are you losing coolant?

not really, the last time I checked it was low after added some, it seems to be keep the correct level now.
one more thing: before I changed the gasket I checked the coolant pressure, when I started pumping the air into the radiator I could hear whistling coming out of the block at about 5psi, after the pressure increased it stopped

If the head gaskets have been changed, the car should have new LIM/UIM gaskets as well. I can't see the pic (my work has it blocked). But the symptoms sound similiar to a head gasket problem I had (white smoke right after I started the car) on my '94 Grand Am (3100 v6).
In my case, the radiator pressure tested did not find anything for me (the car with the blown head gasket held pressure just fine). But you may want to try it just to see.

If all those gaskets are new, I'm trying to figure out what else is a logical point of failure. Did you check the heads to see that th decking surfaces are still flat? Perhaps they are warped?

only the head gasket is new and the heads seemed fine. I should have changed all the gaskets. I would be a better point to start from.

Well, I took the car to firestone in the morning, hopefully they can tell me what the problem is

I'm back from the shop. they say the head gasket was installed wrong and the guy who replaced it used weather strip adhesive to seal it also two exhaust manifold bolts are missing.
they can fix it for 2000$

I told them that for 2k I can buy the whole engine.
The car has 96k miles
I didn't do the job so I didn't see the intake gasket. All I know now is that the job wasn't done right.
I think I'm gonna do it myself or just leave it the way it is.
Has anyone heard anything about blue devil head gasket sealant? does it work?

Are you sure its not just the typical dex sludge? It scared the crap out of me when I first noticed it but after driving myself nutz for weeks I discovered that's all it was.

No I'm not sure, but there is definitely something wrong with the engine

Originally Posted by xlemon

I'm back from the shop. they say the head gasket was installed wrong and the guy who replaced it used weather strip adhesive to seal it also two exhaust manifold bolts are missing.
they can fix it for 2000$

$2000 is debatable in cost. I know a few mechanics that to do head gaskets on a 3100, they have to send the heads to a machine shop to have them inspected so they can properly warranty all the work done. I think most people I know have had head gaskets done around $1000-$1500. $2K is high, but keep in mind, from what they claim they see already, the last person to touch this didn't do the job right, they are probably trying to buffer for other unknown mis-haps.

I would be going back to the shop that "did" you head gaskets and demand your money BACK! It's clear they did it wrong if they did not also change out the LIM/UIM gaskets. As pointed out in an earlier post, those plastic/nylon gaskets are pretty much DONE when you pull the upper engine apart.