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Head gasket? Or something else?

I

IVIaverick52

New member
I recently drove my 1998 SE through some very heavy rain, and for one reason or another it began misfiring pretty badly. I drove it home, and the next morning was burning coolant very badly. I pull it apart and the upper manifold had a crack in a coolant passage and the lower manifold is covered in coolant, so I figured that was the problem. But lo and behold, after getting all the upper and lower manifold gaskets replaced along with the upper manifold itself, upon startup it is still pouring out white smoke. I'm thinking it was an unfortunate coincidence and had both a head gasket along with the manifold go bad at the same time. but oddly enough, I changed the oil right before reassembling everything, and there was none, I mean zero drops, of coolant in the oil. And no oil in the coolant either.

I hear that head gaskets don't go out typically on the 3800 engine, and I drive like a grandma. I was only doing 35 when all these problems arose. What would be a good first step to take?
 


I only ran it for about 30 seconds today when I fired it up for the first time. I thought the same thing at first, but it started off in only really small white puffs, then soon after formed into a massive cloud.
 
I guess a quick way to check would be to check the coolant reservoir for exhaust gasses. If I'm not seeing any I'll double check the manifold gaskets. Do you think if I just installed them yesterday and I only ran the engine for 30 seconds that it would be safe to reuse them?
 


Yes aluminum lower gaskets, that's good to hear. If it's putting out a lot of white smoke do you think it would be safe to run it shortly just to check for exhaust in the coolant? I am very nervous doing this because the last thing I would want to do is hydro-lock the engine and bend a rod.
 
Hold on a second. Please start the car and let it run for at least 30 minutes.

What most likely occurred is when the upper ruptured you ended up with some cooalnt in the cylinders, maybe even the exhaust. This needs to burn out of the exhaust etc in order to stop smoking.

I tossed a motor that had gone upside down (pcv allows oil into intake) into one of my cars and fired it up. Smoked the whole neighborhood out for 45 minutes. Once that subsided I went for a test drive. Of course with that oil in the exhaust etc..I looked like one fo the blue angels trailing smoke. Drove for approximately 45 minutes before it was all clear and no more puffs were seen.

Moral of my story.. let it run.. You most likely fixed the issues and shouldn't worry. Let it run.
 
If you are concerned and want to see if it's the engine or the exhaust that is still wet , disconnect the down pipe from the cat. It will be loud as hell but if you have no smoke/steam coming out then you just need to burn off the coolant that is in your exhaust.
 
Justin...it could still be coolant in the lowest part of the front manifold. It can take time to burn off. Skip the bolts..just turn the key and you'll see it clear up after a while.
 
Funny that you mention that bill, because i did just that and after 10 minutes, no more white smoke! Just to be safe i got a combustion leak test kit from autozone (checks for hydrocarbon exhaust gasses in the coolant) and it was totally clean. The whole process cost me just under $200 and my mechanic quoted me at $600.
 


It's not funny I said it, it's the experience I have had swapping a lot of these motors. In one sense it's good because I don't freak out when I start them up and smoke pours out from the exhaust or under the hood etc. In other ways..I'm numb at times and have to double check that something isn't wrong when smoke pours off the engine :cool:
 
Well, took it on the highway today and after a new upper and totally cleaned lower manifold, new oil, flushed cooling system, cleaned injectors, and cleaned throttle body, she drives like a dream again. worlds better than my sisters leaky and crappy 92 nissan maxima.
 
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