First, story time... skip to the "ANYWAY..." part if you don't care My car had been sitting since about February, without more than a few starts and no driving, while I was redoing the dashboard among other things. About a month ago, I got everything back in, more or less. Got it to 12 volts, got the alternator working. Then I took it for a drive, and found that the power steering system was almost dry (I just refilled it, so it's "fixed" for now) and the brake booster diaphragm was ripped, meaning no power assist and therefore almost no braking ability. I got a new diaphragm, but the way this stupid setup works is the master cylinder piston is actually a part of the diaphragm and goes all the way through the booster to the brake pedal. In other words, if the piston isn't sealing, the master cylinder leaks into the brake booster housing. Which it did, a LOT. Enough fluid got in there before I realized that it wasn't just going into the brake lines that it started getting sucked through the check valve and into the intake manifold, burning the brake fluid in big white smelly clouds out the exhaust pipes. I know it was the brake fluid burning because the clouds stopped entirely when it got all used up. The next time I was able to work on my car, I discovered the reason it wasn't sealing is that the piston attached to the new diaphragm was just barely smaller than the original one. After I took the old one apart and swapped just the diaphragms, it seemed to be sealing just fine. However, I stripped out some obscure brass brake line fitting on the master cylinder and was stuck again. Today I finally got that part, and got it all hooked up and added brake fluid. Fired up the car, and oh look, big white clouds! After a LOT of swearing, I went and checked the fluid in the master cylinder and it hadn't gone down at all, so I assumed it must have just been brake fluid that was left over from before (maybe it was). But this time, the smoke didn't go away, and it's definitely not brake fluid. ANYWAY... I'm pretty sure that it's coolant. ONE WEEK AGO the car was NOT doing this, and I have no idea how it could have happened. It runs as well as it ever did, but now there's white smoke coming out of the exhaust. Not much at idle anymore (after about 20 minutes of idling/gunning the engine), but quite a bit comes out when I rev it up and let off the gas. And I can't tell if it's just foam, or small amounts of oil that I see swirling around in the top of the radiator. I'm not really sure how to tell. The exhaust doesn't really smell like much, and it's definitely not burning a lot of oil if any, because I'd be able to smell that (although the smoke does seem a LITTLE bluish sometimes...might be my imagination). At this point I'm prepared to drive the damn car on this 180-mile trip anyway, and I actually have new head and valve cover gaskets already (the head gaskets were an "impulse buy" off eBay awhile ago).
Uh-huh. This is on one of the Chryslers? Was there a question I missed somewhere in there, or is it just a "State of the Chrysler" diary entry?
If you have bubbles in the radiator and white "smoke" coming out the tailpipe, you most likely have a head gasket leak.
First off if your only seeing a light swirling action going on in the rad with the engine running that proably means the thermostat is open and the engine is at operating temperature...if you have a head gasket leaking you should have some very serious bubbling going on in the rad as the pistions would be pushing combustion pressure and gases into the cooling system..at approx 150psi....you would most likely have coolant get into your exhaust more identifiably after you shut the engine down,the pressure in the cooling system would force the coolant back into the combustion chamber and if, you don't get a hydralic lock up and bend a con rod you, would have very noticeable coolant pushed out your tail pipe shortly after starting the engine....fatchuk
Doesn't sound like that, then...there were hardly any bubbles in the radiator, if any at all. AND, I just came back in from a little test drive and it wasn't smoking, the only time anything visible came out of the exhaust was when I had it in neutral and gunned it all the way up, and even then it wasn't much. I have a feeling this is going to be something unsolvable that I'll forget about and it'll bite me in the ass later.
Go to any good rad. repair shop and have them do a pressuer test. Most do it for free. If you have no external leaks and it won't hold pressuer you probably lost a head gaskett. The Wizzard
The Jalopy Journal
