Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

[Loochy88]

I had to tear down my motor to the heads recently. I dropped something in an intake port while working on the lower intake manifold. After replacing the head gaskets and getting everything back together I started it up and I got a ton of white smoke out the exhaust. Is it possible that somehow it is just burning off excess coolant somewhere, or did my heads not seal and I'm screwed?

Should I run it more to see if it burns off, or should I take it to the shop? I'm not going back down to the head gaskets again.

Is there some way I can puessure test the coolant system?

[Loochy88]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

and no, I didn't have the heads milled.

Yes, I did follow the proper torquing procedures with new bolts.

the car runs fine, just smokes like mad.

[bwkmaro]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

how long have u run it? and you prob should have gotten the heads milled, if your head gasket went bad once it wasnt cause there was no reason for it...... and it should have burned off all of it within 5-10 mins at most.

[Loochy88]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

I pulled the heads because I had dropped something in the mototr. Not because I had suspected them of going bad. I never had a white smoke issue before. I had some oil in coolant before though.

I had been told that my likely reason was because I had bad lower intake manifold gaskets. When I was replacing the lower intake manifold gaskets... that was when I dropped the junk in the intake ports and had to pull the heads.

I didnt run it for 5-10 min. I only ran it about 2 min until I saw the smoke, and shut it off. I was afraid to run it after seeing the smoke. Is some smoke normal? If was puffing quite a bit through.

[fenderman]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

Stant sells a pressure tester (you can also rent them but rentals can sometimes have bad seals which will give false results) that I used on my Camaro to source a coolant leak I had. My cap was rated for 17 psi so I pressured the system up to 15 psi and let it sit for a few minutes. I would think that if you have tons of white smoke on a cold startup that is due to a coolant leak the tester would show it fairly quickly because when the motor is cold there is not much pressure on the cooling system at all.

Also, did you chase the threads in the block to clean them out when you did the heads? When I replaced my heads I had to run a thread chaser (not a cutting tap) through some of the holes about 4 or 5 times before I cleaned all the gunk out and got the chaser to turn easily by hand. Had I not done this I think some of the bolts would have gotten false torque readings. As a general rule whenever the heads come off I always have them inspected and milled as well.

Best of luck to you, and hopefully this is nothing serious and is just a false alarm.

[T-Mill]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

what's a ballpark price to have your heads milled? I had a guy who did all of my work on my last engine, but he passed away so I'm gonna have to take my current engine to a shop...

and loochy, there shouldn't have been enough pressure in your cooling system for coolant to push into the cylinders after only a couple minutes... your thermostat probably never even opened. My guess is that there's some residue that's burning off. If it were me, I would just start it again, and monitor it closely for any noise or rough idling and watch for the smoke to go away. If the smoke continues to get worse, then shut it down and take it in...

You could try checking the plugs and oil for anything amiss, but my guess is it's fine

[bigbrian442]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

Just run the engine and see if it clears up after 15 or so minutes.

[Mogobs30th]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

You didn't happen to flop the gaskets did you?

[ssms5411]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

Have to watch those pre-98 heads, my valve guide broke completly off after a rebuild. They put the heads back on and everything together and it smoke alittle on start up , thought hey just buring off oil and coolant I got it home and it started smoking bad went back and the drivers side #1 guide broke off , the mechanic had a extra head there and installed it for free, can't beat that. Also X2 on Mogobs ?

[bwkmaro]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

yea **** it try running it more 10 mins wont hurt it thats enough to get her warm at least

[Loochy88]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

If a valve guide was busted, wouldn't I be getting dark smoke? This is definitely not blue smoke.

As far as flopping the gaskets, I don’t think that’s possible. We checked and re-checked, and then checked again. At one point we were actually worried about putting the heads themselves on the wrong side of the motor. Is that possible? I thought we triple checked everything though. I don’t think I should second guess myself here.

I did not chase the threads. I should have, but I didn’t think about it. None of them were excessively dirty or hard to hand tighten most of the way down.

T-Mill, your point is interesting. I hadn't thought of that. It literally started blowing smoke hard after less than 2 minutes. There's no way the cooling system could be opend up that quick. There should be minimal coolant in the motor. Maybe I'm not understanding the system correctly, but I wouldn't think it would be enough to pressurize it to the point of leaking through into the cylinders yet, even if I had a bad seal…?

I'm going to rent a pressure tester for the cooling system tonight.

[Rob Bell]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

If the system holds pressure I'd run it for a few mins and see if it clears up. Also monitor the oil level closely to make sure you're not getting coolant into the oil while you're watching the smoke.

[Loochy88]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

Interestingly, I tried the coolant system pressure tester tonight and it held pressure. The book that came with the rented pressure tester said to put 15-16 psi in the system, and it held solid at 15 psi... never dropped.

[Rob Bell]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

Well then you know it's not a coolant leak. I would still start it and let it run for a few mins to see if it burns the stuff off. Just watch and listen carefully for anything unusual. We could speculate all day, but you'll never know until you run it.

[Loochy88]

Re: Lots of white smoke after head gaskets replaced

Well then you know it's not a coolant leak. I would still start it and let it run for a few mins to see if it burns the stuff off. Just watch and listen carefully for anything unusual. We could speculate all day, but you'll never know until you run it.

This car actually RUNNING is unusual... but I hear what you're saying. I'll run it for a bit tonight and cross my fingers.