Head Gasket

[2kcamrytnr]

a few questions everyone, just curious how do you know you cracked the head gasket? I was driving to school the other day and white smoke was coming from my engine but no check engine light came on but I checked the engine and there was oil coming from the engine block, it was on everything but it wasnt like really moist just damp oil if that makes sense, i checked my oil level and it was fine, I was also wondering if anyone knew approximately how much replacing it would be because the dealer said 2800 dollars but i got a friend of a friend that said he would do it and he would give me a price tommorrow so any input would be appreciated

[Venom_5]

you could just have a leaky valve cover gasket .... when mine got messed up, it poured oil everywhere which caused white smoke

any sort of oil leak can cause white smoke, so dont get the head gasket checked/replaced until you identify the leak first

[Kep]

I tend to agree with Venom_5. Sounds more like an oil leak that is getting oil on the exhaust manifold and producing white smoke. If you clean out the engine compartment you may be able to figure out where it is coming from. The valve cover gasket or one (or more) of the spark plug tube nuts & gaskets are common but look around the oil filter too.

The typical complaint of a blown head gasket is white smoke coming from the tail pipe on start up after being parked all night along with the need to refill the antifreeze often. You didn't say if you were leaking antifreeze but if you are then there are some tests that you can run. However, if the white smoke is coming from under the hood I suspect something other than the head gasket.

Kep

[mitsujh]

i was driving this morning and i hit a bump kinda hard and my camry bottomed out, when i parked it, i noticed it was leaking oil from near the pass side wheel, upon further inspection, it seemed as if it was leaking around the area of the timing belt. Anyone have any clue as to what it could be? a drop comes every 3 seconds, im totally freakin since i just dumped 700 bucks into this car and have only had it for 2 weeks.

[Kep]

mitsujh,

If it wasn't leaking oil and then started leaking oil after you bottomed out then my first suspicion is the oil pan. Did you bend the oil pan?

Two points:
1) Please start a new post with something like this.
2) If this kind of thing freaks you out don't drive hard enough to bottom out the car. Enjoy the ride and repair when necessary or baby the car and it won't need fixin'. (I'm sorry, I am a cinical old man...no reply needed, I just had to express it)

Kep