Blown Head Gasket?

[C110GTR]

My car Gen 3 3VZFE overheated today cos of a cracked heater hose, coolant was pissing.
got that fixed, but the car still ran very hot and noticed white smoke coming out from the tail pipe, water in the overflow bottle is boiling and steam coming out, so I stopped and got it towed.
Started her up again after letting it cool down and no white smoke. Maybe it only shows when engine hot?

Checked the oil dipstick, oil cap, rad and I cant see any milky residue.

Now The boiling and steam in the overflow bottle happened before as well like 4 months ago and the culprit was the pressure caps.

Could it be the pressure caps again? even though there seems to be no sign of wear and only 4 months old???

Cheers

[Indy Tech]

I'd say you most probably have a blown head gasket due to the indication of white smoke do a compression test and a combustion leak test at the radiator to verify that the head gasket is bad.
also check thermostat and cooling fan come on at the right temp.

[JohnGD]

If the leak isn't between coolant and oil passages you won't see milky oil.

Want to see what it looks like: you can google "coolant in oil picture".

[JohnGD]

Yeah, 3VZ is bad news on head gaskets.

[Luckynumber5]

^ Not really, what most often happens is cooling system failure. The only cars in the US that came with the 3vz are the 92-93 Camrys/ES300's so they are getting up in years.

They are slightly more likely to blow a head gasket because the block is iron and the heads are aluminum but I say if the overheating is bad chances are you will blow a gasket.

[my name is joe]

Heres a giant list that helped me very well. I too think I have a blown head gasket. I think im just going to sell the car for cheap rather then bother with it. The car is about to die anyway, or at least it feels like it.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_t...wn_head_gasket

[xtremeskier97]

If you didnt get all the air out of the system when you replaced the caps, then that could be causing the overheating. Also, where did you get the replacement caps? The 2 caps are DIFFERENT, no matter what Autzone, Advanced auto, etc tell you. Even the dealership was trying to tell me they were the same. I had to go to the lexus dealership and tell them I needed the filler cap for a 92-93 ES300, and then had to point it out in the picture! The part# for the filler cap is 16401-62090. The part# for the radiator is 16401-62100. On the cap itself, the filler cap has a 1.0 on it and the rad cap has a 1.1 on it. The filler cap cost me $19.27 at the dealer. I havent had any problems since I replaced it.

[whip_cracker]

Hey mate... know your situation only too well.

I live in Caloundra - not too far from ya... there's stacks of us in S/E Qld that have these cars.

I too thought I blew my H/G... mine just happened to be yes, the filler cap. The other bloke's right - it's a 1.0 on the filler... I put a 1.4 pressure cap on the filler (didn't have any 1.0s in stock) - was around 10 bucks from Carbitz.

Airlocks are more likely causing that issue too... Let the car cool down, take the filler cap off and turn the car on... fill up the coolant til it's near the top and wait for the bubbles to stop. Can take anywhere up to 1/2 an hour... maybe longer. Crank the A/C in the car to Heat and put the fans on.

I'd suggest replacing the thermostat too... just in case. They're only around 40 bucks for one, just gotta remove the wiper washer bottle and stuff to get to it on the side of the engine block - pain in the arse - get a mechanic to do it, lol... that's what I did 2 weeks ago :P

Need any help, hit us up on here or at Auscam mate..