bad day with bad luck

[Dawgz]

okay so this is like a really bad day, i wont forget it, it started out wakin up to go to class at 8:30, so i woke up at 7 showered and was out by 7:45 because theres alota traffic....anyway i get half way and i look at my temp meter and its aabove the middle...then as i get closer to my college.....i was at a Red light, four cars infront of me and i see smoke comming infront of my car, so im like damn its gettn cold already u can see the smoke from the mufflers, so then i look at my temp meter agian and its WAAAAY over the little red part, and the Check engine lights on, im like oh fuck, the smokes comn from my car!, my 94 cam never gave me this kinda trouble, so i just ease it to the parkn lot, pop the hood and see all my anti-freeze on the bottom of the radiator, all the way at the bottm, leakin to the floor, im like oh fuck not agian cause i had toyota fill it like 2 weeks ago, anyway i go to class come back at 9:45, and i get into the car praying it will turn on, luckily it does, i drive it back home 50% of the way needle is at half point, then later on it shoots straight up agian, and this point i turned the radio off and then my car sounds like a fckn deisel truck, that llow growl, and it shows signs of it stalling soon, so i get to make a right at a curve then a left to go onto my street and it almost stalls, then i go a bit further i notice ALOTA smoke now, like as if the car was on fire, come to a red light, and the engine dies, i wait like a min and start it up and theres a gas station there like 100 feet away, i take it there at like 2mph, i open the hood and wow all thise smoke rises like a fckn smoke signal or somthing, and the chinease guy at the place goes oh it is yo yo yo head gasket, im like oh fuck, i keep the car there, call my uncle, he picks me up, i went to my dads work took the Van, cause i had college agian at 12:50, its like 10:32 now, i call the tow truck guy when i get home and he goes the tripple A memeber has to be present to tow the car....so im stuck there too, blah then i went to college with the van came back picked up my pops and went and called AAA agian, and they came towed the car to PEPboys, and then i had them check it, they claled me 2 hours later, after payin them 90$ for a full engine diagnostics, he said theres a BIG crack in the radiator,....chinease dude says head gasket, and pepboys says radiator..wtf..! ahh im home and i have a headache from runnin around all fckn day...anyone know wat the car's fckn problem is

[ace7m]

What color was the smoke, I just replaced my radiator (94 also)this weekend, it had cracked and was shooting fluid all over the place. The smoke might have been your radiator fluid burning (evaporating) on the radiator itself. Look for any visible cracks in the radiator or you can always get it tested.

Alex

[Dawgz]

nah man the smoke was coming behind the engine, pepboys said the fluid from the radiator was leaking there too...?

[Camry_rider]

Dude, I feel your pain, Ive gone through more cars than a hooker has condoms....not really but you get my point. Check your oil, if it looks milky......The you blew your head gasket. I think the Camry uses Aluminm heads, which when are overheated.....blow easyily. If this is the case.....you in for some machine work This may be a good time to rebuild your engine too. Check with a trusted mechanic. I had a mechanic screw me on a head job, I blew the heads, had them redone, then 2 months later blew them again. sorry to hear it dude.

[Camry_rider]

Oh dude, my bad....Check all your radiator hoses, check your radiator for cracks, tommarow morning pour water into the radiator and see if it leaks out......Im thinking its a combo of both your head gasket and you radiator since you heated the car to that extent. If your car has over 100,xxx miles I heard its best to rebuild the engine. If You blow the head gasket I belive water will enter the pistons and shit....which is not teh good. Good luck bro.

[brink]

Man, that totally blows. Such an awful feeling when something like that happens. I'd agree with camry_rider, if you had it dripping from both the radiator and the back of the motor, you may have a combo thing going on

[Phi]

Crazy story man! Let's hope it's only a busted rad. Not likely if coolant was coming from areas other than just the front though.
You mentioned you had the dealer top off your coolant 2 weeks prior? What was the cause of the low fluid at that time?

[Dawgz]

mmm like...the guy at the gas station checked the oil for some reason, it wasnt milky, it was okay, i think* like he did it quickly, i had like 5 of their people around my car just lookn at it, cause it was fckn smokn like a biatch...i hope its not the head gasket,, can someone post a pic of a 4 cyl camry engine bay, ill show u guys where the smoke was rising from, and maybe one of u guys can tell me wat the problem might be?

[Dawgz]

i put green circles around where the smoke was coming from,...

[Dawgz]

by the way thats not my car, i just took any 94 cam 4cyl engine bay pic and used it...

[warlock]

Originally posted by Dawgz
by the way thats not my car, i just took any 94 cam 4cyl engine bay pic and used it...

to bad that looks clean
if you have a black light tern your car on and let it get worm tern on the lightand you might be abull to see the leek.whate that is with green antifreez.maybe drane and add green and see if that works

[Phi]

first off, that's a pic of Alex's 3SGTE. However, based on the location you highlighted...could it be a busted water pump

[brink]

Yeah dude, your water pump's back there. Could be your pump took a crap, so the coolant was just sitting there heating up. Eventually it boiled and the gasses got back to the radiator, which may or may not have been cracked at that point. I mean, you could've had a prexisting radiator crack, right? You said you had to top it off. Potentially, if the pump ran dry too long it'd probably kill it.

That make sense? Just thinking off the top of my head here.

[rcj93cam]

finding the highest point at which there is moisture. See were the mosture is coming from by following it to its highest point, because we all now that gravity will pull everything towards the ground. A gasket leak from what i understand should also leak a little oil (or in the my friends blown head gasket case it leaked alot) We had just put a new cam and valve springs in his car, when we took it out for a test drive and there happen to be a bubble in the system so the car overheated causing his head gasket to blow gladly because had and aluminum head that his head did not warp. Kind of the same situation with the overheating and all. I would not just check the dip stick to see if the oil is contaminated with anti-freeze, drain it completely.

Reed

[88 LE]

Originally posted by Camry_rider
If You blow the head gasket I belive water will enter the pistons and shit....

Depends where the headgasket blows.

If it blows between a water passage and piston, the piston will drink water.

Coolant mixing with oil and vise versa is a blowout between water and oil passage.