1992 Toyota Corolla Coolant/Exhaust Issue

[Itaro]

Hello All,
Today, my First-ever car (ironically made the same year and month as when i came off the "assembly line") took a nosedive into the bleak, dark abyss of car trouble. What happened was, my car stalled. I turn the hazards on. I pop the hood and get out of the car and check the engine. the engine has dry, white smoke coming from the coolant lines. I call my dad, who advises me to pull into the nearest parking lot, where he meets me, and we deduce by observing the radiator that the car is out of coolant. Except, it isnt. there is still coolant in the runoff, which is mostly full!

So we run over to the nearest walmart (thankfully, only about half a mile away), and pick up some coolant and some water, and we fill up the coolant tank again. I turn the car on and it turns over fine, whereas when i hobbled to the lot with trouble, this time it turns with ease. The overflow tank is bubbling. the exhaust is very visible, and dry, not oily, white in appearance. My dad suspects that we got coolant in the exhaust manifold from a lack of coolant which warped it, then allowed some into it. I maneage to get it home, where it went kaput and the engine began to smoke furiously. the temp gauge after all this was one red area away from the red area (like 6/8 up the gauge).

I can't drive it until i know what is wrong, and even then its not a sure thing. this means that i obviously need a job, but I cannot get any aside from the odd job in out neighborhood, as the nearest place I can work isnt feasably within my bicycle range in the summer, in Houston, TX. (sorry for the rant.)

does anyone know how to find out/ what is wrong with my beloved vehicle?

Thanks,

~~--Itaro

[Croatian_AE92]

sounds like you have quite the issue. try posting up a video on you tube and post us up a link. all i know is if you have white smoke coming of the of exhaust the engine burning coolant one way or another i.e blown head gasket. which is a costly fix but who knows.

[Itaro]

Yeah, that is what my dad thinks, too. I'll try to get a video up after school tomorrow.

[fistofmeat]

if it's stalling the engine, it sounds like you blew the head gasket. after it cools off, the metal contracts and fills, and the problem isn't noticed, which is why it starts fine after sitting a while. once it warms up and the metal starts expanding and warping you get the problems again.

as far as cost, if you have someone do it you are looking at $1000+. if you do it yourself, and the head and block are still good, you are looking at $50+ depending on what you need/want to replace, but its a good 10-15 hour job for a first timer, at least that's how long it took me when i had to do it. what you pay limbs for at the shop is the labor. if the head is warped, you are looking at $50-100 for a good one off a salvage, plus 100+ to get it checked, cleaned, and refinished. if the block is damaged, you're better off swapping the whole engine, because the you'll not get much life out of a good head if the block was damaged.

[eage8]

when you filled the coolant back up, did you just top off the overflow tank? or did you fill up the actual radiator?

sounds to me like the head gasket is probably blown too.

[Itaro]

EDIT: Umm... my dad brought up a query... if the oil looks normal, does that mean that the head gasket is ok? we are heading out now to look at it. more when we are done.

OK, We looked at it. The Exhaust manifold is cracked right down the middle, between the two sets of tubes, with some damp, charred coolant at the top right (drivers' side) of the manifold. the rest of the engine looks alright at this point in the process. we will continue to dismantle it over the course of the week as we have time, to see what else might need replacing. thanks!


@eage8: Yes, we topped off the overflow AND filled the radiator. when we started the car, the overflow was bubbling, which shows that the tube wasn't blocked, but possibly the seal was gone, because the overflow tank was pretty much full... which led to the current problem.

@fistofmeat: Yes, we are planning on doing this ourselves. thanks for the prices, now hopefully I can find a job so i can buy the parts to fix it :-P

Thanks for all the quick help!


PS: in case anyone was going to wonder, the car only has 129.5k on it.

~~Itaro