[mynameisIR]

so recently when i start my 90 4runner in the morning, alot of white smog comes out of of the exhaust. i figured it was just becusae the engine was warm, and it will go away. well a few min. later when i go to drive to wherever, it goes away.

my car has been overheating alot lately and i thought the thermostat was broke becuase it'll be nearly red, and i'll come to a stop, and it'll go down to normal temp in a minute. i filled up the radiator with fluid again, and again and again.

this morning before i went to school, i filled the radiator up. after school, a shitload of white smog came out, more than usual, and my car started to overheat.


i thought maybe i blew a head gasket, but i checked my oil, and it feels and looks normal. any suggestions for my lemon?

 

[Dave's]

You can blow the head gasket between the water jacket and a cylinder. Coolant (water) goes straight out the exhaust as white smoke. Doesn't affect your oil at all. If this is the case one of your plugs should be fouled tho. But I'd hazard to guess this is your problem.

 

[4RunFun]

I totally agree with Dave, you are not in the clear on your head gasket. By the description I think it fits. Without an external leak of radiator fluid, there is only one other explanation. After you shut the truck off the high pressure heated fluid seaps through the head gasket onto your cylinder heads. Upon engine start up the engine burns it into white steam. Continued use may result in further deterioration of the gasket that leads into contamination of your engine oil. The result of that is your oil will become very much like a vanilla milk shake substance ( without the sweet taste ). Monitor your oil by checking your dipstick. The longer you drive your truck in this condition the greater risk you run of damaging the entire engine.

 

[zeoth]

Also crawl under the car and check for a source of the leak.

It also sounds like the thermostat might need replacing.

 

[Dave's]

If the rings are any good at all it may be a while before you see coolant in the oil. The coolant can go directly into the cylinder and get pushed out on the exhaust stroke. So it doesn't really mix with the oil any more than oil mixes with the gas. The piston acts like a pump sucking in coolant and can drain coolant quickly as the head gasket gets worse.

 

[Bakemono]

Blown headgasket. Thats a typical 3.slow for ya!

 

[4RunFun]

You could have coolant mix with the oil while having good compression on the cylinders if...the head gasket deteriorates between a water jacket port and oil port. Don't hold me to this, but I want to say there are atleast 4 oil ports that transfer oil up onto the cams. Could be wrong though.

 

[mynameisIR]

it's really weird, the white smoke stopped. i've been driving it the past few days, and there has been no serious white smog; a regular white smog when i start it up in the morning, but it's not serious. about the same as any other car in teh morning. my car is not over heating or running rough anymore. my friends and i were messing around saying that my car was jealous that there was another girl in the car, so it started to fuck up on me. but when she left, the car started to work fine.

there are no leaks of anykind that i can see, and i do check.

i was talking to my friend, and he said it might possibly be that there was condinsation in the valves, that's why there was white smog, but he wasnt sure. i've heard that that problem happends with your fuel injector is clogged, is that true? and runners have fuel injector right?


yeah so seeing that i have none of htese problems anymore, i'll take it that my car was jealous of the other girl

but is there anyway to see if i blew a headgasket my self, with out taking it to a mechanic?

 

[Bakemono]

If you have a blown headgasket, you will be able to smell a sweet-smelling odor through the HVAC vents.
Maybe your 'Runner was trying to tell you the girl wasnt a keeper. I think maybe you should post up some pics of her so that we can just make sure. :lol: :thumbsup:

 

[wjdunn3]

A radiator shop can pressure test your cooling system. Basically they pressurize the cooling system and if there are no leaks then it should hold pressure....not bleed down. If it does bleed down then they look for external leaks. If there are none, then the leak must be in the engine. Usually they remove the spark plugs also during the test so that if you have an internal leak into a cylinder, the coolant can come out the spark plug hole....also keeps from hydrolocking the engine if it is leaking.