[67stepsideC10]

Well folks, bad news. Last night I was on the interstate and heard a strange clicking, so I immediately pulled over. Popped the hood and smoke poured out from the engine compartment, seemingly from around the air cleaner. I waited for it to settle, restarted (temp light came on), and drove just enough to get to the end of an exit ramp to park it. Came back and put about a gallon of water in it. Drove it to our shop, smoke seemed to be coming from somewhere below the air cleaner. It was using water, but we couldn't see a drip, just vapor. Figured it was a fitting or something from the metal lines running from the waterneck to who knows where.

Drove it home about 12 miles, still smoked a little, but temp light never came on, and it seemed to be doing better, especially now that it was full of water.

Got up this morning to head to Advance to get some stop leak to hopefully seal up whatever leak it was. I was already about a 1/2 gallon low on water, so i filled up the stop leak and topped off the water. Drove to school (About 10 miles) and when i parked, I popped the hood, the smoking had stopped. Then after a few seconds, i noticed a stream of water run out from under it past the left tire. Looked underneath and there was water literally dripping (several drops per second) out from below the exhaust manifold area/bottom of block on left side.

SO - guess I have a blown head gasket.

I had been noticing the heater wasn't working the past 2 days, but didn't think much about it. Now that I know whats up, it all makes sense. Heater runs off the coolant system's heat.

How hard is it to change the head gasket on the L6?

Would this be a good time to pull the motor, clean everything up, fix the rear main seal (it's leaking), replace the head gasket, etc. or is that a very involved job?

Advice appreciated.