A Hard Lesson Learned.....

[highperf4x4]

Originally Posted by ashx2

Highperf.....

Thanks for the response. To answer a couple of your questions, the engine will start up, but it blows white smoke out the tailpipe now and there are some unusual sounds coming from the engine while it's running.

The oil will be drained today to see if there is any water in the oil or not. It'd be nice to be able to get away with only replacing the heads and a couple of minor parts vs. a full replacement, but I'm more prepared for the worst than the better.

I'll take your words into consideration and try all my options prior to a full replacement. But the way my luck has ran the last month........probably not gonna be good.

Greg

That white smoke is water getting into the cyliners either through a cracked head or blown head gasket. It could possibly be a cracked cylinder wall but it's more than likely up in the heads.

All you have to do is pull the dipstick to see if there is any water in the oil. If there is, it will look like milk on the dipstick. You might not be in bad shape after all.

If you do a head swap make sure you stick to a composite head gasket that's .028 or thicker. The deck of the block may be slightly warped and since we're shooting for salvage yard heads, you probably don't want to pay for a valve job/head mill. If you get the heads from the slavage yard try to get the head bolts with them. Yours may be compromised or weak.