Blown Head gasket with clean oil????

[Kidd-7]

I have an 01 Impala with the 3400 engine; 74K miles. I had a heat problem about a month ago. The temp gauge would rise to about mid way very fast and the heat would blow cool, then the gauge would drop back down to normal and heat would be nice n warm.
I eventually did a flush n fill on the coolant, it was nasty brown, it took 5 gallons to clean out the overflow. This seemed to correct the problem, temp gauge has been stable, heat is hot.
Well yesterday I noticed the gauge being erratic, not to the extreme it was, but still moving more than normal. So when I got home I opened up the overflow and its bubbling, not boiling, bubbling like air is coming out of the system.
Any ideas, my friend who is a mechanic said the head gasket in these engines are common to fail, but when I flushed n filled I also changed the oil, its still clean.
Is it a head gasket letting combustion gasses in the cooland but not letting coolant in the oil?
It it possible I did not purge all the air out?
-thanks.

[bighaas79]

Very possible with these engines.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Dexcool is to be changed every 100K or 5 years, whichever comes FIRST. However, with it looking that bad... it almost looks like someone added the green stuff to it, which is bad, because it causes it to gel. They make a special green now, called Global, or something, and it can be mixed with dexcool, but nothing else. And yes, it could be going out the exhaust. Is it actually losing coolant?

[Kidd-7]

I'm not loosing coolant, I did a flush n fill at about 100K and used the mix with any Coolant then. So I'm pretty sure that the coolant didn't get mixed to create this crap, but seeing it makes me think I might have made a mistake at some point.
When I got to work this morning I took a look at the overflow and it was white and foamy, I'm going to check the coolant when I have a chance, to see what color it is now.

[68C15]

do you have a missfire or running rough when started in the morning? these family of engines like to blow the gasket by cylinder #1 (back of engine under alternator)

my bet is on a blown gasket. be carefull, these blocks also like to rust away on the corner and then you're screwed

[Kidd-7]

Originally Posted by 68C15

do you have a missfire or running rough when started in the morning? these family of engines like to blow the gasket by cylinder #1 (back of engine under alternator)

my bet is on a blown gasket. be carefull, these blocks also like to rust away on the corner and then you're screwed

It coughs sometimes in the morning, have to crank it a little long to start up. It has done this for a while though and I've never had heating issues. I was told that the mix with any anitfreeze isn't good either. So I may flush it again and use the orange stuff this time. Also, can you see the rust from the outside, or is it an internal thing? Shop quoted me at least $2K for the head gasket. If I do it she'll be down for weeks b/c of time. Maybe a rebuilt 3800????

[spudz]

These a are REALLY bad about blowing intake gaskets and mixing water and oil, But also i have seen alot of blow head gaskets on these too. If they get anywhere close to hot, even once the gaskets pop. Its a VERY easy car to work on. You can have the heads off in a hour. But yes, its POSSIBLE that it can have a blown headgasket and not run hot or mix water and oil,

[Kidd-7]

well I think I might have fixed it. The small hose from the water pump to the metal tube accross the front of the engine blew; steam & ran real hot on the way to work.
I replaced that hose and bled the air out. I haven't had the issue since.
Fingers crossed...