My '86 LG4 is getting coolant in the exhaust. I assume that I've blown either a head or intake gasket. The odd thing is, the car only smokes (or steams) when I restart it with the engine warm. When I start it for the first time in the morning, it runs smoothly and doesn't steam out of the exhaust. It continues to run fine even after it warms up and barely consumes any coolant. When I restart it, it runs rough and steams, especially on take off from a light. Obviously this consumes coolant. Does this have something to do with the thermostat being close on cold startup? Does this give any indication of whether it's a head or intake gasket? The oil doesn't look milky, but the coolant does bubble a little (not like it's boiling though). My temperature gauge reads normal. I know that I need a compression test, but until I can get a gauge, any other thoughts on what's going on are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Cole

 

Likely a head gasket. I would stop driving it till it's fixed. Coolant makes a horrible lubricant and will screw up your engine.

 

There was this girl in high school who put antifreeze into her oil cap because her dad told her "do you have enough coolant in your engine? take off the cap and fill it until it's up to the top"

 

Well... she did what her dad told her to do lol.

 

I was helping a friend change his oil a couple of years ago. He was new to doing anything like that so I made him do it all and I just kept an eye on him while offering advice.

Comes time to put in the new oil so I the conversation goes like this:

Me: The engine requires 4.6 litres of oil so dump the 4 in and about about half of the 5th one. Wait a few minutes and check the dipstick.
Him: OK
Me: Turns my back for a few minutes to do something else. When I turn around the last few drips of the fifth litre contaner are draining into the funnel so I said, what did you do that for? I told you to just put about half of the last litre in there and start checking the level.
Him: It wasn't full. He was expecting to see it up to the top of the valve cover.

This was on a brand new $20K+ engine! He would have dumped oil into it till it was full no doubt if left alone.

 

if its your head gasket your spark plugs will have the answer. there will be a nasty mix of oil and antifreeze on one (or more) of your plugs. itl kinda look like chocolate milk. thats what happened when i blew mine. but i couldnt even get my car to idle when i blew my head gasket.

 

how would oil get to the spark plug to get "the chocolate" milk look, uasally the oil on the dipstick has that when water (coolent) gets in it???, I think you had other problems other than a head gasket, if it was just coolent on the spark plug it would be really clean(coolent in combuston chamber steam cleans everything)