Hey guys,
I am sort of an over-worrier about my car, but I am kind of concerned about something. I have some sort of coolant leak or air bubble in the system, because my coolant level always goes down. I have caught it twice dripping from the passenger's side next to the headers, nothing major. Anyway, the car overheated yesterday after a test drive around the block after installing my new instrument cluster. It was at 260 when I pulled in the driveway and I could hear it boiling when I shut it off. This really freaked me out, but there weren't really any funny smells, and it was still running fine. Anyway, this scary event caused my to replace my thermostat today with a 180, because my I suspected my old one was getting stuck sometimes. After the initial startup, I noticed a some white puffs of smoke coming from the exhaust. I immediately jumped to the worst case- Missing Coolant + white smoke = Head gasket. The smoke was very minor though, and after about 10 min of idling, it gradually went away. I never really noticed it much before and I drove the car a lot later today and it ran great, never saw the smoke again. I just finished replacing my valve seals and putting 1.6RRs on the L98, so no more oil burning cloud on startup. It is also important to note that I have a completely true dual exhaust system, so a head gasket leak would have to be on both sides, which is quite unlikely. So is this minor smoke just normal exhaust condensation combined with my paranoia, or could it actually be a small head gasket leak( if there is such a thing) from warping? Also, where could my coolant be going, or was there just air in the system? I just don't know if I should be worried or not. Anyway, sorry for the long post
Thank you for your time!
Fred

 

Sorry, forgot to mention that when the car was running after changing the thermostat, my dad discovered that the radiator was EXTREMELY deprived of coolant despite there being some in the overflow. Topped everything up. Hope thats relevant to the issue…maybe some sort of air pocket in the system? thanks!

 

"I have caught it twice dripping from the passenger's side next to the headers, nothing major." Ok, Collant leak in this location could indicate Freeze Plug is leaking OR a POSSIBLE head gasket.

"Anyway, the car overheated yesterday after a test drive around the block after installing my new instrument cluster. It was at 260 when I pulled in the driveway and I could hear it boiling when I shut it off." Is your fan/fans working and is your Air Dam in place under the car? You NEED them

"It is also important to note that I have a completely true dual exhaust system."
If it smokes out of the passenger side only........It don't look good. Head gasket could very well be it.

Do a pressure test of the coolant system. If you pulled in to your driveway and it was overheating, bubbling in the reservoir, you were probably sending exhaust gases into your cooling system. Along with the white smoke, and coolant leak on pass side.

sorry to be Debbie Downer......

 

Hey, no problem, thanks for the response. There was small white smoke from BOTH exhausts.. Sorry should've clarified that

 

Oh and yes my fans are just fine. My air dam has one of the mounts broken so it flops a tiny bit on one side but I don't think it's been an issue. Thanks