my 1987 2.8L V6 is having some issues!. when i start it up the exhaust has alot of white smoke. and i mean alot. the oil level seems fine and it is obviously burning coolant because the amount slowly decreases. Could this be the head gasket?. also when i first start the car and before it warms up, the car always bogs down alot as if it is about to shut off if i give it any amount of gas. what could be causing this? The transmission fluid leaks so could this be a sign of something with the transmission? or could it be from coolant entering the cylinder heads? as i can tell there appears to be no coolant in the oil. if i think of anything else i'll let you know. o and the engine steams just a little bit. i only notice that when its kinda cold or colder outside.
thanks

 

Well i know that white smoke is usually a blown headgasket if it leaks twards the cylinders(in them). If it leaks out of the block and not into the cylinders the engine just overheats like crazy.

White smoke is a bad bad thing. Dont start it anymore till you can investigate the problem. Check out the head gaskets first and formost!!

 

on a scale from 1-10 how would you rate the processes for replacing the head gasket?

 

That is a hard question to answer, depending on how the exhaust comes off if the head is warped and you over mechanical skill.

 

Ok assuming you know how to take stuff apart and lable it, take pictures or whatever, and put it back together. Its not too hard at all. Ive taken mine off 2 times. Right now i have the heads off and im porting and polishing them. Its gonna take a good 6-8 hours to take apart and put back together at the least if youve never done it before and TAKE THE HOOD OFF! It makes it alot easier!!!!

Hopefully you dont run into any bad bolts that dont wana come out so be very very careful of that. If you do do this watch out for the exhaust manifold bolts that are attached to the heads!!!!! Thats the easiest way to take off the heads for inspection because you wont have to drop the exhaust at all. But those bolts are very easy to break! And if your not careful and use a little blow torch to heat the bolts up.. youll have a busted off bolt in your heads. Ive done it so dont be like me messing those studs/bolts up.

On a scale id say its a good 5 or so. Considering that the engine is old and so are the bolts.

Also remember that taking the heads off is literly half of the motor.

Heres a pic of the engine after i finally got all the crap off so i could remove the heads...

 

The dizzy and the lower manifold are still in that pic, your gonna have to take them off too anong with the idler pully and air pump system. Its a lot of crap to take off!!!!

But its not too bad just lable and take alot of pictures for future reference!!!!!

 

do i need to take the water pump off? i just replaced it and i'm not in the greatest mood after stripping one of those torx bolt heads making it a long process to take off.

 

Nope you dont have to take that off.

 

 

are there any special tools i need or you would recommend?

 

Well youll just need the regular assortment of sockets and stuff like that.

Some special stuff (I) used:

A torq wrench to put some stuff back on (I got the torq specs If you need them)

One of those 90* bend socket wrench extentions would help alot when removing the hold down bolt for the distribtor(dizzy).

Have a blow torch handy for any bolts that look stubborn(like the exhaust maniflod ones)Just make sure your aware of all the wires and any sensors around areas that your heating. Dont wana get heat on any wires or important stuff!

Also some thing resembling a breaker bar, as those head bolts are very tight.

Thats really the only tools I used.

 

this is what my car does for like 10+ min. it starts off not so bad, then quickly gets really bad and then fades away http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKCZB91XI6U

 

How cold out was it when you took that video?? The outside temp?

 

it was 50 somthing

 

and it still does it even if it is warmer

 

When that coolent gets hoter it builds up pressure(temp) and blows into where ever the gasket is bad. So the car overheats easily if it leaks out of the heads into the air. And if it leaks into the cylinders, white smoke. But I guess the water leaking in there could actually keep the engine cooler......not sure about that. But who knows yours might be leaking into the cylinders and out in the air.



Does you car ever steam from under the hood since this problem started?
Has you har been having higher engine temps then the normal? Overheating?
Can you phisically see any where it leaks arround the heads?
Has you coolent level gone down since you noticed the smoke?
Mabey you should check out the plugs to?

I personally think its your head gasket.
Mine went bad in a car i had before BUT it was only leaking out of the heads, not into the cylinders. So the only reason i knew the thing was bad was because it overheated VERY fast and i could see where it was leaking out of the heads when it was hot.

 

the car does steam from under the hood, but i only notice that when its around or below 50 outside. the coolant temp sensor isn't working in my car so i have no idea about the temperature (should probably fix that...). the coolant level is going down. and at the transmission shop they mentioned something about seeing coolant somewhere.

 

well its up to you, but seeing that the car steams, loose coolent, has white smoke, Id think its the head gasket.

check as best as possible arround the heads with a flashlight for stainds from the coolent leaking out.

 

would a black light show the coolant? or would coolant just be everywhere so using a black light won't spot out the location of the leak?

 

im not sure about the black light idea..
I was just thinking use a flashlight and look really good arround the base of the heads for any weird/fresh stains.