Blown Head Gasket?

[Jacob Andersen]

This was what I saw yesterday when I changed the oil and oilfilter.

Car drives as usual. A little white smoke (steam) from exhaust but not much. No apparent loss of cooling fluid from reservoir (expansion tank). Not over heating.

I have to work outside in below freezing so I think I will wait until summer to take the engine apart.

Will it be okay to drive with this condition?

Attachments:

• HeadGasket001.jpg

Topic

[college man]

Is this car driven short trips? did all the oil look like the
cap? If its cold outside.white smoke/steam is normal.

[Charles]

I agree with ‘college man’. Monitor the coolant level and oil on the dip stick. If you don’t drive far at a time, let it idle once a week for 30 minutes or take a drive to evaporate all the exess moisture in the engine. If you only get the engine warm each drive and the humidity is relatively high, water will condense on the indide of the engine as it cools.

[Sam]

Looks more like a pcv problem.

[Jacob Andersen]

Thanks guys.

It is awfull cold here at the moment (minus 20 centigrades).

It could of course just be water vapours condensing in the engine and thus creating the same “coffe with cream symptom” but without simultaneously loss of power and/or overheating.

HeHe. I was so ready to take the engine a part.

I will just monitor the symptoms.

No, it was only “coffee with cream” on the cap. The rest of the oil was solid black. Yes, this is a secondary car, so it is only used for shorter trips around town.

[ridinred24]

I see that kind of build up on oil filler caps all the time, you only need to be worried if your oil actually shares the same appearance 🙂

[EricTheCarGuy]

The test for determining a head gasket failure is in this video.

[Author]

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