Hey everyone, I'm pretty new around here. I have DLed the RAVE and other documents, and done lots of reading. There's a pretty big learning curve for me as the biggest maintenance I've ever done myself was replacing spark plugs and brake pads on a '01 Ford Crown Victoria. I assure you it was an all day affair.

Anyway, I'm losing coolant, there's no sweet smell in my exhaust and there is white smoke only for the first 15-30 seconds or so after cold startup. This is what I see under the hood, and I'm guessing this is a head gasket leak.

I would appreciate any input from all you guys who actually know what you're talking about.





Hopefully those are clear enough, if not I can try and get some better ones. I was just starting to look through the Major Service thread when I encountered this, and I'm just trying to see if I should do head gaskets before anything else on the list.

Thanks!

 

Those are your valve cover gaskets and that looks like oil to me. You can try tightening those bolts (8mm 12 point wrench I think, the torque is only like 5-7 ft lbs if I remember correctly, look in the RAVE) if you think they are leaking a lot of oil. Headgaskets are further down the engine below the spark plugs. How much coolant are you losing? It can be hard to look for coolant leaks since they usually dont leak much and it can evaporate quickly.

 

1. In pix two the oil around the valve cover gasket can be stopped or slowed down a bunch by using an 8 mm 12 point 1/4 inch drive socket and snugging up (not torque down forever) those bolts, four per valve cover, each oil change.

2. Your pix doesn't look like gross head gasket leak. Some owners have posted ones with coolant oozing out in multiple green streams. Let us review a few items.

A. You only have white smoke for morning burn off of condesation. Good.

B. No coolant smell. This is also good.

C.. Any noise like water rushing through pipes under the dash? That can be bubbles in coolant going through the heater pipes. Could be air, you can purge. Could be exhaust gas from HG leak, and it will return over and over again after purging. There is a $50 chemnical test from auto parts store for "combustion gas in coolant", will do maybe 15 tests, so can check other cars or verify work is holding good if you have to do HG work. See Amazon.com: UVIEW 560000 Combustion Leak Tester: Automotive Noise assumes you have working heat, some owners bypass it, so no "test noise". Previous owner bypass from a D1 pictured.

D. Any coolant in oil? Makes it look milky when you change it (dip stick review may not be enough).

E. Overheating? That would be above 9:00 on gauge in many cases. Best if you can use a plug in scanner or Ultra Gauge, which grabs the digital temp used by the ECU to control the engine. Just plug into OBDII port under dash. Reading the temp exactly lets you know what is going on before heat gets too high. Pix of Ultra Gauge # 001.

F. Coolant might be leaking in a sneaky location, like top of the intake gasket (valley pan), then dumping out back when vehicle is underway. Parking over clean cardboard can help spot a leak. You can also get a pressure test kit from the auto parts store (loaner) and pump up coolant system to 15 - 20 PSI for 30 minutes, leaks usually make themselves known. There is also a UV dye you can put in coolant and use black light to pick up, like speckles on the inside of oil fill cap. Chart of all the coolant hoses and fittings and water flow directions attached. How much coolant and how often are you missing it?

Note: spec for tank cap is : Expansion tank cap relief valve - system operating pressure 1.4 bar (20 lbf.in2). Coolant systems are designed to operate with some pressure, which reduces the boiling point of the coolant or just plain water if that is what is in there.

So IMHO without more info would not jump into HG just yet. Could be leak of valley pan gasket, etc.

BTW, I have two high miles police package CVs at the office, and a day to work on them is not unusual at all. Don't worry about being thorough.

 

TWO THINGS:
A:Be careful with torquing down on the valve cover bolts... They like to break off and make you tow your engine to the machine shop! Replacement of the gasket is a easy fix. Depending on what side the leak is on. B: Get a pressure tester from auto zone. It costs $70 but as long as you bring it back you get all $70 back! Pretty sweet deal. Put the tester on the expansion tank and start pumping it. I personally put only 8lbs of pressure on the system. I let it sit for 10 minutes, came out and she was leaking like crazy. If she isn't showing here leak put more pressure on it but go no higher than 15lbs. (CAP LIMIT ON SYSTEM BEFORE CAP ON EXPANSION TANK STARTS TO VENT) Do you get a waterfall sound in the dash? If so, you have air in the system.

 

Easy fix! I just tightened them down and wiped away the fluids and dirt. I will check it out again after I put some miles on her. Great tip about doing it each oil change.

Very rarely I hear water rushing, but only for a moment. I will bleed it first thing tomorrow.

Ah, I only checked the dipstick, no milkiness there, but looks like I need to drain it and see what the oil really looks like.

I am having to top off half the tank about once a week. I will definitely do the tester.

This definitely sounds like the way to go. I will get on these tomorrow and report back!

Thank you all very much.

 

Thanks to you sir, for good use of the available resources. We hope you find no green or milky spots in your oil, and that any coolant leak is small, and on the exhaust manifold where it has been evaporating. One member did have a leaky hose clamp under the coolant expansion tank.... was hard to see.

 

I wish it was easier to determine how much more life is left in the head gasket. I did the chemical test 5 weeks ago and it showed co2 in the coolant. But it seems like the leak is slow. I top off the tank every couple months. I am nervous to take the truck on a long trip (cross country) till I get it replaced, but on the other hand I doesnt leak much coolant. The tmps say between 197-204f.. What to do..

 

ebg18t -

One option would be to install an in-line thermostat option so temps can be reduced to 180-183. Lower temp might equal less leak. If you take away the heat spikes, yes you are treating the symptoms, but you may also be making conditions where it is more difficult for it to over heat. And you could just try a good day long out and back drive somewhere while watching the temps as a pre-road trip test.

Another idea would be a cooling system pressure test, which might reveal a small leak somewhere else. Nothing to say you might not have a small leak and minor (at this point) HG issue.

One of those Ultra Gauges would let you program an alarm for the high temp spike level you want to avoid.

 

Savanah - I do have my ultra guage programmed for 220. I read the threads about th inlin thermo. Still thinking about that option.

How quick does pressure in the system build? My understandng is That it builds the longer you drive, how many psi are we talking? I ask since when doing the pressure test we only use 10-15psi on the tank for testing,

 

10-15 PSI is much too low, I believe your preasure cap is set for 20psi (1.4 bar).
You need to go a high as the preasure relief valve, no need to go higher. You could have all kinds of small or large leaks that will not show up at 10 psi but will show up at 18-20psi.