The 91 truck I drove home from Denver in February started consuming coolant... I feared it was a head gasket.
There was constant steam coming from the tailpipe and it got worse when I put additional pressure on the coolant system with a tester.
I pulled the plugs - all 8 looked similar and normal. Ran a compression check - all pretty similar.
I pulled the upper and lower intake. I noticed some corrosion / degradation of the intake gasket at the cylinder heads between the coolant passages at the front of the heads, and the front intake port on both sides. It was hard to say for sure - but careful visual inspection made it look plausible that the coolant was being pulled into at least one of the front intake ports. Not wanting to pull the heads just for fun, I cleaned everything up (not a small task since this thing leaked oil and coolant for a while before I got it)
and re assembled with all new gaskets, plugs, hoses, thermostat, etc.
Last night I got it fired up with all the new parts, and noticed there was still steam coming from the tailpipe.
How long does it take to clean out an exhaust system of residual fluids from a prior failure?
I need to warm it up, set the timing, and take it for a drive in some dry weather, fingers crossed the steam subsides.
There was constant steam coming from the tailpipe and it got worse when I put additional pressure on the coolant system with a tester.
I pulled the plugs - all 8 looked similar and normal. Ran a compression check - all pretty similar.
I pulled the upper and lower intake. I noticed some corrosion / degradation of the intake gasket at the cylinder heads between the coolant passages at the front of the heads, and the front intake port on both sides. It was hard to say for sure - but careful visual inspection made it look plausible that the coolant was being pulled into at least one of the front intake ports. Not wanting to pull the heads just for fun, I cleaned everything up (not a small task since this thing leaked oil and coolant for a while before I got it)
and re assembled with all new gaskets, plugs, hoses, thermostat, etc.
Last night I got it fired up with all the new parts, and noticed there was still steam coming from the tailpipe.
How long does it take to clean out an exhaust system of residual fluids from a prior failure?
I need to warm it up, set the timing, and take it for a drive in some dry weather, fingers crossed the steam subsides.
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