ok ive made a couple of posts about my radiator and coolant before and now im thinking it might be my hg. i got a new radiator and the clamps are all tight, the hoses new and im losing coolant. a couple of ppl said i might have air in the radiator or something and i should run it with the cap off and heater on. i did that i noticed white smoke coming out of my tailpipe. it was only a little at idle but when i revved it more came out. keep in mind i dont have my axel back on, not sure if that makes a difference. ive smelt coolant burning a couple of times and i just thought it might be extra that i spilled in the bay thats just burning off. i just replaced my oil b4 i got a new radiator so i dont really want to drain it, can i just take off the valve cover? are there any other symptoms i should look for? my car doesnt overheat.

 

have you done a compressioon test? check the coolant resovior for signs on oil mixed with the coolant.

 

no compression test yet but i was searching earlier and i read it can still have good compression, i was gonna do that and a leakdown on mon.

 

any other things i could look for? my oil is somewhat new, less than 800 miles and its not as clear as new oil

 

a compression test isn't a reliable way to do a head gasket test, you need to do a cylinder leakdown test or a coolant system pressure test.

 

how well i tell if its not drivable anymore?

 

when you cant drive it. no if it's over heating i wouldn't drive it at all. that'll mess up things fast

 

it doenst go past the half way mark though

 

well it only takes about 6 hrs at the most (3-4 hours if you really know your engine) and a new head gasket.

 

how can you do a leakdown test, (my headgasket is probably leak on #2 but i don't know for sure?!)

thnx for the info

 

check to see if the oil looks like diahrea. Foam under the oil fill cap, or oil in the coolant are dead giveaways. Also check the plugs and see if one or two are much cleaner than the rest. This would be from the coolant burning and cleaning the plugs. My neon blew it's headgasket and didn't overheat for months until it got terrible and i was running more coolant than oil on the main bearings.

 

if your head gasket is bad between cylinders it could leak coolant on top of your pistons and it would burn off hence the white smoke, and you would not see anything leaking or find coolant in the oil. Mine did that and i changed the h/g and had no more probs