how can you tell if you have a bad head gasket? and are there any obvioius things that you can immediatley notice?

 

Yes, visably white exhaust smoke when running will indicate coolant in the combustion chamber. Also, oil that is foamy and appears to have water in it. Both of these are indicators of a BHG.

 

u also will be over heating,and in some cases u can see oil or coolant leaking from inbeteen head and block.get it changed u dont want to toast a motor over a 75$ dollar headgasket.

 

white smoke.... a lot of it...

 

I am battling the same demon as we speak, I am currently pulling a motor, and swapping in a better one, my problems are much like yours, white smoke, thick, mine doesnt seem to let up much unless its idling, but if i drive, i cloud the people behind me, and it smells like fuel and oil burning, i just put a new head gasket, milled head and valve guides as well as ground valves in there, I suspect the rings are bad at this point. ive tried every thing else suggested at HT as well as my own knowledge, pcv valve was fine, so there really isnt anything else that could cause the issues at hand.