Ok so, the other day i am driving along and when i get to my destination, i stop, turn the car off, and look in my mirror and see this cloud of white smoke. The next day after driving for less than 2 mins, i stop the car and the wind blows the white smoke towards the front of the car. it smells like burning something. not sure if it's antifreeze or oil. could i have a blown headgasket? are there ways to tell if it is without pulling the intake and head? and how much is an engine rebuild for lt1's? i might have to just get it rebuilt. i just bought the car 4 months ago. changed plugs, wires, oil, filter, put on K&N FIPK 2 months ago. the problems started then. misfire. loss of power. then i put headers on. problem seemed to get worse. went in to change opti yesterday. didn't have size 4 torx socket. couldn't do opti. replaced water pump. put car back together. started car. white smoke literally pours out of exhaust. pisses me off. how much for a complete engine rebuild??approximately. i don't wanna spend that much money, but if i have to, i have to.

 

Warm your car up and check your oil for "milkiness". And btw, a blown head gasket does not neccessitate a rebuild. What it does require though, is a good p&p job and a cam that makes your car idle like it's out of it's mind.

A blown head gasket could mean other problems with the engine, but the two most likely reasons are age or overheating. Or boost/nitrous, for that matter...

 

yeah all the problems start after the first oil change. I can get you a rebuild for probably $2500. But i dont think thats what you need. Yeah but do like green demon said and check your oil for milkiness and check the coolant for oil. Where is nowheresville anyway?

 

i checked my oil for milkininess but it didn't seem to be....i dunno...maybe i dunno what i am doing maybe? actually, i was wondering something else though...when i checked my oil after it being warmed up i noticed that there seemed to be some steam or some smoky something coming out of my dipstick. is that normal? and nowheresville is east of fredricksburg

 

I just went through a similar situation. The head gasket had a tear in it and going to the number 7 cylinder. I just changed the head gaskets and went on. If you have the money now would be the time to put some money into it if you want. I didn't get water in the oil either, so it's probably just a gasket.

 

how is the car running? hessitation or anything?

 

Car runs just as before but a word of advise make sure to label all vacuum lines and connectors to make sure they go back together right. Most connectors only go back in one spot so you are pretty safe and there should be a diagram of the vacuum system under the hood. When I put mine back together I switched a couple of lines and it ran, but bad. Switched the lines and it runs great. Its not too bad of a job if you have a good set of tools and it definately helps to have help. I think its very reallistic to get it done in a weekend.

 

actually, i am on a navy base so there really is not anywhere that i can do a weekend job. there is an auto hoby shop that i can go to with a lift and tools and such, but it costs money and i can't leave my car there overnight or a weekend. so i would have to get it done by a shop. and as far as the money thing goes....yeah. right. haha. i'm in the navy. no way i have extra money for that sort of thing. hell i'm gonna have to take out a loan to get the damn car fixed as it is. lol. thanks guys. oh and the car runs like smashed ***. misfires out the *** too. i think it's my opti. anyhoo. thanks

 

Why did you need a size 4 torx socket? At least in my experience the opti is held by 3 regulator bolts (10mm i think).

 

apparently the car and rotor are held on by 4 torx screws. i didn't realize that the entire assembly came off from just 3 10mm bolts. i looked it up last night and figured that out. looks like i might be doing some work here in the near future. :P i just don't wanna change the head gasket. that doesn't sound fun to me at all.

 

Another thing to check is if you are low on coolant. Also you can do a compression check pretty cheap on each cylinder. I was thinking if you knew which cylinder, and it was on the driver's side, it is a heck of a lot easier to swap a headgasket on the driver's side than the passenger side. Will save A LOT time! Just something to consider. Good luck.

 

yes, i am low on coolant, and i have filled it up several times. i just can't seem to get it to stay at the right level....:P but yeah. i need to do a compression test that is for sure. i just don't wanna tear my car apart and then try to put it back together and not have it work. would be nice if i had a garage that i could put it in and leave it overnight if i needed to. can't do that though. oh well. how much do head gasket replacements usually cost to have done for me?

 

When I did my 95 the chevy dealer wanted $1600 to do it. I did all the work myself for around $350. As you can see there is a big price difference but if you don't have the time that may be the way you have to go.

 

ok so how hard would it be if i were to just take out my current engine and replace it with an extra engine that i might buy and rebuild and soup up a bit? i know that the easiest way is to just drop the entire engine out from the bottom, but what is the process and how hard and how long would that take? or better yet, how much would it cost to get someone to do it for me? thanks