I have a serious problem here. I have a 95 trans am with 142,000 on the odometer. two days ago it started to smoke a little bit, and before that i started to smell that cotton candy smell that goes along with coolant burining. now it is bellowing smoke and i know that it is burning coolant. i have a feeling it is the intake gasket, but i was wondering if a blown head gasket would also cause this. if it is the intake gasket whats the best way to get the intake off becuase it sits so far back. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

The color of the smoke can help determine what exactly it is I think. And I think there is some kinda test you can do to check if its a head gasket leak. I'm sure sombody else more knowledgeable will chime in on this.

 

it's real white smoke....a lot like what your car does when you first start it on a really cold day. and the smell is almost a dead give away i thought

 

I do not know if there is a way to tell which gasket it is while the stuff is on the car, but if you think it is the intake gasket then take the intake off. If it is not that then you know forsure it is the head gasket, besides, you have to take the intake off either to 1: get the intake gasket replaced or 2: get the head gasket replaced. If it was my car I would just buy both gasket sets and start taking it apart.

 

how do you suggest getting the intake off.....i dont have to drop the engine do i?

 

The intake can be removed in the car easily. if you can get the header bolts off easy, the heads will come off in the car easy. The hardenst part to me was the coolant crossover tube on the back of the heads.

 

shoe box has a nice tutorial for taking the intake off. i made one also but i forgot to document alot of the stuff so there arnt any pics. just goto his site and goto the cam removal page iots good.

 

An intake gasket leak would not cause antifreeze to burn/leak. This is because there are no coolant passages through the intake. The only antifreeze somewhat in the intake is in the throttle body.

 

so your saying that it has to be a head gasket leak? also when i would first start the car there would be a wierd noise from the driver side like the manifold was leaking but once the car warmed up it went away. so its most likely the head gasket leak? could it be anything else?

 

I would do a cylinder pressure test to see what shape they are in. If you have a leaky gasket you will definitely be able to tell by the variations in pressure. By variation I mean the pressures should be within 10% of eachother.

 

and if its not the head gasket what else would it be?

 

Do a cooling system pressure test and a cyl leak down test that will tell ya before ya go to rippin and tearin.
If it's not a gasket it could be a cracked head or block. If it hasn't been run hot then is is probably a head gasket.
Ya have to get new head bolts 'cause the factory bolts can't be reused. Get some ARP bolts they can be reused and torqued with a torque wrench instead of being TTY and ya got to buy an angle guage.

 

so with the motor having so many miles on it would it be a good idea to replace both head gaskets.

 

Don't mean to be a wise a$$, but have you found where the smoke is coming from? I mean, can you let the car idle and watch the source of the smoke. Before ripping into intakes (no coolant there) and heads, it may just be a cracked hose.

I had a similiar coolant leak, and it was a coolant line to my heater core burning on the header (cyl 8). I just let the car idle and could see the spray out of the pipe and steaming on the headers.

Just go for the easy stuff first.

 

i looked and the smoke seems to be coming from behind the motor on the driver side....relatively...its kinda hard to tell but that is my best guess. It is also smoking real bad from the exhuast to though.