Blown Head Gasket!? Or paranoid?

If your oil isn't milky and you're not losing any coolant, you're probably ok.

 

In other words to sum up all of the post so far:

Gunk in cap is normal.
White vapor on a cold startup is also normal.
You are paranoid.

 

M

Maybe the previous owner isnt the only stoner

 

@GT_Charlie this is exactly what I wanted to hear!!! Thank you!!

 

@Jimmyh @winkel @Murphinator thanks for the advice guys! And ya you might be right, I might need to lay off the sativa . To everyone who replied, thank you very much for getting back so quickly and giving your input. I will update this thread if I find anything out but for now I think it’s a case closed and I just saved a ton of money by not having to put in a new motor!

 

heres mine, i drive like 10 minutes to school in -35 weather not much i can do about it lol, 0w30 synthetic oil. oil analysis found no water in oil

 

I know you guys kinda wrapped this one up already but I'll just mention that simply checking the coolant level (at the radiator cap, cold, before you start it) will tell you alot too.. If the coolant level is always right at the top of the filler neck and never needs to be topped off then you don't have a coolant leak. Headgaskets or anywhere..

 

I was paranoid in the same way, you're not alone. I would echo what one or two people said about sending in your oil to Blackstone Labs. I did that and got a solid report back that eased my worries.

 

I’d do my best to bring the truck up to temp, by driving it, on every trip in that sort of weather. Even if it meant driving an extra 5 miles or 20 minutes in order to do so.

Do you have a block or oil pan heater?

 

@b_r_o I’ll start doing that! I had to pull some cooolant out to do the block test, do I need to top it off again or should it draw coolant from the overflow tank?

 

It will draw coolant from the overflow tank. All you need to do is keep the over flow tank between the min and max lines.

 

Mine is getting the milky sludge in the filler tube as well, it wasn’t there during the summer. The problem is that plastic neck and cap just doesn’t get hot enough to burn out the moisture, even on the highway the cold air blows in and keeps it too cool. I have thought about making some kind of insulated boot to slide down over that filler neck to keep the cold wind off of it.

Definitely come spring I will be removing the filler tube and cleaning it out though. As far as the steam, I have noticed these engines are really rich running until completely warmed up, sometimes I still see steam after 20 minutes of driving.

 

Going back to your original post and the symptom, you said it ran rough when you started it from sitting a couple of days. What kind of work did the body shop do and did they disconnect your battery? If so, the truck went through the "learning" process and some stumbles and rough running is normal sometimes for a short duration, then things settle out pretty quickly, usually within a mile or so of driving.

 

Top it off at the rad and overflow bottle. The coolant bottle is an ok place to watch /monitor coolant level but checking right at the rad cap is better.

 

What exactly does the black stone test tell you? Would it tell me if the oil I’m using is doing good ? Lol

My motor started knocking pretty noticeably so I switched to 15w40....been great ever since

 

This is what a blackstone test will show you.
So the very left row is the most recent sample, 3rd row is my previous sample, the 2nd row is the average between those. Then you compare it to the far right which is universal averages blackstone has for all the samples they get for the 1GR-FE motor.

They will tell you how long they think you can safely run the oil based on the additives it still has in it, so you can get the most out of your oil.

 

As seen below it shows you the numbers for everything in your oil that could help detect something before it gets obvious/expensive. It may say something about the type of oil you're using, but that's a good question for them. I still use 5w-30.