Is this a blown head gasket?

So I've had my used 2017 TRD Sport (110000kms / ~69,000mi) for a week, and twice when the engine was cold, I thought I saw a small amount of white smoke coming from my exhaust. I chalked it up to a cool morning and a cold engine.

Today, after driving normally (no hard accelerations or shifts) in heavy traffic to and from work (about 80km / 50mi), I parked it at home for a couple of hours, so the engine was probably 'cold' again, and then went out to run an errand. When I started driving I noticed more white smoke. Then at a few intersections I was leaving the poor sucker behind me in a good thick cloud of it. I stopped the truck at my destination for about 10 minutes. I was ready to call for a tow, so I started her up again and waited for a smoke show, but NOTHING. I drove home and not one little stream of that white cloudy smoke came out of the exhaust. I didn't think that would happen if the head gasket actually failed. I would have expected the smoke to get worse and worse if the engine kept running. I've had 1 other vehicle with a fully blown head gasket and that was an EPIC smoke show.

It's late here so I'm going to wait until morning to look under the hood to check for coolant in the oil, but does anyone know what the cause of that exhaust smoke might be other than burning coolant??

I tried searching this site for this issue but it seems like it's really rare for this to happen to a Tacoma.

Thanks all...

 

Go out in the morning, Take the cap off of you radiator. Start the truck and look into your radiator. Watch for small bubbles, It might take a little bit so give it some time. These bubbles are Exhaust Gases escaping through a Hole in the Head Gasket in you have a hole. That would be a quick way of checking in your driveway.

 

compression test. take it to a local mechanic to get it done.
might be the famous #3 piston?

 

check oil, see if it has coolant in it. Also check coolant and oil levels, if they’re low, and you don’t see any leaks, there’s a good chance the engine is burning one or the other.

edit: include your location( better yet, the temps you’ve been noticing this in), it’s common to have moisture burn out of exhaust in cold climates.

 

Looks like a Canadian. Coming upon summer, but could still be cooler up north.

 

I will do the checks in the morning for sure.

I'm located in Toronto, and in the mornings the lowest temp it has been (since I picked up this truck last week) was about 14C / 57F, possibly below the dew point but I don't know for sure. Today when I noticed the cloud coming out of the exhaust it was past 9pm, and the air temp was probably around 21C / 70F.

The strange thing to me is that it did not continue to billow out as I would expect if the head gasket had failed. It completely stopped after I stopped the engine for about 10 minutes.

 

What is the famous #3 piston?

I recenty had one of my exhaust valves on cylinder 4 on a 2010 2WD 2.4L 4-cyl burn up (a big chunk). Mind you she had a good life at 375,000km / 234,000 mi with ZERO engine issues up to that point (had to replace the clutch master cylinder and line because of rust, and a seized AC compressor)

 

Could be a slow drip that pools in the cylinder(s) when the truck is off, creates issues after a few minutes of running and then clears up after the coolant burns off. That is a pretty common senario for a slow leak. But, get it checked out for sure. Two posts on TW in one day for possible head gasket issues. That's weird.

 

I thought the same thing. Some issues seem to come in little waves. Then nothing.

 

The best way IMO to check if coolant is getting into any of your cylinders is to pull the spark plugs, let it sit overnight and have a looksie with a borescope (which you can get decent ones for cheap on Amazon that will bluetooth the video your phone). It’ll be obvious if there’s any coolant in there because it should be 100% dry in all cylinders. You may have to repeat the process a couple times to get a good view of every cylinder though, since some of the pistons will be at the top and you may not be able to get a good view until you turn it over and get them lower (but then you must leave it to sit for a while again because turning it over will blow out any unseen coolant). You will need to pull the EFI fuse before all of this too, otherwise the injectors will spray fuel into the cylinders when you turn it over, and ruin the test. If you already know which cylinder(s) are missing from the check engine codes, then you can cut to the chase and just inspect the problem cylinders only.

Compression tests don’t always pick up small leaks. Block tests (to check for combustion gases in the coolant) can be hit or miss - I’ve personally had more than one vehicle pass a block test but I saw coolant pooling in a cylinder with my own eyes (a small HG leak can seal up after the engine runs for a little bit and no gases will be found in the test). Leak down tests are fine, but all engines are going to leak down some, so a small HG leak may not always be detected. That’s why a visual confirmation with a borescope is what I prefer.

 

Okay, did the test this morning. Coolant level was normal (between marks) and no bubbles with the cap off and the engine running for 10 minutes.

I checked under the engine and there is no evidence of any leaks.

The engine oil level was at the LOW mark before I started it up, then dropped to just the end of the dipstick after she warmed up. I should have checked the level before I drove her off the lot last week so I don't know whether it was low to start with.

 

Just got a blown head gasket on a fucking 2022 with 10k miles. Goodluck

 

That's what warranty is for

 

It's possible. I just had mine replaced under warranty at 100k. They found them to be "leaking" (not blown to my knowledge). This was only found after they took it to repair the timing cover leak and found the water pump leaking as well. All covered under the extended warranty for me, luckily. There were no drivability issues and no codes.

 

Get OBDII app.
Slow leaking hg will cause misfires on startup
Also, early production trucks had this white smoke issue at the beginning. Related to DI cleaning cycles.

 

Has it overheated at all?

Don't hit the panic button yet. Watch the coolant level for 2-3 weeks and see if it goes down slowly. If it's not going down you don't have a leak

 

correct, you don't know.
So mark the coolant bottle, and measure, take a pic, whatever way to mark new engine oil mark. Also use same sequence to check.

 

50, out of a over a million, if not 2 on the road in various models.
I will take those odds any day

 

a few threads here about it failing. someone may post a link, i can't find it but it is a known issue.