Blown head gasket?

[smoked28]

Ok so I was driving my car pretty hard this afternoon and all of a sudden I stopped at a light and noticed the car was smoking from the hood and the temp guage was maxed out. I pulled over as quickly as possible and turned the car off. I popped the hood and realized my fan cable was split at the connector(this is the fan controlled by temp) and the other fan (controlled by the ac) was off because I wasn't running the ac. So the car was operating with no fan. I then ran up the street and got coolant. It drank 5 qts of coolant. I was starting it up and pouring it in. I let it cool down for a while and then got it started(took about 5 mins, kept dying) and drove it 30 miles home. The whole ride the temp didn't go above half way and I didn't notice any difference in performance. Once I got home I got it started right back up no problem. My issue is right before I noticed my car overheating the driver behind me saw white smoke coming from the car(they said it was the exhaust but then said maybe it was just coming from the hood and moving back. But now it isn't smoking. But could a hg do this? I thought it was very weird that it needed that much coolant. And also as I was pouring the coolant in it would randomly start spewing some out if I stopped for just a sec( remember though the car is on). Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

[ehc14]

Seems like the white smoke could be from burning the coolant, which would explain it taking so much coolant. Definitely makes sense to me to be a blown head gasket. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Phantom DSM]

After reading your post i remember an issue like this happening to me awhile back on a truck we had.. sucks man WTF
In the morning open the the cap on the thermostat housing and start the car, if its filled as you had it then just watch for the bubbles. A really bad head gasket will start spewing out within maybe couple minutes...where as if it was fine it would take awhile since the engine is still warming up.
Since this was a random occurence due to fan wiring and the car overheated while you were driving, then hopefully you did not let the car run super hot until you pulled over.
See if it smokes while your waiting for bubbling of the coolant, and if it smells sweet.
If the engine is still doing fine, let it warm up and squeeze the radiator hoses as its fully warm, and wait for the thermostat to open, they should be full and you can feel coolant rushing to the radiator.
Probably stuck thermostat has been giving you problems, and hopefully you fixed fan wiring already. If they do not switch on once car is fully warm, checkthe engine coolant temp sensor
These are just tell tale visuals and checking if water and oil are mixing..If all fails do a compression test to see health of your motor,watch for abnormal compression differences as they should be around 10 or so of each other..anything less than 121 psi on cylinders is service limit for head gasket as well but have seen motors run with less compression with equal numbers..weird but true
Hope this helps and members correct me if im wrong.. report back and let us know

 

[smoked28]

Thanks for the advice! I am working night shift tonight so it will be later in the day when I check it tomorrow but I'll definitely try that. When I was trying to add the coolant the car was still pretty hot( had only let it sit for maybe 15 mins) so maybe it was just not cooled down enough yet? Or perhaps that's wishful thinking...
But I just drove the car around the block for my lunch break a few minutes ago and it seemed to get hot pretty quick. It had been sitting for about 2 hours( I'm assuming long enough to fully cool down?) and once again it started right up normally but the temp raised to halfway within a few mins. It stayed there and never got any higher, but I'm not sure if it's normal or not for it to raise so quickly. I could just be reading into it to much.

 

[Phantom DSM]

Well its good to hear that its not overheating if it stays in the middle right now, im assuming you got the fan connection working and the passenger side fan kicks in once its warm and shuts off once it cools down.. let us know on the tests tomorrow also, glad to help man !

 

[smoked28]

No I am fixing the fan tomorrow(Or later today I guess since it's AM). For now I have the air running so that the driver side fan stays on which seams to be working for now.

 

[gusu]

Check to see if your oil is milky and if you really think its blown at least do a leak down test to check.

Also this would be a great time to replace radiator hoses, heater core hoses, and the coolant lines that run to the throttle body. I once had a radiator hose that had a very slow leak that would really open up and drain coolant once it got too low. Seems how it was at the firewall it was very easy to miss. I honestly don't think this sounds like a head gasket because with a blown headgasket or a bad water pump they tend to leak even with the car off and sitting and will drain out the coolant really fast if you turn the car on. This sounds like a slow leak that is easy to miss and your coolant just got too low.

 

[smoked28]

That would make sense also because when I first bought the car it was very low on coolant but I just filled it up and didn't really think much of it. But this is the most I've been able to drive it ever(longest it's lasted before breaking down) so it could have leaked out and that mixed with the lack of fans could have caused this mess. Now one question though, could the overheating have caused a lot of problems? Anything I should check for?

Oh, and I had checked the oil right after I pulled over and it wasn't milky. Haven't checked it recently but will when I get off.

This is a video of my car starting after sitting a few hrs. Can anyone point me in the right direction as to what that noise could be? A belt maybe? I check my oil and it looked like coffee(golden dark brown) and it took about half a qt of coolant. Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obO_uHUBAew&feature=youtube_gdata_player