Is my headgasket done?

[DeNoZZo]

I recently put a new valve cover on, and since then my car has started leaking oil (not from valve cover), shooting out water vapor and drops, and puffing faint white smoke. The car runs fine, and does not overheat. But I am at 140k and I don't know if it's ever been replaced. I checked the oil, and it does not look milkish. I checked the oil cap, and it looks fine. There is coolant in the resivoir, but not as much as there used to be. I also noticed that the coolant pipe is full of coolant even when the car is completely cooled off (like it's not draining back in to the tank). Another thing worth mentioning is that the line from the resivoir to the thermostat was leaking coolant a while back, but then quit. I have a new line on order.

Thanks!

 

[romeen]

Do a compression test.

 

[JusMX141]

Oil leaks on a car with that age is normal. Every seal on that engine is as hard as a brick....especially the cam seals.

Water vapor out the exhaust is 100% normal for any car until it reaches operating temperature....hell even my DRZ110 pitbike has a small amount of water in the exhaust when it's cold, and it's engine is air-cooled.

The faint white smoke could be the water vapor if the engine is cold, or if it's hot you may be seeing oil smoke from valve seals or a leaky turbine seal on your 14B. Again, nothing to worry about unless it gets worse quickly.

You'll know when your head gasket is leaking- water on the ground, overheating, the coolant recovery bottle keeps filling itself up mysteriously with the water from your cooling system....lots of fun stuff.

 

[DeNoZZo]

Oil leaks on a car with that age is normal. Every seal on that engine is as hard as a brick....especially the cam seals.

Water vapor out the exhaust is 100% normal for any car until it reaches operating temperature....hell even my DRZ110 pitbike has a small amount of water in the exhaust when it's cold, and it's engine is air-cooled.

The faint white smoke could be the water vapor if the engine is cold, or if it's hot you may be seeing oil smoke from valve seals or a leaky turbine seal on your 14B. Again, nothing to worry about unless it gets worse quickly.

You'll know when your head gasket is leaking- water on the ground, overheating, the coolant recovery bottle keeps filling itself up mysteriously with the water from your cooling system....lots of fun stuff.

Thanks a lot man, thats comforting

 

[winterftbl]

I would check your valve cover for leaks.

 

[DeNoZZo]

I would check your valve cover for leaks.

From what I can see it's not leaking. But it was leaking pretty bad the day I changed it and the gasket. I retorqued the bolts and it quit leaking.

Could the oil leak potentially be from oil dripping down, just taking a while?

 

[romeen]

I would clean off all the oil. Then let the car idle and look for the source of the leak.

Did you mess around with the PCV system when you changed the valve cover gasket? If you did then you might be pressurizing the crankcase thus causing the oil leak. Make sure that both the PCV and valve cover breather lines are both connected.

 

[DeNoZZo]

I would clean off all the oil. Then let the car idle and look for the source of the leak.

Did you mess around with the PCV system when you changed the valve cover gasket? If you did then you might be pressurizing the crankcase thus causing the oil leak. Make sure that both the PCV and valve cover breather lines are both connected.

I just used the old pcv valve.

and the breather tube is connected

 

[romeen]

It could very well be your PCV valve leaking boost pressure into the crankcase in turn causing an oil leak. But I would start by trying to isolate the source of the leak. Like I said clean off all the oil. Let car get up to operating temp while idling and try to pinpoint the leak.

 

[den600]

happened to me had a seal in the turbo leaking into the exhaust housing car ran suprisingly good just smoke leaked water that came from the outside of the exhaust housing. so oil heating up in the exhaust housing created white smoke i thought that the head gasket was blown if is a seal u will notice a small amount of oil on the outside of the turbo atleast i did

 

[DeNoZZo]

happened to me had a seal in the turbo leaking into the exhaust housing car ran suprisingly good just smoke leaked water that came from the outside of the exhaust housing. so oil heating up in the exhaust housing created white smoke i thought that the head gasket was blown if is a seal u will notice a small amount of oil on the outside of the turbo atleast i did

I think that might be the problem because there was some oil on the turbo and surrounding parts.