Blown head gasket?! video posted of the car running?

Question

I have a 96 mustang 3.6L 160k miles. recently did oil change with synthetic. Im driving home from work stopped at a red light and i notice the car idling pretty rough. Uopn hitting the gas at green, i thick white smoke comes from my exhaust. this repeated itself 4-6 times more at other stops while idling. i pulled to a gas station and let it run for a minute. hit the gas huge smoke stack out of the exhaust. it didnt smell bad im pretty sure its water.

I checked the dipstick im low on oil. Low on coolant (naturally i been blowing it out of my exhaust. AND it is not a gravy colored. I repeat not a gravy colored mixture. What do you think it could be?

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1870752720

Answer 1

Almost certainly a blown head gasket.
Stop running it before something else breaks.

Good idea to post a vid of it.

Answer 2

I'm going to say blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head. My Dodge Caravan had a compression leak caused by a couple of things, a cracked cylinder head and corrosion, both which allowed water into the cylinder, and compression into the cooling system. The reason your temperature gauge jumps around is because there's air pockets in the system, and when they hit the temperature sensor, the gauge fluctuates. I see you had the radiator cap off. While it's off and the engine's running, place your hand tight over the opening. If you feel a pulsation, that's another indication of a blown gasket or compression leak. I wold venture a guess that the oil change had nothing to do with it. Foam in the coolant is yet another indication. I've heard that synthetic oil in a higher-mileage engine can cause problems like oil leaking where it never did before because synthetic oil is slipperier. Frankly, my "diagnosis" would be a blown head gasket. It's much more common than cracked blocks or heads. Almost every car I have ever owned has blown a gasket, and the Caravan was the only one with a cracked head. That turned out to be a recurring problem with that motor. Nice job on the video. Good idea. Most people wouldn't have thought of that. They would have tried in vain to describe the poblem.

Answer 3

Thank you thank you thank you. Wow, having a video makes it so much easier.

You say you are a little low on oil, any sign of water in the oil too?

You can't fix this by adding anything to the oil or water, white smoke always means you are burning coolant. Black would indicate oil or transmission fluid.

You're going to have to pull the heads. If you're lucky it will just be a failed head gasket. As long as you haven't overheated it we can hope it's not warped heads, or any cracks anywhere.

But step one is pulling the heads and looking at things closely.

I doubt the oil change is anything more than coincidence.

Answer 4

If it is white smoke, check to see if it has a sweet smell. I don't know what concentration of antifreeze you use, but burning antifreeze smells sweet. There is higher pressure in the cooling system so it may be a head gasket, and antifreeze is getting into the cylinder (s) causing the rough idle, obviously coolant isn't as combustible as gas, and the white smoke a result of the car trying to run on water and coolant. You can get a coolant system pressure test done to see, obviously a leak you can't see on the motor may be internal.

Answer 5

i own a repair shop,and from what i can tell its blown a head gasket on it,there are two ways one of these can blow one way lets enough coolant in to the engine to make it smoke like this ,and the other way allows it to get in to the oils,of its blown just in a small water jacket it will smoke like this,and the bad thing about is ,they usually don't give any warning signs that their going to blow either,the only other thing it could be is a cracked head and again these wont give any warning either they just crack,one thing is for sure though it may have to be tore down to be repaired,i have seen one car and it too was a mustang do this and it had a bad intake gasket on it,but it was mixing a small amount in the oil and yours isn't,try running a compression check on it,this will tell you maybe which cylinder has blown the gasket at,good luck i hope this help,s.

Answer 6

When it comes to car smoke here is the color key code; Blue grey = Oil, Black = Gas and White = Water. So yes you have a bad head gasket and also yes the water mixing with the oil ends up looking like gravy too !! I know these symptoms so well I did have to look at the Vid.

Answer 7

definitely looks and sounds like a blown head gasket i had this happen on a few fords and chevies before. the symptoms you describe are the same i experinced. if you get the head redone be sure they put in new head bolts as the old ones get stretched when you torque them in.also have the head pressure checked for leaks nad to be sure hav e the block checked as well. ididnt do that and the head blew again. better safe than sorry this will save you money in the long run.i say it is the head gasket because on my escort as well as a cavalier they ran rough like you said and the water was goin out the exhaust.pull a plug it will probably be al discolored and possibly smell of antifreeze. also when the car is running put your hand in the exhaust stream(smoke) and see if it smells like antifreeze.

Answer 8

3.8 v-6 engines are common to have a blown head gasket. I've done countless head gasket jobs on those 3.8 motors. Understand that Ford did not make the head gasket. They buy the gaskets,any gasket from an independent manufacturer and installs them on their Ford engines. The year 1995-1997 where the worst batch they got from the gasket making company. So for a little knowledge for those people who always bad mouth Fords, they should bad mouth the gasket making company for giving Ford a bad name. I drive a 1997 T-Bird with 114k miles on it and drive everyday to work with no problems. And I go to work fixing Acuras with bad transmissions.

Answer 9

The 3.8 are known for headgasket failures.Also timing cover gasket failure with this coolant gets into oil.eventually takes out crankshaft bearing.Get this checked !!!

Answer 10

can't tell from video but to see if you have a blown head gasket take your oil cap off and you will have grey gooy stuff on it.