maxxman04

98 vortec motor. just replaced drivers side head gasket, put all back together, fired it up and HUGE clouds of white with a bluish tint smoke pouring out of exhaust. ran fine, idled well, but smoking heavy. shut off, now won't restart. head was supposedly ok (shop said so), anybody got ideas?

nauticstar87

Think maybe after a new head gasket you have a coolant into oil, or to much oil ppouring into the cylinders? I'm just trying to give ya ideas, I'm not to sure.

maxxman04

preeshyate yer input hoss. was thinkin same, but not sure either. read somewhere to let it run for half hour, see if it clears, but not wantin to do that really. can't take the chance of blowing up motor (can't afford to replace). at a loss.

suzuki-guy

Do a compression check to make sure you put the head on right! could still be leaking. Also did you follow the torque sequence when you put it on? Check your dip stick and make sure it does not look like chocolate milk. Check these things then report back.

maxxman04

suzuki, the latest is, the smoking stopped after about half hour of running. i had done a wet compression on #3 (forgot i did) so i believe that's where the smoke was coming from. it was a bluish, tho light bluish, color. did have a slight sweet smell like coolant, but no water in oil, no oil in water, so i believe it too was excess, maybe some that got into the downpipe. motor did not overheat the entire time, ran pretty smooth, idled pretty smooth. i'm letting it cool now, gonna start later to see if it does smoke on start up, which would lead me to the valve seals. for now, no smoking. thank you guys, i'll keep updated.

suzuki-guy

Yeah it was probably what was left over from the replacment burning out of there.

mudmaniac

I hope it was from the wet compression test, otherwise it may be that valve seal since the comperssion is still low. Was there any difference between the dry and wet check?

maxxman04

no difference in wet or dry, smoke was probably from wet test cause it stopped. called shop, they said they did pressure test on head and springs, checked it for warpage, none. but that's what they said. spent a bit to have it checked. trying to figure out how bad valve seals would affect compression. anyone know?

maxxman04

pulled head back off, took it to a better shop. no cracks, i watched them check, guides are good, i watched that too. it seems tho that #3 exh vavle isn't seating quite right, so they gonna re-cut the seats and valves on whole head. i'll get it back, assemble it, new seals, another new head gasket, and go from there. meanwhile, gonna pull the other head, even tho compression is good, plugs are good, just for peace of mind. should have it all back together within the week. will update with results.

car5car

When you repair engine some oil and antifreeze go in exhaust. It can take 1 hour driving or more to burn it off. It can take weeks because the best way to burn it is to run engine at high RPM on driveway in hot day. Idea is to heat up exhaust as much as possible which is better to do when weather is hot, high RPM and 0 speed. It takes even longer if I spray oil or ATF in cylinders to release rings. It took me about 5 hours of driving Lincoln Mark 8 after engine repair to get rid of smoke. I drove it at night and smoke was horrible!
Let us say you repaired engine in January. You can keep driving w/o smoke and then in June temperature went to 100 degrees and engine "begins" to smoke burning off oil near tail pipe.
If you believe your repair was bad check spark plugs and compression. Spark plugs will show oil.
Valve seals don't affect compression.