white smoke, head gasket?

[drewmp28]

I just put a motor in my 88 LX it was a 302 from a 93GT, hooked it all up and it runs, but I was leaking coolant at the throttle body and EGR spacer and it was coming out of the tailpipes. I took replaced all the gaskets at the throttle body and EGR spacer, no leak there now, and I don''t see the green coolant coming out of the pipes, but there seems to be an excessive amount of white smoke ( it is cold here now about 20 degrees) and has a little water dripping fromt he pipes now. I have read several posts saying that coolant will make you blow a head gasket, would I of got the coolant in there to mess that up when it went through to the tailpipe? how can I tell, it seems to run good, just the smoke. ANy ideas! I don't want to do further damage!

thanks

Have you drove it any? How long have you let it run? Enough to get the motor to normal operating temperature? After I replaced my upper & lower intakes last month and started my '90 GT, it spit some smoke out of the tail pipes and there was some water coming out of the pipes too. I let it idle for over 5 minutes...and nothing changed! I was freaking out at first, because that had never happened to me. It was really cold the night that this happened too, so I know that had something to do with it. Because when I took it for a quick drive and came back...the smoke and water was gone. So really it was just condensation that was coming out of the pipes...and it looked like it was smoking some do to the cold weather. So maybe you'll be ok. Have you checked your oil & water? Any water in the oil? Or oil in the water? Those are signs of a blown head gasket.

[drewmp28]

I just finished the engine swap this last weekend and haven't really run it more than a mile here or there. I may be being paranoid, but after that leak witht he collant comming out of the tailpipes, which I fixed, I want to make sure it didn't mess something else inside there. I am going to take it out on the highway to night and run it a while and see if it's just condesation or left over from the leak earlier.

I will check the oil/water issue

Right on. Let us know the outcome.

[Roket]

I agree..i did the same thing when i changed my intake. I sucked coolant through the motor..just run it real good, and watch the temp gauge.

[Jthompson]

When the head gaskets went out on my thunderchicken, it filled the pipes with coolant like yours.

After I replaced the head gasket and ran the car, I had clouds and clouds of white smoke, and coolant smoke. I immediately thought My head gasket was bad again. However, I drove the car around. Took about 10 mins, but the smoke finally all burned out. Chances are, you are ok. However, coolant loves to ruin catalytic converters. You need to make sure your converters are not clogged now, because if they are, and it causes too much back pressure, well there goes a headgasket.

[drewmp28]

I checked the oil no water, I ran it hard last night for a while, I think it's OK, I am probabkly just being paranoid, it still has some smoke but hten again it is cold here, just seems a little excessive. Althoguh no unusual odor, and no more coolant leaking, so I will just keep an eye on it. The temp is right on it's not overheating at all. thanks for your input!

[stock89]

I dunno drew.

COA 1 - light it on fire and push down driveway. Collect insurance.
COA 2 - Rebuild engine with assistance of neighbor. Make him do all the work.
COA 3.....

Decision matrix says.....

HAHAHAHAHA! It sucks man!

[drewmp28]

actually it's running great now, so I think I wil keep the insurance money, seeing that I would not get enough from that to make a difference!