Could someone verify or deny if it is possible for a head gasket to be blown if you park the truck (93 F-250 7.3 IDI) after a normal day, and attempt to crank it the next morning and all i have is a terrible noise and white smoke? do head gaskets go out like that?

tskinner

 

What terrible noise? Are you loosing water? Could be gaskets, an injector, or the dreaded pinholed cylinder. Does it try to lock up on the starter?

 

Just did headgaskets in 1990 7.3, Was driving one day no smoke, fired up in morning next day, lots of white smoke but cleared up, rad was down some on start up, refilled and as truck warmed up it started pushing compression into rad.{bubble/bubble/bubble} Needed to verify head gasket not porous cyl, pulled glow plugs till found coolant, brought that cyl to TDC and drained oilfrom pan and pressure tested rad. Coolant came out the glow plug hole, not out the pan.{usually pporous cyl are at the very bottom of stroke}. Teardown verified the headgasket fire ring blown out, Got heads done at machine shop, and presto, reassemled and back on road.

Hope this helps, DON'T LEAVE YOUR ENGINE WITH COOLANT IN OIL/CYLINDER verylong , It can do other damage too!!!!!

 

There is one heck of an explanation to find a problem. Thank you sir. I had one nimrod try to convince me that leaving the antifreeze in the pan will help keep the bearings cool. I think he is walking today. Y'all stay safe and pay attention to your ride. Bill

 

no water in injectors or Gplugs. losts of white smoke that does not go away and a terrible rattle noise with not much power. it starts right up...Gplugs are good, tested all. in proces of testing all injectors. if not injectors should i check the inj pump then go to the head gasket? if block is pinholed or piston scored...how do i determine such?


tskinner

 

One test I did was I let it run a while to normal temp. then parked it over night. In morning, went and opened radiator cap and "PHSSSSH". Pressure came out, indicating a compressin leak into the cooloing system. So, I pulled the heads. No apparent damage to the Gaskets was visable, but the heads were warped quite a bit. I am now getting it back together. I had white smoke on one bank only, so I was pretty sure it was a headgasket problem. I have dual exhausts.

 

Pulling the glowplugs doesnt assure you that is is not a pinhole problem. Just because there is only raditor fluid in one of them doesnt mean anything. It could mean that the head gasket is just worn out around that one cylinder. This is not too likely, and would most likely only happen on a front or end cylinder.