hey, im still fairly new to the forum and havent posted much, mostly cuz i havent had alot to say coupled with the fact that ive been reading up on all the other posts, faq's, etc... i didnt know whether to post this in the general forum or if it would matter. yet, here i am writing, more or less venting from the day's shortcomings. i discovered that i either blew my head gasket or have cracked my headers. what a joy this was to hear (sarcasm). so in advance to those that will respond with "dude, sorry to hear that...hope it works out ok" i say "thank you". for those of you that actually took the time to read this post, i will keep you informed on a fellow 240sx owners progress if you care for me to...lol... but this is mostly to say to those that do post, thanks for the insight in my quest to learn as much as possible about my car. keep up the good work

 

well...welcome i thinklol. Sorry to hear bout the car, you push the car to far? How many miles is on it?

 

no...i havent really pushed it at all. it has the sr20 swap...the guy i bought it from said he bought it with about 45 on it...i bought it from him prolly 4-5 months later..... im not too mechanically inclined so i dont know if the gasket or headers were replaced with the engine or if they are stock....now i know that the people that i took the car to said thats what it was because of the white smoke that i was blowing. it only smokes off and on though..not at all predictable though it does NOT smoke while i run, only in idle, but as i said, unpredictably. from what they said, this is because of condensation thus, a blown gasket or cracked header...but my smoke has smell to it...is that common with the diagnosis they presented? someone else said it may have been oil leaking in my turbo or getting loaded op in my injector...one of my injectors does get hung up at idle...but i dont know too much as i said before so any info that can be preesented to me would be awesome...i just want to exhaust all possibilities before droppin a grand for all the frickin work that would be...thanx

 

I think if you blew a head gasket, you'd be seeing a lot more smoke than normal coming out of the exhaust, I forgot what color it'd be though. I THINK, I dunno, I'm not a master mechanic, you COULD try and do a compression test on all cylinders.

 

blown head gasket means oil in the coolant, check for that.

Dr.

 

Welcome to the forums and sorry to hear about the car, and hope everything works out for ya

 

welcome. my condolences on ur car. the smoke could be a sign of a coolant/oil mixture. if that's the case (like Doc said), it's the gasket for sure.

 

yeah i think it would be the headgasket. does the car get pretty hot or has it ever over heated??? also, check around where the block meets the head, sometimes u might get some seapage and u will see the oil and/or coolent leaking too!!

good luck and i hope all works out well!!

 

no...ive never overheated it nor does it run really hot. it runs about as warm as any other engine. but that doesnt exactly rule out the headgasket i dont think...i dunnno. im gonna put in an additive to the radiator and see if it seals up the crack etc.. if i stop smokin then thats what it is for sure....i really hope its not though..thanks for the replies and help

 

what colour is the smoke ? i dont think a crack in the header would cause this..and it doesnt sound like a broken headgaskit.. but maybe a broken cat converter.. but thats just my theory...

 

its white smoke, as said in one of my earlier posts. there are a bunch of diagnostics that i have been given to what it is...but not sure yet. thanks

 

White smoke is one sign that you could have a blown head gasket. This comes from coolant/water boiling off and exiting your exhaust as steam. This can also cause a non-stainless exhaust to rot off from the inside out.. but that's the least of your problems.
If your car overheats regularly, is getting poor gas mileage and hesitates or is extremely sluggish, you may have one BUT these symptoms can be caused by other things.
The most effective ways to diagnose a BHG are with a block tester [can get one from NAPA] to check for exhaust fumes in the cooling system and/or to have a leakdown test performed.
I thought that a blown head gasket would more often be indicated by coolant in the oil, rather than oil in the coolant?
If you drop your oil pan and see a milkshake floating on top, you're done.
You can open your oil fill cap and look under. If you see this, you may have a big problem as well: