New B2200 owner, questions about head gasket

So I just got a 1991 B2200 SE-5. Been looking for a truck for awhile and got this for $400 Canadian! Very happy here.

Owner hadn't driven it in a couple of months and said "there is a head gasket problem because it overheats a little".

I drove it home, no problems. Doesn't overheat in the Summer on short trips. Everything seems fine but:

Sometimes when starting cold, the choke stays open and it puffs what looks like white smoke like nobodies business, huge clouds. Then I'll start it the next day and everything's fine - no more smoke than usual, automatic choke seems to work fine.

No white goop in the oil that I can see.

After reading about the head issues with these I'm paranoid. What should I check? should I be worried? what's the worst case? don't want to do work if I don't have to, obviously!

Sounds to me like the valve seals are going, if there's no oil in the water and no water in the oil, and like you said don't smoke all the time.. that's where I'd start

Im with this guy^^^^^ Does the smoking stop once the engine warms up? If it does i would say for sure its the valve stem seals.






-Justin

a mazda that doesn't smoke is one to worry about. unless its got a complete rebuilt motor with very few miles on it. most common cause of this cloud of smoke on cold start (first start of the day) is valve stem seals. what happens is, after driving the truck or running it up to operating temp the oil thins, when you shut the truck off the oil seaps pass the valve stem seals into the cylinders. then when you fire the truck back up it has to burn the oil out of the cylinders. wont hurt anything other then your neighbors feelings maybe. keep an eye on the oil level and you should be ok.

Thanks all for the input! Going to get it fixed and in the process check everything out - nice little truck and looking forward to doing more with it.

Our neighbors don't own a car and bike everywhere, so I'll live with hurting their feelings for awhile

Sounds to me as normal for these, but might just need a new radiator, if it overheats/runs hot on longer freeway trips.

I somewhat agree, pretty much every one I've seen with an original engine smokes before hitting 100,000 miles. However, I got the one that doesn't! Just tripped 220,000 miles on original engine and still no smoke. It does have a few leaks, though. I guess it balances out. Sorry for thread jacking.