Head gasket leaking, what to do next?

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I had only rebuilt old VW engines before, and that was 25+ years prior. This cost me $700 out of pocket: new pistons, new rings, new connecting rod bearings, head refurbished by machine shop, FelPro head gasket kit. I also replaced the original by pass hoses and some other stuff while I was in there, see thread.

If the thing is smoking that bad ( and you don't live in subzero temps) try 20w50 oil (preferably synthetic) and a can of bardahl no smoke - this has really worked on many high mileage engines that run fine but smoke.

Cheap and easy to try and could get you by for quite some time.

Just from my experience with this problem of smoking till it warms up when u tear the motor down dump baby powder down the cylinder walls to see if walls are cracked the first mazda I bought the the truck was warm when I saw it ran great but when I got up the next morning filled my apartment complex up with smoke and once it warmed up it stopped walls were cracked and allowing oil to leak onto top of pistons

On my current truck, it started smoking like crazy. When I removed the head from the engine there was oil puddles on the pistons. The block had no cracks. I did new bearings, rings and a reground crank. Running great now! I bought my rebuild parts from the local machine shop that cleaned/tested my block and rebuilt the head. I have had this engine out twice by myself. It gets easier each time!

Good luck!

Update #5: SUCCESS!! Since my December Post, I gathered all the knowledge I could, then parts. I took the engine out, tore it down, and wisely took it to be machined. Machinist decked the block after noticing that the "head gasket seemed to be eating into the block". I put in new rings and pistons. Pistons were burnt up. I took my time putting the engine back together, paying close attention to the shop manual that I got through a post on this site more than 2 years ago. Once I got the engine back in, and with a few minor post-install adjustments (distributor timing), she fired right up. NO SMOKE!! Seemed to be leaking oil to cause the smoke around the area in the top of the block that had been damaged. Thanks for the advice above. Hope to have the truck body work done next, then on to a Weber carb.

Nice to hear you got her up and running!


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