pics M42:blown head gasket...not convinced

[Slick92GS-R]

ok...E36 M42 194xxx miles

1. white smoke while motor is running
2. temp ran hot
3. milk oil on dip stick
4. milky oil under oil cap
5. car still ran, but idled rough...

head gasket, right ? ..

well I pulled the plugs...they look normal

meh..

might as well pull the head...

this is what I found:

[Slick92GS-R]

maybe i'm blind... but i don't really see any evidence of a bad head gasket..

[Hick]

why didnt you do a compression check first?

could of been a bad vacuum leak

[Good & Tight]

What is all that orange stuff on the head..?

[Slick92GS-R]

What is all that orange stuff on the head..?

that is the head gasket still attached to the head .. i'm not sure if thats OEM orange ...lol..

[Slick92GS-R]

why didnt you do a compression check first?

could of been a bad vacuum leak

can a bad vacuum leak could cause white smoke & milky oil?

[Hick]

a bad vacuum leak can cause whitish foamy oil... looks like 'milky' oil if you are looking under the oil filler cap/valve cover.

M42/M44's have the coolant/vacuum manifold under the intake. im not sure how close the lines come to crossing but it could allow coolant to leak into the vacuum lines.

Did it lose any coolant?

Also, M42 heads were known to crack in between the combustion chamber and coolant passages. Have the head pressure checked.

[Under_Pressure]

Never take off a head until u do a leakdown and compression test. Could have been several things at once causing your problem. But to answer your question no looks like the headgasket was good. White smoke is coolant so go from there. How offen did u have to refill your coolant?

[3bvert]

my car had a known/suspected blown head gasket when I bought it, ( basket case). therostat hzd been pulled, block sealer put in, symptoms still there, hot running, h20 in oil, using water. according to po, car ran fine, just ran real hot, and h2o in oil, so I suspect early on, wehn valve closed , compressio was good and he said that it passed a leak down test, when cold
( price paid for car was well worth the gamble)
pulled apart, but all looked good at first glance
no visible cracks until a leak down/ pressure bench test showed crack in a very hard to see place, up in the exsaust valve guide area, down into seat, only "visible" with exsasut valve out

head gasket looked fine,block and head were flat, so h20 was only getting into combustion area through open exsaust valve, adn water into oil in the crack area, but I think most of the h20 was probabally going out the exsaust pipe

so like other said, do a bench pressure test on head

side note, at the time I had a very difficult time, finding a good used head, so the shop welded mine up, been a year now, no prblems, knock on wood
many say dont weld them up, but there are several shops in the area that specialize in aluminum and alloy heads
but now have a good head on the shelf when time comes

[2002maniac]

take the head to a machine shop and have it pressure tested. I bet it's cracked.