jsope

I'm trying to figure out what to do before spending a lot of money on the fix. I have a '90 vette (L98) with 100k miles. I drive it monthly to maintain it. The other day, when i started it, there was a lot of white smoke coming from the tail pipes while idling/warming up. After I drove it for a few minutes, it went away. After driving it, i checked the fluids. When I checked the dipstick, looked like there was water mixed in it. It had a beige/mikly color to it. The car never over heated and doesn't over heat. Also, seemed like my coolant reservoir was very low in coolant. Any ideas? Is it the head gasket for sure? That's such an expensive fix.

tbirdsps

There's really no other way to get water in the oil unfortunately except for cracked head or block. Likely head gaskets. You can do a compression check and probably pinpoint which side and which cylinder.

Baller

L98 with 100K you're most likely looking at the head gasket leaking on #7. It's a real common issue.

They're not real bad to replace and the biggest danger is a case of the "while I'm at it"'s creeping in.

Easy way to avoid dropping the pan is to do the following;

1. Before you start drain the oil and put a large pan underneath so you can let it drain over several days while you replace them.

2. After you've replaced them put on a sacrificial filter and add a couple of quarts of flush and some oil

3. Get a primer and using a drill run it for several minutes to flush everywhere

4. Rinse & repeat until you get "clean" flush coming up through the lifters

5. Let it sit overnight and then add a fresh filter and clean oil.

Prime it again and you should be good to go... Also, put it up on stands and remove the tires. Makes life much easier.

Edit: Replace that oil and filter after a few hundred or so miles just to be safe.

Only other thing is to make a mental note that if you're ever given 6 months to live to add whoever engineered the valve covers to A/C bracket clearances and some other things to your "people to kill" list.

Cliff Harris

Pull out all the spark plugs and examine the ends. The ones that are OK will have black soot on the bottom. If you have a blown head gasket then one or more will be clean on the end. The one on the left came out of #7 on my car (the cylinder with the blown head gasket):

Cliff Harris

They had to put the AC compressor where it is so the pulleys would line up. Look at the setup for a Denso AC compressor and you will see that they had to move it way out to clear everything.

VikingTrad3r

ill probably get flamed but depending on your financial situation u could try head gasket repair stuff that goes in the rad? i think its success rate is about 50% from the research i have done. i chose to replace my gasket so i havnt tried it but just throwing it out there.

one thing i read is that if it does work.....let it harden up for a few weeks, then drain coolant from rad and knock sensor and refill with new 50/50 rad fluid. the "plug" should stay if it worked.