Head gasket?

[Motorhead350]

I was out last night with a few tuner kids talking cars. I told them how I shoot a ton of gray smoke out back when I give my car half to WOT. One of them told me it was a head gasket. I thought my problem could be due to the piston rings, but they said piston ring issues shoot out blue smoke... plus someone said it would be happening all the time, not just hard acceleration... if the pistons or piston rings would be a problem.

So does gray smoke = bad head gasket?

If this actually is the case and it's changed, would my ticking sound go away too? The ticking only happened in gear. I can rev it all I want in park and neutral with no tick, put it in drive or brake torque it and it will tick.

Finally if I have to change the head gaskets myself, does the engine have to be lowered to get the passenger side head off?

Thanks!

BTW I know I asked about gray smoke before, but I never got a straight answer.

Thanks!

[jstevens]

I had a Linx Escort (I think) and it had a blown headgasket or so I was told.

Whenever I came to a stop the car had tons of white smoke come out.

[slickster]

if theres water leaking from exhaust or your oil looks like gravy then it could be. keep an eye on your temp gauge and check oil very often you dont want coolent mixing with your oil then cakeing up in your motor then blocking the coolent ports

[MrBluGruv]

if theres water leaking from exhaust or your oil looks like gravy then it could be. keep an eye on your temp gauge and check oil very often you dont want coolent mixing with your oil then cakeing up in your motor then blocking the coolent ports

And given all this ^ criteria, I don't think your engine would last very long if you had a genuine head gasket problem.

Wouldn't that problem exacerbate itself as time went on as well? (wouldn't mind correction on that if I'm wrong.)

[Papillon]

You're running rich with a broken piston your seeing black smoke combined with the slight blue from your blowby of the broken piston. You'll also hear the tick more in gear because the engine now has a load from the convertor

[Motorhead350]

Wow. Ok then. Thanks Vu.

[Joe Walsh]

You're running rich with a broken piston your seeing black smoke combined with the slight blue from your blowby of the broken piston. You'll also hear the tick more in gear because the engine now has a load from the convertor

Paul....That there woman is a keeper!!!

[Blackened300a]

Paul....That there woman is a keeper!!!

Shes only this smart when she leaves the computer logged on. ;)

[RF Overlord]

Shes only this smart when she leaves the computer logged on. ;):eek:

So what happened AFTER you woke up in hospital?

[Motorhead350]

Looks like there is no way around this. Its not as simple as breaking the law.