Greetings from sunny Seattle,

I found this website a week ago and this is my first post so please be gentle. I did look for information but found nothing exactly related (maybe I missed a chain about this so please feel free to send a link if it's been posted before). This is my first attempt at a head gasket replacement.

History:

I bought a 1990 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L a couple months ago with 49,500 on it (at an auction). When I was bidding on it, I saw no smoke coming out the tailpipe so I thought I was good to go, well I thought wrong.

Steam was coming out the tailpipe when I started a couple weeks ago and I found some bronze color additive in the coolant, come to find out it was probably that Bar Leak. I naturally thought head gasket so I went on youtube and found some information on replacement.

This is what I've done so far:

• Removed the cylinder head, had it magnafluxed and machined.
• Cleaned mating surface of engine block.
• Replaced the radiator (rusted).
• Replaced valve seals.
• Replaced the water pump and thermostat.
• Drained oil and replaced oil filter.
• Reattached cylinder head (with Felpro gasket set), I cut the head off two old bolts and cut a slit for a flat blade so I could use them as dowel pins to align head gasket, made sure top was pointing towards cylinder head and torqued the bolts according to manual (made the three rounds of torque - inside to outside), except for the back driver side bolt as I couldn't get torque wrench to fit under fire wall overhang. I used the breaker bar to wrench it down. #11 was 100 ft pounds while other bolts were 110 ft pounds.

Also to note - Front of car is about 4 inches higher than rear due to parking on slight incline so there was a bunch of coolant in cylinders 5 and 6 when cylinder head removed.

What's gone on today:

• I removed the fuel pump relay to allow oil pump to prime engine.
• Took off top hose going to heater core from water pump to fill coolant system.

Question for you guys:

I put the relay back in place and started the Jeep and let it run for about fifteen minutes. I'm still getting white smoke coming out the tailpipe and the entire engine bay was smoking (though it did significantly reduce during that time - is this normal?).

I'm wondering if the white smoke is residual in the exhaust and/or the area where the rods sit on the lifters as some coolant went down there due to the slight incline when took the head off as I was parked on or did I just f*** up the head gasket job and need to start over?

I did drain the oil but am not sure if the lifter area drains when I pull the oil pan drain plug.

If it may be residual.....do I just run it for a while and wait for it to burn off? Did I need to remove the coolant/oil combo feature near the lifters somehow?

Sorry for all the details but thought too much info was better than not enough and thought some of this might be pertinent.

Thanks for the help.

 

I would try draining oil and change filter again, let it run and see if the smoke and steam clears..When I did mine the motor bay smoked for a little bit, But then clears..

Ant...

 

Drive it.
Keep an eye on temp gauge.
Your exhaust may have been waterlogged.

 

Start here keep eye on fluids as in oil and coolant . Coolant saturated packing in a muffler can smoke a long time.

 

"SORRY" for the details?

At first I thought you were a liar when you said "sunny Seattle", but once I got past that, I was quite impressed. LOL.

WELCOME! Great informative post and introduction.

I'm with the others. Drive it for a bit.

Once you know it's sound, click on the link in my signature and go to town.

 

Thanks for the posts everyone.....I think I'll drive it for a bit and see if the white smoke reduces coming out of the tailpipe. My eco-friendly neighbors are looking at me cross-eyed as the beast smokes. Hopefully this will dry up and the smoke stops.

 

Forget the neighbors. Go run it down the highway. LOL.

 

Just tell the neighbors you decided to make your Jeep into a hot box since it is now legal in Wash, being from Seattle they will be ok with it

 

First, thanks for all the help. I do have another question though.

I ran the car for an hour...the first 15 minutes was smoking nonstop. Once the car heated up a bit (temperature fluctuated between just before the 2 of 210 and the 1 of 210), it stopped smoking completely.

I let the car sit for 2 hours and started back up, again it smoked bad for 15 minutes then went away. Again the temperature never went above 210.

I think you guys were right about the muffler being saturated with coolant as once the exhaust heated up, the smoke went away but I don't want to assume anything.

Is this what I should see with the coolant saturating the exhaust?

 

Is it loosing coolant ? Is it loosing oil? I sure after the first time it stopped smoking it should not return again. What colors the smoke ?

 

Thanks for the response freegdr, I don't think it's just a little condensation at this point, it's a cloud of smoke.

This is what I've done since my initial post:

I realized that I didn't use a proper sealing compound on #11 when attaching the cylinder head initially. I pulled the lower radiator hose to drain, removed #11, put on the proper thread sealer and let it cure overnight.

Did not replace oil but put Seafoam in oil to dry any water which may have seeped through #11.

This is also what I'm seeing:

Right at start up wisp of white smoke.
One minute later white smoke cloud starts.
Smoke gets worse and stays around for about 10 minutes.
Idle goes from 1000 rpms to well over 2000 rpms and the white smoke stops completely, the idle stays up there for about 10 minutes then gradually goes back down to 1000.
Car runs like a champ after that. Not overheating.

 

White smoke would suggest water . Is coolant level going down.

 

Jeep shows 210 on gauge right now....I have to wait until it cools down. I have a MAC reservoir tank on and can't see in right now.

 

If I lost any, it's very little.

 

Does the white smoke smell like antifreeze? Or fuel? If you wipe your finger around the tip of the tailpipe, what's there? Antifreeze?

I think at this point a cooling system pressure test and a cylinder leakdown test would be appropriate. Sounds like you have a minor leak that's sealing itself when everything comes up to temperature and expands.