burnsaZJ

Well, to start off... I just recently replaced the head gasket, intake gasket, exhaust gasket, oil filter, cleaned the air filter as well as most of the engine head internals, complete fluid swap... and then put her all back together. (her being my '93 grand cherokee 4.0). I did this because the previous owner said it had a blown head gasket. I've been driving it for half a week and the first couple days I had absolutely no problems at all.

Then all of a sudden within the last few days it has been:
1.) Temperature gauge is reading VERY high.
2.) When I first start the car there is a plume of white smoke that last for a couple minutes (seems like i'm burning something straight through my engine)
3.) When I look under the hood there is coolant dripping and appears to have been sprayed around the front of my engine bay through the radiator cap

A friend mentioned that I may have a cracked head after all... which would really blow!
I'm going to try some blok sealer and see if that doesn't help my situation at all.

If you have any tips or pointers on what to look for or do in this case, it would be greatly appreciated advice.

Thanks, Aaron.

ct67_72

i assume you did not have the head pressure checked. It may be cracked. as long as you assembled everything correctly than that is the most likely thing. any intermix? (coolant in oil/oil in coolant)

burnsaZJ

no mixture of oil and coolant that i recall when looking in there..
just bought some stop leaks (head gasket and block sealant)
hopefully this holds it off until i can see wtf is really going on in there..

Bustedback

Did you use a torque wrench and use the proper sequence when torqueing down the head?

burnsaZJ

yup, definitely torqued everything to spec.

also... after putting some bar leaks stuff in to try and seal anything in the head/block it seems to be running a bit better..

the temp gauge is still fluctuating a bit between 210-220..
a buddy and I have come to the conclusion that it could possibly be either the water pump or thermostat too (there is this sloshing water sound that seems to be right behind the fire wall)

gonna have to get in there and replace those, then we'll see how she ends up running....

any other things you guys might think could be the problem?

Bustedback

You have air in the system. Jack the front end up until the rad cap is the highest point in the cooling system, pull the cap off and run the engine until the t-stat opens, give it some time for the air to burp out. I'm afraid your head gasket in a can will not last very long and leave stranded. Better get to the bottom of this problem soon.