Why Does a Blown Head Gasket Smoke?

One of the telltale symptoms of a blown head gasket is white smoke from the exhaust.  It’s important that the smoke is white because blue or black smoke can indicate a rich running engine or an engine that is burning oil.  It’s also important to note that white smoke can also come from your exhaust on very cold wet days or right when you start up your engine so be sure to learn the other symptoms of a blown head gasket so you can be sure of what the problem is.

A vehicle with a blown head gasket will smoke due to the introduction of coolant into the combustion chamber.  Normally the only thing that is in your engine’s combustion chamber is air and fuel which, when burnt efficiently, should produce water and gas byproducts.  The introduction of the coolant adds water and glycol to the mixture. Now, the coolant doesn’t burn as part of the combustion process but it will vaporize. This water vapor is what you see as smoke from your exhaust.  Along with the white smoke, there will be a sweet smell from the glycol and other additives in your coolant.

Besides the smoke and smell from a blown head gasket, the addition of water in the combustion mixture will also lead to an excessively clean combustion chamber.  If you suspect a blown head gasket, you can often remove the spark plug and use a boroscope to examine the top of the piston. The coolant will have a cleaning effect and the position will often be bright metallic rather than the dingy black a normally used piston will have due to the carbon build-up.

While a blown head gasket will clean your combustion chamber, it allows your cooling system to get extremely dirty.  Normally your cooling system is closed to dirt and debris and stays very clean. When your head gasket blows exhaust gases get into your cooling system your coolant will become extremely dirty very quickly and will often get and oil slick floating on the top of it in your radiator and in your overflow bottle.

If you’ve got all 3 of these symptoms together, the smoke, the clean combustion chamber, and extremely dirty coolant then you’ve got a blown head gasket.  If the hard part repair doesn’t make sense for your vehicle, consider using BlueDevil Head Gasket Sealer to stop your head gasket leak and keep your vehicle driving!

You can pick up BlueDevil Head Gasket Sealer at one of your local auto parts stores like:

• AutoZone
• Advance Auto Parts
• CarQuest Auto Parts
• NAPA Auto Parts
• O’Reilly Auto Parts
• Pep Boys
• Canadian Tire
• Walmart

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exhaust_smoke.jpg – By Stefan_Redel – Licensed by Getty Images – Original Link