burning coolant and white smoke "help"

[002tallymax]

last week i had coolant leaking, i found a small crack in the waterpump housing. i figure good ole j.b.weld would fix that. and it did. no more leaking.
now i continue to loose coolant, " no leaking".never overheated. now i get white smoke @ start up, goes away once i have good engine temp, but coolant level continues to drop. i am thinking i have a blown head gasket. my upper radiator hose is not hard when its cold. any input? what is it gonna cost me to get the head gasket replaced?

[Robby Avery]

It could be a blown head gasket or worse a crack in the block I had a buddy who had the same thing happen had a crack in the block at the #8 cylinder and it was dumping coolant in and his truck was eating coolant like mad. He finally had to have it completely rebuilt.

[jpringle3]

Test the rad cap first.

[002tallymax]

Originally Posted by Robby Avery

It could be a blown head gasket or worse a crack in the block I had a buddy who had the same thing happen had a crack in the block at the #8 cylinder and it was dumping coolant in and his truck was eating coolant like mad. He finally had to have it completely rebuilt.

would my radiator hose not getting hard make you thinkit could be a cracked block? remeber my truck has never run over 190 temp.

[Robby Avery]

Well now that you mention that it could be your water pump is going out. If the truck still operates at normal tempatures and the message center says "add coolant" or "check coolant" thats more than likely your problem. how often does yours blow white smoke? Just on start up or during the whole time your driving? His smoked constantly ever where he went and believe it or not his truck ran for three months after he found the problem so he could save up the money to get it repaired he just took it easy so it would last.

[Robby Avery]

After reading your first reply on this thread it could be a blown head gasket do you have any signs anywhere on either side of the block showing signs of leaking fluid? best way to find out is crank the truck and look for a leak anywhere and everywhere you can possibly look.

[002tallymax]

looks like the driver's side head is a little dirty but no signs of leak, but today i tried to start my truck, no go!!!! starter hits hard but motor will not turn over!!!!!!!! please post your opinion, i need to know what's going on

[Chris03]

sounds like your motor could be hydrolocked. hydrolocked is when coolant gets into one or more of your cylinders and dosnt allow the piston to move. i had that problem and the dealer told me that you can crack the glow plugs to determin what cylinder is hodrolocked.

[002tallymax]

that makes sense to me. pretty much what i was thinking. sure hope no damage is done to the cylinders. did you have your head gaskets done? what was the cost?

[Chris03]

well they replaced the head gaskets and it was still doing the same thing burning white smoke. so they were pretty sure the block is cracked. they got gm to do a policy adjustment on the motor witch means that gm was going to cover half the cost of a new engine. To get the head gaskets replaced it was gona cost 3800 and i payed $5480 for a new motor. so i came out ahead on the deal.