Signs of a cracked head?

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rangrayy

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I bought my 98 with the vortec 350 with 252k miles and have been having coolant issues since day one. First was the water neck in the intake, next the intake gaskets blew out a month later, then the water pump started leaking from one of the weep holes. After water pump change I went to recheck coolant level and it was low so I filled it to ensure the system was burped. A week after I changed it I triple checked the coolant and it’s low again...

After the intake change I noticed whitish smoke coming out of the pass side tail pipe along with a misfire on cyl 5. Gave a tune up and there’s a small mid on start up but smooths out and goes away. The white smoke is pretty heavy, like when it’s below freezing out it takes the exhaust a bit to go “clear” per say and it’s 75° out and when you drive away it looks like it’s super cold out. If that makes any sense. It clears up after the engine warms up to temp and been driving for 15 mins or so.

The tail pipe it’s coming out of is coming from the drivers side of the engine, even though the tail pipe is exiting on the passenger side.

I assume it’s the head. I haven’t preformed a compression test or leak down yet. Oil isn’t in the coolant nor coolant in the oil. It’s the only conclusion for the coolant disappearing I can think of.

What are the other signs if any?
 

big_mike

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I'm interested in what you find. I chased a coolant issue for a while and found a crack in the plastic side of it so I replaced it, cleaned the overflow tank and put a new thermo in. Thought I had it burped on Ramos so all bubbles would wanna rise, but had to top it off twice again. I'm not getting any smoke and no cross contamination that I have seen yet. I'm just hoping its a damn air bubble trapped somehow, but I'm very interested in what you find as well. That's alot of miles on heads known to crack.
 

rangrayy

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I'm interested in what you find. I chased a coolant issue for a while and found a crack in the plastic side of it so I replaced it, cleaned the overflow tank and put a new thermo in. Thought I had it burped on Ramos so all bubbles would wanna rise, but had to top it off twice again. I'm not getting any smoke and no cross contamination that I have seen yet. I'm just hoping its a damn air bubble trapped somehow, but I'm very interested in what you find as well. That's alot of miles on heads known to crack.
What plastic are you referring to? Im almost positive it’s the head which there’s no point in putting new heads on with the amount of miles it has. Sure I could pull them off replace them and while I’m there put new bearings in and re ring it and put in a cam. After all the time spent it’s not worth it in my opinion let alone the money it would cost when it’s easier to install a crate engine and call it a day.
 

big_mike

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The sides of the radiator are black plastic. The core itself of course is metal. Mine cracked on the driver's side. I tried epoxy before replacing the radiator but it didn't hold up.
 

rangrayy

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The sides of the radiator are black plastic. The core itself of course is metal. Mine cracked on the driver's side. I tried epoxy before replacing the radiator but it didn't hold up.
Thought it might be the radiator just wanted to be sure. The p/o installed a new radiator and I’m sure they too were chasing a leak because I saw traces of stop leak in the radiator fluid. I thought about replacing it as well and if not we’ll never hurts to know what ya have and I’ll know it’s good if I have to put in a new engine. Plus it helps having a brother who works at an auto parts store and has the same truck allowing me to get parts at his cost.
 

rangrayy

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I had the exact same symptoms on my 98. The head was cracked between the valves! :banghead:
That is what I dread but alas nothing I can do about it but accept it and move on. Wish there was a way to tell besides pulling the heads...
 

Jay33089

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That is what I dread but alas nothing I can do about it but accept it and move on. Wish there was a way to tell besides pulling the heads...
This is kind of a redneck way. But I pulled my plugs and pressurized the system. Took about 6 pump ups and leak downs. Eventually water ran out of the cylinder that was cracked. Pulled that head first to see if head gasket or crack.
 

rangrayy

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This is kind of a redneck way. But I pulled my plugs and pressurized the system. Took about 6 pump ups and leak downs. Eventually water ran out of the cylinder that was cracked. Pulled that head first to see if head gasket or crack.

I didn’t even think about that. Makes sense and might have to give it a try this weekend. Feel like I’m running on borrowed time though at this point.
 
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