Blown Head Gasket, or Cold Weather?

[u/Alligatorgamer9]

This is just after 2 bottles of K-Seal. The exhaust used to smell sweet, but now it’s almost odorless. It’s currently 2am and 39*F. The smoke also easily changes direction in the wind and alternates between rising quickly and staying low to the ground. The thickness of the cloud is also variable.

Is my head gasket screwed or is it just the cold weather?

[u/Flaco22862]

Cold weather. Head gasket smoke is kinda thick and white

[u/AtlasAkiyama → u/Flaco22862]

That's what she said

[u/Beemer_Noob → u/AtlasAkiyama]

Aren’t you very mature

[u/dudreddit]

OP, why not stop the car, let the engine cool THEN check the condition of both the coolant and engine oil? If you have a mixing of these … you need a new HG.

[u/sharkbomb → u/dudreddit]

if it is a break between cyl and water jacket, you can tell by turning your heater on full blast and put your hand over a vent. if it is so hot that you want to pull your hand back, you have a very short time before catastrophe. learned that trick a couple dozen head gaskets ago..

[u/Raalf → u/sharkbomb]

That's an interesting and functional way to check!

[u/Exciting_Pepper_8008]

What it smells like?

[u/drifterdanny]

Head gasket leak smoke lingers. This is water vapour

[u/mischief_ej1]

You're fine buddy

[u/crysisnotaverted]

Are you missing coolant? Huffing exhaust when it's freezing out isn't exactly scientific.

[u/RollemUpp]

Blown weather

[u/2polew]

Cold weather.

If you blow head gasket, you won't have any doubts.

[u/sharkbomb]

once you smell ethylene glycol on hot exhaust, you will never forget that sweet smell of dying motor. if you do not smell something sweet, it is not that.

[u/eXtace]

Does it smell like sweet death? Check coolant levels when cool. See if it’s blowing bubbles when revved up hard.

[u/run_uz]

Lol

[u/FlamingMouthwash]

this the most ‘just cold weather’ ive seen

fuck i wish my shit was just cold weather

[u/Lanky_Button7863]

Let it get up to about 90 degrees celcius and check again .... Most likely its condesation because of the big differance in temprature between the exhaust gasses and the ambient air temprature outside

[u/AdditionalCheetah354]

Cold weather

[u/Boomdarts]

If you're really concerned AutoZone has a compression checker and you can check all your cylinders for low compression.

Sometimes it's hard to tell - I have a car getting a head gasket fixed right now.

[u/Duct_TapeOrWD40]

If neither the oil nor the cooler disappears (or becomes something that looks like a cappuchino) it's just the cold.

[u/akmacmac]

Looks like a cold start in cold weather

[u/jmaz_sl2]

You would know if it was a headgasket. It would be pretty hard to start after sitting and there would be a lot more smoke. I let my wife borrow my old 92 civic once, the head gasket went on her way to work. She called me saying it was smoking. I said a little smoke is normal thinking it probably looked like what you have going on plus some oil because honda. So after work I went to get the car and I started it and it pretty much fogged out the lot. Don't know how it ran as good as it did honestly. But you could smell the coolant burning for sure and it's pretty obvious when it's bad enough.

[u/Secret_Effect_5961]

Condensation due to cold. If the gasket has gone it will likely be pressurising the top hose under the bonnet etc. You don't always get emulsified oil with a blown gasket but it would be hard starting and run rough at idle on 1 cylinder down. If you can all the plugs out, one may look "washed" clean which is a good indicator too and removing the coolant tank cap when cool and having a sniff may allow the smell of exhaust fumes in there.

[u/jakesmith7251]

Does it smell like a weed wacker? If not, your good

[u/seejaypeete]

Does it smell sweet?

[u/No_Biscotti2086]

Cold weather, bad head gasket would mean THICK white smoke

[u/Delifier]

Get it up to temp and see if it still smokes. Blown headgasket might also come with rough running from low compression too.