I have a 1997 Olds Silh. mini van with a 3.4SFI engine. It started blowing thick white smoke out the exhaust. I changed the intake manifold gaskets and put it all back together.
The white thick smoke is still there and my oil has antifreeze in it again. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forums

You probably should have started with replacing the head gasket. That and a cracked block are the most likely suspects.

 

I agree with marksr. Sounds like a cracked cylinder head which basically means engine rebuilt or new motor. Sorry to hear that. Also, to verifiy this, you can buy a engine compression test kit at Autozone and test the compression of the cylinders.

 

HEAD GASKETS ! was my first guess.
Remove the cap on your coolant resevoir tank while it is running ( NOT the radiator cap !) and look to see if you have a steady stream of bubbles pouring in.
If you do, compression is leaking into the cooling system.
Then beg or borrow a compression tester and check each cylinder if possible ( not sure of accessability to all cylinders on this vehicle).
You can also beg or borrow a coolant system pressure tester.

Sorry for your situation. Been there.
Best of luck.

 

i dont think id waste my time with trying to repair just replace the engine if you allready have coolant in your oil, the coolant destroys the oils protective abilitys, ive seen so many cases where you fix it and 100 miles it starts knocking because antifreeze just kills bearing, just dont want to see you put money in it and then have to put alot more the 3.4 wasnt know for exceptionally strong bottom end anyway most of them ive seen go its usually bottom end related

 

Thanks for the suggestions and reply.

 

Thanks for your reply and help.
"Semper Fi"

 

Thanks for your reply and suggestion/help.

 

Thanks for your reply and suggestions.

 

From your desription it seems that your ewngine is toast and not worth the time and effort to try and fix.
I fyou wnt to keep the vehicle i would recommend the following choices in their order: #1 Junk yard, #2 rebuilt,#3 crate engine.
Find yourself a good engine mechanic and Stay away from the dealer.
My trusted truck was blowing smoke like yours and i opted for a crate engine,more money,but still running.

 

Thanks for your reply and suggestions. I finally got the heads off and I'll be inspecting the cylinders before puting new gaskets on it. If I do need a new block any suggestions on to get it from, either rebuilt or new. thanks again

 

The amount of money you would spend putting a new engine in there is more then what the vehicle is worth in my opinion. If you did want a new motor, go to a salvage yard and see if there are any there.

 

What you have, is a blown head gasket, not an intake gasket. antifreeze in the oil and a foamy whitish stuff in the radiator and thick white smoke from the tailpipe, is a blown head head gasket. if you remove your spark plugs and turn the engine over, water will more than likely come shooting out friom the sparkplug holes. Try it! After you have the head gasket replaced, you will need to flush out both the radiator and your engine and replace all fluids with new.
I promise you, this is your problem. I've seen it a million times. Hope I've helped you before you junked your car.
Bill

 

mrnoitall,

This thread is from last November, hopefully the poster has figured it out by now.

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