Truck is blowing out smoke but my compression&combustion test came back good

I already did, in one of the many threads you've made.

That would open the coolant path to the heater core

 

My head hurts from reading this and all the other threads. GL OP

 

I think you are going to cause more problems trying to use a head gasket sealer.

you stated you have no overheating, loss of coolant, or oil contamination. I also believe you stated that testing found no evidence of combustion byproducts in coolant… were leakdown and coolant system pressure tests performed?

are you jumping to conclusions on the headgasket?

 

With all due respect, you only suggested

$15 AT205 ATP Automotive AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT205. You didn’t mention any brand on head gasket sealer. (I looked all through my thread for your input)
I greatly value your opinion and would love to hear which brand you would recommend for my situation.

it looks like the majority of people are recommending these 2 brands. Blue Devil & K-Seal. Maybe I should just flip a coin and let that decide between the 2 lol (im only halfway joking) but I would still love to hear your opinion on a brand of head gasket sealer

I had one guy suggest Thermalweld. It looks promising, even with the $120 price tag. But there are some red flags, one of them being you can’t find any customer reviews across the internet. The second red flags, is that this appears to be a product some guy is throwing together in his garage, and not actually made by a business (that’s not necessarily a bad thing but I can’t help feel there’s a lack of real world experiences)

 

These head gasket 'fix in a can' products are typically for cooling problems.

They will NOT fix oil use.


Best thing to do is keep up on the oil level.


Try using a high mileage oil or add

$15 at-205 re-seal stops leaks, 8 ounce bottle

at-205 to see if it helps rejuvenate seals. You can also start by adding what oil worked fine before (mobil 1). Save a few bucks and use supertech high mileage if it keeps using oil.

 

I understand. Even if the mechanic confirms it’s a blown head gasket?
also, I had someone suggest to drain the coolant, refill with nothing but distilled water and drive like that for the rest of the trucks life, topping off the radiator with water when needed. What do you think about that?

I dropped the truck off yesterday morning and still haven’t heard back from the mechanic. When I dropped it off he said he thought it was a blown head gasket, and would get back to me the next day (which was today) but I didn’t hear back from him. Im still praying that it’s some oddball minor situation. And the fact I haven’t heard anything back yet means they haven’t figured it out yet (maybe they haven’t even touched the car yet… whos knows)

 

Wild, eh. I mean, with all due respect and all.

Link in case you don't believe me. I guess this is why it's a bad idea to make five million threads for one topic? Too easy to miss stuff. https://www.tundras.com/threads/tru...tion-test-came-back-good.156639/#post-3889836

 

I wouldn't use any kind of "mechanic in a bottle" head gasket sealer, they can cause more problems down the road.

I would drive it and monitor my fluids while saving to fix it.

You can losen the radiator cap so the cooling system doesn't build pressure. It won't be as efficient, but it also won't push coolant into the cylinder. If the symptoms don't change, then it's probably not a head gasket failure or a cracked head.

 

I think you missed my point.

You are using or burning OIL.

These stop leak products are for COOLANT.


Gonna do nothing but gunk up the system for absolutely no reason. These fluids are SEPARATE.



Unless you are loosing coolant, overheating or have the dreaded milkshake and it was mentioned in a different thread.


The suggestion for distilled water is only if you have a coolant problem. Again, you made no mention of it that I currently recall.

 

I apologize shifty, I skimmed through the thread, and must of missed that.

I need you guys to understand one thing though, and that is my gratitude to have you all helping me. I GREATLY appreciate every one of you taking your time to help a air head like me out (only half way joking, my knowledge about cars is pretty limited but I hope by the time im 40 I will be as advanced as you guys. THANK YOU AGAIN. I will definitely pay the kindness forward

Assassin10000, are you suggesting I don’t have a blown head gasket at all? Or suggesting that it’s simply on the “oil” side of the engine? Is there anything at all I can do to get a few more months out of my truck while I save up for another car? I’m planning on junking this car when done with it (or selling it to someone for very cheap as a parts car/fixer upper… I’m sure someone out there would love to fix up a completely rust free sequoia)


It’s sad my truck took a turn for the worse, I stayed on top of maintenance and babied the thing. Always checking and changing parts that needed it. Religiously changed oil&filter at 5k with full syn… I know I let my o2 sensors go for longer than I should but that’s what I get for listening to a hack mechanic instead of coming to this forum a lot sooner. In the future for any questions I have I will only be listening to you guys

 

OP, what evidence do you have that makes you believe your head gasket is failed or failing?

please summarize in case I missed it in your other threads.

 

I'm saying its the oil side only. That is why coolant side fixes will do absolutely nothing.


Honestly, you may be able to just keep driving it for years. It all depends on what's failing and how.


You've said it has gotten better and just is a few minutes of blue smoke on startup. That sounds like valve stem seals.

If thats all you have, just keep an eye on the oil level and drive it.


Repeating myself but I'd try Mobil 1 High Mileage oil to top it off. I'd also try a bottle of

$15 AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT-205 again. See if things improve.

I think it's a lack of knowledge and going by what many others are guessing at. Most likely those that aren't mechanics.

 

This is what a few people have told me when I mentioned the way it’s smoking from tailpipe (mainly only cold starts in the morning, but the very first time I ever saw the smoke was driving on the interstate, and it was aTON of smoke, there was a second time it smoked after a test drive when I changed Pcv valve once I got off the interstate, it also spewed out a metric shit ton of smoke)

the mechanic I dropped it off to took a guess and said “without me looking at it it sounds like a head gasket failure, but I’ll do a deep dive and diagnose it before making assumptions”

The funny thing is, that this all started 2 or 3 days after an oil change, an oil change where I had

$15 AT205 ATP Automotive AT-205 Re-Seal Stops Leaks, 8 Ounce Bottle

AT205 in the old oil. I ran it for 500 miles and changed it to the oil it has now, no At205 this time. I can’t help but wonder if it was the at205 that started all this? It could be a coincidence but I can’t get it out of my head.
The reason I put at205 in my oil before I changed it, was because I saw a very minor oil leak between the transmission and oil drain pan. Was told it was possibly rear main seal and saw all the YouTube videos raveing about how at205 was worth its weight in gold. I gave it a shot and now I’m here… off topic but I also sprayed all my rubber suspension components with it as well, and it definitely helped there as there or no more squeaks going over speed bumps

 

You are operating on assumptions. You need facts:

-cooling system pressure test
-test for combustions byproducts in coolant
-test for coolant in oil
-compression and leak-down tests

head gasket failure is rarely an intermittent event. It’s easy to point fingers at possibilities which is raising your anxiety and clouding your judgement .

also, white smoke (water vapor) on cold start is very normal.

a cloud while driving is not normal, and could indicate a head gasket failure… shower an intermittent cloud while driving is not a strong indicator of head gasket failure… more likely from being introduced though the intake.

also must be specific on characteristics of “smoke” from tailpipe.

edited to add: based on the conditions note by information you provided in your threads, I’m not convinced you have a head gasket failure. Unfortunately your threads are not giving concise information, making it difficult for people to help point towards more likely problems. If I were in your position, I would have found a different mechanic.

 

I've been blowing lots of smoke at start up too especially when cold for a while now. I did a compression test that showed two cylinders lower than the others and I have much lower overall compression than you (Mine were all 150, except for 1 and 3 were 135). I was panicked about a head gasket for a while like you were, and who knows I might actually have a bad one, but I paid for the legendary reliability of these trucks and so I figured I might as well use it. It has done just fine in the 6 months since then.

Your randomly dumping smoke is concerning though I will say. But as others have said not really a head gasket symptom.

Also last time I checked a junkyard/ used 4.7l engine could be had for close to $800. Obviously if you can't do it yourself/ with a bunch of buddies then labor will cost you a lot. But probably not a full 6k.

 

Did you verify power steering air control valve isn't borked?
Brake fluid isn't getting sucked up via the brake booster vacuum line?
Possible leaky injector leaving extra fuel in a cylinder? (should show on one of the plugs' condition)

Only asking b/c those seem to be the three bigguns that lead to smoke at cold start.

 

UPDATE- I just got done talking to my mechanic and he went through a full diagnosis looking for the cause of this issue, spent 2 full days & he can’t find anything wrong with it. This guy is a well known mechanic in my city that has a great reputation, and almost exclusively works on Toyotas.

I can’t even wrap my head around it, but I guess that’s a good thing that it is nothing major….right?

What is the next thing I should do? At this point I’m planning on changing out the spark plugs, the O2 sensors, and the valve cover

how is this even possible? I mean my car is DEFINITELY blowing out a unnormal amount of smoke on start ups. And let’s no forget when I originally saw it driving down the interstate, and it was blowing out a metric shit ton of smoke, and that is no exaggeration. It was quite literally a metric shit ton of smoke.

yet the professional found nothing wrong…

What would you guys do in my shoes???…

 

Drive it. Keep an eye on oil level.


As I said in my previous 2 replies.

 

If the smoke is different colors and fluid levels aren’t changing (brake, oil, power steering, and coolant), then I am 100% at a loss. The only thing that makes sense is something combustible is randomly entering the cylinder and combusting. Like… you have a mouse nesting in your intake box, and chunks of random nest and filter are getting burned up. Or something equally stupid like that. Have you looked inside your air filter box lately, lifted the filter? Or something is passing thru the cylinders and building up in front of the cat and eventually catching fire from exhaust and lighting up. And you should be throwing cat inefficiency codes if that’s the case. But maybe you’re not, because you never repaired the O2 sensors, which doesn’t jibe with your claim you’ve been “taking care of your truck, babying it”, because those sensors (upstream) are super freaking important to proper operation.

 

I know it doesn’t seem like I babied it because of the o2 codes, but that was literally the only thing I let go because of some idiot Who was a self proclaimed car whisperer and assured me not to worry about the codes because we don’t have the emissions testing in our state and that I would only lose out on about a mile per a day… I Ended up finding out during a different conversation that this same guy thinks that a carburetor is a type of Italian pasta sauce. The Only place that I am getting my advice from now, Is this forum.

I did check the air filter box, both above the filter and underneath, and besides one or two stray leaves there was nothing out of the ordinary. I’ve checked every square in of the car for anything out of place and everything is exactly where it should be. No bird nests or squirrel doodoo

this whole issue just really has me stumped. Is it worth it to get a second opinion, or should I just send it and wait for the Toyota to work the kinks out itself…

none of this makes much since to me. But at least it was nothing major, right? It has to be some kind of oddball of a situation thats almost never or very rarely has happened before.

What’s the best way to get rid of the OBD codes I listed? (P0135, P0155, P0161) would changing out all 4 o2 sensors get rid of them?

 

I'm 100% confident that your question would not have even been asked had you read the Mega thread that I'm 100% confident was posted by at least 1 member in one of your many threads concerning your truck. But just incase I'm incorrect, here is the link https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/

Just to be 100% certain that you get this info, here are a few excerpts from that thread

 

Besides replacing the O2 sensors, spark plugs, and valve cover gaskets, is there anything else i should do/try?

This is my first time replacing o2 sensors on my own. It’s a pretty straightforward install right? Simply remove the old and plug up the new, torque to spec, simple as that…right? Anything else i should know? Any tips, tricks, secrets?

anything I should know about changing spark plugs? Tips tricks secrets?

what about valve cover gaskets? Any tips, tricks or secrets?


I’m about to make a shopping list and hopefully someone can chime in to give me the thumbs up

 

O2 sensors are notoriously hard to remove due to the high heat cycling in the exhaust system. PB blaster for a couple days before helps. Having a crowfoot helps with removal with a ratchet. The uppers are tucked in there a bit and require some hand yoga.

 

"Me fail english?! That's un-possible."

- Phillip J. Fry

Candid snaps of sheos, plz.

 

"Me fail english?! That's un-possible."

- Phillip J. Fry

 

"She could be a dude too, dude. I'm serious. She could actually be a 300-pound dude who lives in his momma's basement in suburban Detroit. And her name is Chuck. Think about that."
- Aech

 

So... there will not be sheos?

 

It's not about MPG. The upstream sensors aren't some gov't conspiracy brought upon by treehuggers, they serve a legitimate function, they read the output of the fuel+air+spark explosions in your cylinders to inform the ECU to know whether the truck is running rich or lean. The ECU uses that info to auto-adjust for best operation. Thinking about that from the bigger perspective that means:

• You eat less gas, better MPG
• You don't run rich or dry lean, which extends the life and improves operation of your plugs
• You don't idle out of whack
• Optimal acceleration
• No weird exhaust or fuel smells
• Reduction of engine wear

Granted, there's definitely an argument to be made for cats and downstream sensors being a bit tree-huggy, especially on the small-scale output our passenger cars and trucks put out (versus what the shipping/freight industry vehicles output annually).

Yes. Replacing the O2 sensors with a genuine OEM/Denso "Exact fit" sensors (not "universal", you should NEVER cut an O2 sensor harnesses to install a new sensor), and leave the negative battery cable disconnected for at least 10 minutes either during or after install, before you start up, so the computer has to re-learn the new sensors.

While you're in there, and since you need to do this anyway... I'd recommend you take time to do the following:

• Go to the parts store, buy a can of Throttle Body Cleaner, and a can of MAF Sensor Cleaner; I prefer CRC brand, they make quality chemicals
• Pop the lid off your air filter housing; lift the air filter fully out of the housing, inspect it top and bottom for cleanliness, debris, signs of rodents.
• Pop the MAF out; spray the shit out of it with the MAF cleaner, inside, out, especially letting the jet blast across the thick wire and sensor up inside. DO NOT use anything except MAF cleaner. Spray at least half the can into it. It will be cold as shit; let it sit out for 10-20 mins before reinstall to avoid condensation buildup which can result in weird operation. NEVER use anything except 'MAF sensor cleaner' specifically for this task.
• Pop the intake tube off the throttle body. Get a clean shop towel, spray the Throttle Body cleaner into it, then wipe any black sooty stuff you see out of the throttle body. Push in the throttle body plate to get the ridge of soot that sometimes builds up top and bottom but DO NOT let the plate slam shut. NEVER spray cleaner directly into the throttle body. NEVER use anything except 'throttle body cleaner' specifically for this task.
• If you need videos of the above, I can dig up prior posts where I linked them. The above steps should be part of a larger maintenance on your truck. Maybe earmark it for every 25k miles?

And, I think this is something you need to hear: Any time you touch anything related to air intake, air/fuel mixture, anything related to spark (plugs, coils), or change sensors related to fuel/air/spark, you should ALWAYS disconnect the negative battery cable for at least 10 minutes to force the ECU into re-learn mode. Super important.

Furthermore, if you ever need to force your vehicle into re-learn mode, you really should check the throttle body cleanliness prior, or just proactively clean the MAF and throttle body while it's disconnected. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen someone come in here with their truck dying or idling like shit after changing a dead battery, only to find the throttle body was gunky as hell, lunch would be on the forum today.

 

Oh and forgot about this stuff

• Use a spark plug socket that has a rubber ring inside that locks onto the plug end
• Don't bother disconnecting the coil pack harnesses, the clips get brittle and like to break; remove the coil pack bolt, shimmy the coil pack up and out. Verify the rubber boot is intact on the coil pack and spring is still inside it. Lay the coil pack on top of the engine with harness still attached. Verify there's no sign of corrosion on the rim of the screw hole where the coil pack screw goes into the cover, since that spot acts as a ground. Apply a little dieletric grease inside the lip of the boot before reinstall. Apply a little dielectric grease to the rim of the coil pack screw hole. Reinstall the screw.
• NEVER use antisieze or any other lubricant on spark plug threads.
• DO NOT over-tighten your spark plugs (which can easily happen if you use antisieze); I do it by feel because I've changed thousands of spark plugs in my lifetime, you should go by the manual's torque specs. Last thing you want is to repair plug threads.
• Always buy pre-gapped plugs if possible; Genuine Denso or NGK Iridium are good like that, and have a cardboard sleeve to prevent gap change during shipping. If not using pre-gapped plugs, always have a gap kit and read the f'ing manual (RTFM) to see what gap needs to be.

Linked from the megathread TBM and others keep clubbing you over the head with, for obvious reasons, see parts and process listed here.[/QUOTE]

 

No, its actually a pain in the ass. The carbon build up from the exhaust inside the pipe creates layers of carbon on the threads of the o2 sensors. The o2 sensor is threaded into a metal bung on the exhaust tube. The threads from the o2 sensor threads into the pipe and hang down into the pipe. These threads get gunked up with carbon deposits from the exhaust and when you try to remove the o2 sensors you are effectively pushing the carbon deposits on the threads into the threaded bung. It basically mauls the threads up as you try to unscrew the o2 sensor and creates an assinine amount of work for something that should be easy.
Tips and tricks i have found over the years. Spray the mating surface of the o2 sensor to the pipe once or twice a day for a few days before removal to try to get some penetrating lube under the washer and onto the threads. Then on the day of the removal take a ball peen hammer and beat the absolute hell out of the pipe around the o2 sensor and the o2 sensor itself. After all, you got new sensors to put in right? Beat the hell out of the sensor and pipe, you gotta knock the carbon deposits off the threads that are exposed inside the pipe before you start trying to unscrew the o2 sensor. And last but not least, put some high heat anti-seize on the threads of the new sensor before installing in order to make things easier on you in the future.