I have a problem. First off its my fault I've got the problem. I had a water leak in the water pump. I always just put some water in it before i would crank it up of a mornings and it did fine. The other day i forgot to put water in it and of course it run hot on me. I stopped and put water in it but evidently didn't give it time to cool down because it run hot again and sounded like it was blowing a horn under the hood it was running hot so much. Well i had it towed back to my house. At this time all it was doing was it would crank up and then automatically go dead after a second or two. Well i cleaned the carberator out real good and then it would stay running as long as i would give it the gas. Then it started blowing smoke out the back of the truck and the engine had a little smoke coming from it. ive checked all the spark plugs and they look ok. i've been told that i may have a blown head gasket. My question is this is there anything else that yall might know of that i could check? and if its a head gasket in anyway how much money am i looking at fixing it? I've talked to my mechanic and he says if its a 250 engine and its a head gasket im looking at about 350.00.. does that sound about right? Would i be better off to buy a hole new engine or a new rebuilt engine and how much would that cost? Thanks for your time and thanks for reading my question. Tim from Alabama
What color is the smoke? If it is white smoke and smells like antifreeze,then you've blown a head gasket.You can also check your radiator while its running to see if there is bubbles in the antifreeze.That also can indicate that you have blown a head gasket.Also what does the oil look like? It will need changed while you are at it.Most engine can handle extreme temps for short periods,but if it has alot of miles then you might think about replacing it.But I bet that with a little work that it will be running fine again.It pretty hard to kill those old motors. Craig Hager tech1@chevyduty.com
