Head Gasket Failure ?

[TGP37]

Hello everyone hows it going today? I got a problem with my 98 Lumina with a 3.1 V6. I got this car for free from a friend. She drove it for about two hours in the middle of winter. Had to stop half way and let it cool down alittle. The heat never warms up at all. The temperature gauge moves all over the place. There is alot of white smoke coming out of the tailpipe. The car misses at idle.(Haven't drove it around at all). The Oil is very high on the dipstick and looks alittle milky. After I shut if off after running for about 5 minutes and Opened the Radiator cap lots of air bubbles escaped to the overflow tank. She said she never overheated the car to the point of shutting off or steam or the car being in the hot range on the gauge. Just wondering if this all screams Headgasket. Thanks for your input.

The heater failing to heat is a sign of coolant circulation failure. I would be confident there is a head gasket problem, or rarely a cracked/warped head.

The repair cost is gonna be higher then the blue book value, junked. But if you can do the work yourself it will cost around $100-$200 in parts and 2-3 days of labor.

But keep in mind, the longer the car was driven with coolant dumping into the oil, the more likely you will have another catastrophic failure in the near future. The possibility of snapping the camshaft in half, spinning a rod bearing, clogged oil/coolant passages, radiator failing from exhaust pressure (will leak on the drivers side).

If the car was sold with this condition (as in the issue didn't just start to occur), I would junk the car or replace the entire engine. If the car wasn't driven much when this all started you can recover. Be sure to change the oil immediately and then again after a few runs around the block, then a third time after 100 miles or so. When coolant is boiled off in the oil it leaves behind small glass like particles.

Good luck with the head gaskets.

btw, coolant dumps out into the crank case when you pull the heads. So be sure to drain/replace oil after the head gasket swap.

[3400-95-Modified]

Did you put your car back together even with the uneven head? Or did you get them machined?

I have my heads surfaced or checked every time I have them off... They never go back on uneven... that's just begging for failure.