Hi there,

I got some awesome help from fellow Mazda drivers when I first bought my car and it smoked like hell under the hood (clean cut in valve cover gasket ........ annoying but easily fixed, 1h and $10), so I hope someone can help me this time again!

My 323 is a '92 hatchback with about a 185k miles on the engine. Besides the problem above, it always ran smooth and super reliable.

But recently I got an oil change. The gaskets don't seal all that well, so a few miles after an oil change it always burned a little oil which you can see coming from under the hood when the car is standing at a stop light etc. So I wasn't really worried when it did after the oil change.

However, after 250 miles, I still saw some smog, and found out that the mechanic had put too much oil in the engine, about an inch over Max with already having burned quite a bit. There was some oil spill around the engine.

So, I wanted to go back to have the extra oil pumped out or something, but made a stop at a shop on the way to the mechanic.
Well, the shop owner came to me asking if my car was overheating, I didn't think of it much, but it turned out to be a BIG puddle of fluid under the front of the car. I opened the hood to find the hose on the right side of the engine that leads water/ anti-freeze into the engine had a hole, and fluid was shooting out of it.
The fluid under the car seemed to be oil, but the engine department had oil spill before and was clean after, so maybe it just washed it clean ?!?

Anyway, AAA got me home, and I let out the old water/ anti-freeze out, it rained a LOT the next day, and the day after I replaced the little hose with a generic part from Kragen. I put in enough water/ anti-freeze to be just above minimum.

I turned on the engine carefully watching the motor and the exhaust pipe, and I got a lot of white smoke out of the exhaust pipe, and some water dripping. Under the cover over the exhaust pipes it seemed to burn some fluid, but that stopped soon. I let the car run for about 10 minutes, and the car went to normal operating temperature, and stayed there (so I guess the cooling system and especially the water pump are ok)
I checked the oil and it looks like oil that only has a few hundred miles on it looks like. When the car was off, I opened the oil cap on top of the valve cover, and there was some steam coming from it, but a lot less than when the guy who cleaned my engine department (against my will...) knocked of the pcv valve and I got a LOT of water in there...

I tried the car a little later, and was buzzled that I only got a little of white steam out of the exhaust pipe.
Turned it off, went to work.

I just got back again and took it for a quick spin around the block. It again turned on instantly, drove perfectly, no unusual vibration, no noticeable performance loss, and the engine sounds good, too.
However, I had big white smog coming out of the exhaust, looked pretty scary.

I could not find traces of oil in the water/ anti-freeze.

Now my questions:
[ul][*] Is there any other explanation than a blown head gasket ?[*] Does it sound like a sound idea to drive the 1.5 miles super slow and careful to the oil change place and get a new oil change - thus getting fresh oil in, only a little above MIN ? I kind of hope most problems go away with lower oil pressure ...
[/ul]
Thank you so much for any explanations and/ or help you can give!

 

White smoke from the tailpipe is definitely coolant....leaking gasket or cracked head possibly.

You could always drop the oil level a little yourself (pull drain plug on bottom of pan, but keep plug right at the hole so you can get it back in quickly and only let a slow flow come out.) It could be a little messy, but better than damaging anything in your engine.

 

thank you for your answer, sstlaure.

My problem is that I just moved and have no garage (or decent tools, for that matter). Maybe I can find an oil place closer by to drain some oil.

How much do you think a leaking gasket or cracked head would cost to fix? Is there a way to figure out what exactly the problem is?

If it's a leaking gasket, are any of the additives they sell for your oil to seal gaskets even worth trying ?

Thank you so much for any answers!

 

Try to drive it as little as possible, but definitely get the oil level down to where it should be first.

The gasket itself isn't too expensive, but there is quite a bit of tear up work to get down to it. (Remove heads and everything above them). Hard for me to judge what it would cost you to have this done, I do my work myself, so it's been a long time since I've had to pay to have something repaired.

I'd call around to a few places and get quotes for replacement of the gasket, make sure they also check to see if the head is warped (a common cause for gasket failure/leakage internal to the engine). If it is, they should be able to machine the head to get a nice flat mating surface. (shouldn't cost too much extra as the head is already off the engine.

The sealing fluids you are referring too are typically for cracks in blocks/heads, not for failed gaskets.

http://www.classicheads.com/Ceramic_block_Sealer.html

Given that you are getting smoke, that leads me to believe the problem is in the top end (heads or gasket) vs a cracked block. I assume you've checked your oil for evidence of coolant (white milky appearance if contamination, should have clear brown color if good oil.). If you see evidence of coolant in the oil, you could have a cracked passage in the block which the sealer would take care of.

How far down has your coolant level gotten? Monitoring that can give you an idea of the magnitude of the leak (fluid loss)

 

The '92 was a pretty simple car. The engine compartment is clean compared to today's. I've neverreplaced the head gasket on one, but my former roommate had that exact same car and we both drove it. It should be quite easy, except that it may also need to be machined, and that requires disassembly. And you must certainly torque and re-torqued the head bolts correctly.Be VERY careful following the proper procedures, torquing patternand torque specs on this one.Don't even think about skimping or skipping these. Iron block/aluminum head, doncha'know....