Hey guys I'm new to this but I see a lot of helpful things on here I need some help. I changed my upper intake gasket and my problem still occurs. I keep checking my oil dipstick there is no residue in the dipstick but when I open my oil filler cap it has white smoke come out of it. Right now my car has a miss because of the problem. My antifreeze disappears really quick from being full to empty but no eveidence of a leak. My exhaust does smell like antifreeze and my oil filler cap does have white residue. I've been told change the head gasket but I thought that would leave antifreeze in my oil. I have been working on cars for awhile and I can't figure this out I'm putting my car down after I get home today to tear down to the head gasket and change it but I'm not sure that's the problem. I have a 2004 Monte carlo ss 3800 series 2. I do know a major problem is the head gasket being blown. So please help tell me what If I'm on the right path or if not tell me what to do. Thank u in advance for any advice I really love this car it has 132000 miles so I'm thinking it is the head gasket.

 

A bad head gasket will cause all that you mentioned. Each time I had one replaced on a car they Also did and oil change, coolant flush and put new spark plugs in. You may Also want to clean your 02 sensor on the engine side of the CAT!

 

It does sound like a head gasket like everyone else said. My lumina had this issue too. I know it happens on a lot of gm cars. Welcome to the forum.

 

Thank you I was hoping it wasn't I'm replacing all the gaskets tonight and before I get done ill flush the radiator and change the oil and clean the O2 sensor. And thanks this site has given me a lot of useful info so I figured it would help.

 

Sounds like more of a lim gasket to me. Head gaskets don't go bad to often on the 3800 from what I've seen.

Don't drive the car like this as coolant is mixing with oil and the fluids separate (water vs oil) and the coolant will trash bottom end bearings which will require a big time rebuild.

 

Exhaust smelling like anti-freeze is a tip off that either you have a blown head gasket OR a bad UIM (normally around the EGR stove pipe, making a coolant leak that squirts coolant into the air intake). As for the oil, either you are low, loosing oil or the car has the wrong dip stick. You will also want to resolve this issue. Oil starvation on an engine is serious business!

My advice is not to keep driving the car (figure out and fix these problems before you risk serious engine damage).

 

Do a compression test, that should answer your blown head gasket question. But the intake manifold gaskets are far more common on our cars than a head gasket.

 

Unfortunately...
Even though you did the upper intake gasket... Someone should have told you to also do the Lower intake gasket at the same time. I have a series II 3800 and I had to learn that the hard way... Also you need to use aluminum elbows and aluminum lower intake gasket to resolve the problem from ever happeni9ng again. Just beusre when you you use the aluminum elbows...don't use the o rings provided... Get new o rings from the auto parts that are a touch larger and you will have resolved that problem forever ...also I would recommend changing all the plugs while you have easier access to them!
After that! It should be smooth sailing!

 

Yea but might as well change everything right because my lower was destroyed and my head gasket looked fine but figured tear it all down and clean it all by hand first. Thank you again for the advice

 

what does the smoke smell like? is it sweet or oily/exhaust type smell?