Head Gasket Leak!

[rangerin]

I have a head gasket leaking exhaust only (audible pft pft pft) in a ford 390. It's probably a bad idea to drive it right?

 

[forgey4x4]

If its just a exhaust manifold gasket, you can drive it, if you are losing water out your exhaust, you run risk of over heating and warping head.

 

[Mark_88]

Oooops...ninja'dl...lol...

Anyway ^^^ what he said...ditto! My post took too long to show up >>

Let us know if there is any white or grey smoke coming out of the engine bay or tailpipe...

You might need to just tighten the exhaust manifold...and if it was recently rebuilt that might be easy to do...the bolts should be fairly clean so snapping them is not so much an issue...

 

[Big Jim M]

Exhaust manifold leaking gaskets BURN VALVES! Also occasionally burn pistons. Remember the piston also SUCKS air! The closest place to get air is that gasket.
I wouldn't drive it until the gasket is replaced. Now if it is the head gasket and only water is leaking outside the engine then I would tighten the nearest head bolts to see if that would stop the leak. I have found this to be occurring in Ford engines and have done the above to two of them with good results.
Big Jim

 

[csargents1546]

I would replace the exhaust manifold gasket as soon as possible. Mostly as a safety concern of leaking exhaust gas into the cab. Pb blaster is your friend when working on exhaust and lots of heat in the dorm of a blue wrench. Ie. A torch of some kind. Speaking from experience using hand tools to break the bolts free seems to work more often than not.

 

[rangerin]

Turns out the head gasket was blown. Strangely, it was only leaking exhaust. It sounded like a lifter too. Got it swapped out the other day and all is good!

 

[swifttony]

Same thing happened to my truck. I didn't drive it till I replaced the exhaust manifold gasket.

 

[Mark_88]

Thanks for the update...we never can tell what some things are without digging into it. It was a good thing it didn't leak fluids as that would soon run into warped heads and other problems that very quickly run up the cost of repairs...

Glad it's all better now!