1997 Mitsubishi Eclipse 1997 Eclipse blown/cracked head gas

JUNIOR_FM91

MEMBER
1997 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
129,000 MILES

Hi I am in need of some help and would greatly appreciate it if someone did. I just bought my first car ( 1997 eclipse, 2.0 L) and I wanted to make sure it doesn't have a blown/cracked head gasket or is about to get one. The symptoms are : white smoke for about 1 second through exhaust when I accelerate after I stop at a stop light or sign ( happens sometimes not all), radiator reserve bubbling, but not the main radiator tank ( read that you can tell when its bubbling ). Other than that the car runs great, doesn't overheat, trans shifts good. I'm hoping it could be just an oil leak and is fixable because once in a while I smell oil when I get out of the car. Please let me know. Thanks a lot.

J.R.

3 Replies

BLUELIGHTNIN6

MECHANIC
16,542 POSTS

White smoke indicates coolant or water burning. Could be coolant, could just be water in exhaust burning out. Is your coolant and oil levels OK? One easy way to check for a faulty head gasket is to remove the radiator cap when vehicle is COLD. Then, making sure nobody is near the radiator area, start the vehicle. If coolant shoots up and out of radiator cap area, you have a faulty head gasket and possible bad head.

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Monday, August 17th, 2009 AT 11:47 PM

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

I totally agree with B6 also you can have it block and pressure tested

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Monday, August 17th, 2009 AT 11:50 PM

JUNIOR_FM91

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Hi thanks for the quick reply back bluelightnin6. I tried doing exactly what you said and the coolant didn't shoot up. And when I started it there wasnt any smoke that came out through the exhaust. There was however coolant on the ground when I first checked under the car so looks like a leak. So it may be something minor? Last night I removed the pressure cap after turning on the engine and the coolant was bubbling but that's when the engine was hot, I had been driving it about 45 mins before I checked? Was that normal or a bad indication?

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Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 AT 1:31 PM