How do I know if I blew my headgasket?

[arbi]

Greetings,

Yestereday, I Blew it! I was driving down a residential street, and Pooff....heard a noise, and smoke started to rise from the cherokee. I pared the chero and got out to investigate. I thought i had blown a radiator hose, but I saw oil/coolant leaking out of the right bank valve cover/head area. So I had it towed to my house. I checked the temp guage, it was normal, had filled up on oil/coolant last weekend.

Since this is my first occurance of such a thing..I have lots of questions...
-How do I know if I blew the head gasket, or if I did somthing else to it? (the truck is an 83, 360ci with 117000 miles on it).
-What are the minimum things I need to fix, to resolve the problem? (i.e., when I'm doing this, is it almost a must to change the timing chain/cover? Etc.?
-any tips, tricks, do's and donts would be greately appreciated..as I'm venturing into uncharted territory (for me at least).

Thanks,

-arbi

[64Trvlr]

Did you do a compression check? Is there oil in the water? Is there water in the oil? Start here and post the results.
:cool:

[Crazy_Jeepman]

As 64 has mentioned is a good start. I would lean towards a Jumper hose for the intake to water pump or the intake gasket itself. It is not often you will see the coolant spew out of the engine from a blown headgasket, much less hear a POP then see steam. I would check the heater hoses and the Jumper hose. AMC V8 are not really known for headgasket problems so I highly doubt this is the case unless continous overheating was a problem. ;)

[reddog]

Hey Arbi - other than this problem how have you been?

I agree with what the experts here have already said. The easiest sign is water in the oil - looks like a root beer float on the oil filler cap if the is much water getting into the oil and it has run very long. Any oil in the radiator is a bad sign.

CJ is right (as usual) about the unlikely possibility of water leaking externally from a blown gasket. There is no pressureized oil in the head that is contained by the head gasket so oil leaking from a blown gasket is not REALLY posible in the V8 AMC.

It really does sound like a blown hose. Look carefully at all the hoses. If you can't find anything and if there is no water showing in the oil/oil in the water I would find a radiator shop close to you and drive it to them and they can pressurize the coolant system and see if it leaks down and that may well show you where the leak is. Or you can just let it warm up to pressurize it but be careful of anything out of the ordinary.

Regards

Kerry

[Slingmaster]

I had a similar problem once. Besides doing what everyone else said already, you might want to replace the PCV valve, breather hose/element. it helped me solve some of my problem. Good Luck, I've been in your boots. :cool:

[64Trvlr]

OK, what was wrong with it?
:cool:

[arbi]

Greetings,

Well, this weekend, I ended up having to take care of a lot of things, however, I did take a look at the cherokee. There is nothing but coolant in the radiator (the level is normal too), there is nothing but oil in the engine (dipstick has normal coloration oil on it). I took a closer look at the engine, but I couldnt ID the problem. Its the right bank of cyclinders (pass. side) that had the problem. So I'm a little confused. Its right next to the heater box, but the heater wasnt on, so I dont know why that would be a problem. I guess I still need to dig in deeper, and find out what's wrong, but it doesnt look like its the head gasket.

Kerry, I'm doing fine, still have a job, and still chugging along. How about you?

THanks for the pointers. At least, it seems like its not a head gasket.

-arbi