84 6.2 white smoke from driverside exhaust

Ok bought this truck couple months back 84 c20 6.2 L Diesel, Fan clutch went out had a mechanic fix that along with some fuel lines and oil cooler lines.there apears to be a fuel leek some where, also a small amount of oil coming from some where maybe water pump....

anyhow the white smoke was not that bad up till the last few weeks (only did it for a few seconds in morning at first startup for the day) it now does it on every start and for a few minutes in the morning.

mechanic said he noticed it when he started it in the morning for a test drive, asked if i had to add any coolant (which i had 1/2 gal. a month after i got it) said that was from coolant leek and to keep track of how much coolant i had to add.

it started fine this morning minuse the smoke, the other day the engine was not turning over at first the 3rd try it turn once with a big clunk sound i got it started on the 5th try im lets say a little worried...

Is it time to have that leek fixed and is there anything else i should be concered about.

sorry for the ramble thanks for any feed back,

Aaron @ [email protected]

high pressure pump problems, injectors, timing.
Some high miler big rigs smoke like that till they warm up

Check the oil. Sounds like a blown head gasket and coolant is seeping into the oil. If oil looks milky get it fixed before driving. Will have a lot of problems if driving with bad oil.

Lets start of with water pumps dont leak oil they leak engine coolant(antifreeze). Have them do a rad running pressure build up test to see if it is a blown headgasket. And if it is ONLY let someone who knows and works on a lot of GM Diesels do the work. Aftermarket repair manuals suck for that type of work

it started fine this morning minuse the smoke, the other day the engine was not turning over at first the 3rd try it turn once with a big clunk sound i got it started on the 5th try im lets say a little worried...

Is it time to have that leek fixed and is there anything else i should be concered about.


If I were you, I would be very worried. If you have determined that coolant does exit the cooling system, and it doesn't mark it's territory, that means it is going into the engine. If it's going into the oil, that's bad.... but a small amount probably won't hurt, just get it fixed soon. I would be VERY concerned about hydrolocking it. If the oil isn't milky looking, that means the coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber. Since it's a diesel, you have a much higher compression ration than gasoline, and therefore less room for "harmless" coolant to enter.
I'm assuming that the "big clunk" was followed by a loud humming sound, if you didn't let off the key right away. If it was, DO NOT START IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!! that humming is the starter trying to compress the coolant, but liquids don't compress. Something will break.
I am also assuming you waited a while between starting attempts, that gave the coolant (which would be under extreme pressure) time to escape past the piston rings into the crankcase.
If it were my vehicle, I would not attempt to start it until I confirmed that there is no coolant leaking into the cylinders.

Yep, blown head gasket, no doubt. If you replace the head gasket, do both sides at once.

Well thought I let everyone know I replaced the headgaskets and yes bothsides. the left was diffently shot. right head came off alot easier and gasket came off more in one piece.....

know i just need to find that one missing intake maniflod bolt and put the brakets for the alt., ac, and ps back that will be fun.

Well thanks again everyone, came out with only a hurt finger i guess lucky me thought i almost broke it.

tata, Aaron