Blown head?

[AdamFraser]

Hey guys,

I'm a fairly new member here, been a surf owner for just under 2 years.

I recently started to experience a leaky rad, and knowing about the head issues surfs have, I wanted to get on it immediately.

Ordered a new aluminium rad off of Ebay, got it professionally installed to prevent any issues my amateur ass might have caused, only to have the surf overheat 3 weeks later.

I should have been keeping an eye on the coolant level, but got cocky and thought she was good to go.

So I contact the ebay sellers, who tell me the radiator is under warranty, but it won't get to me for another 3 weeks.

Well my surf is my daily driver, and I commute 30 min to work everyday. I kept driving it with the leaky new rad, just making sure to keep an eye on coolant levels and on the temp gauge.

One day I'm driving home only to look down and see the temp gauge is maxed out. I pull over immediately, let her cool down, and realized the leak had turned into a full on hole.

I get it towed home, 2 days later the new rad shows up, I install it myself in under 2 hours. Upon pulling the old new rad out I noticed a many of the fins were damaged on installation, not pleased (i'm thinking the mechanic didn't remove the lower part of the fan shroud).

After taking it for a few short test drives I thought she was good to go, only to fire it up in a parking lot and notice a ton of white smoke emitting from the exhaust pipe.

I'm suspecting it's the head, but how do I know for sure? The only symptoms are a rough start-up and white smoke. I don't see any mayonnaise like substance in the oil, and my reservoir isn't overflowing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[AdamFraser]

I should also mention she is a 1994 3.0 litre

[andyverran]

A compression test should tell you, though maybe not one done by the mechanic that fitted the rad

[AdamFraser]

Update:

I took the bike back to the mechanic who f%$&ed the rad. I was hesitant, but with the damaged rad in hand and the intention of getting a free compression test out of it, I figured it wouldn't hurt.

After much communication and miscommunication within the shop, they ran a pressure test rather than a compression test, and the owner/technician didn't even get the note that I was leaking white smoke. My oh My

Long story short, the shop doesn't have a diesel compression test kit, so the owner said he'd take an oil sample to the local tractor dealer and have it tested for coolant contamination. Currently waiting on results, but should I also get a compression test done elsewhere?

He then took it for a drive and said the smoke didn't smell like coolant...

The weird thing is when they were giving the truck/radiator a once over they found a loose fitting between the fitting and rad itself, tightened it up, and it seems to of eliminated my white smoke issue.

Although starts up seem to be a lot faster than before, nearly instant, and other times it struggles to get rolling.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

On another note and just to give you an idea of my luck, Tomorrow I will be hiking 10K into the woods to fix and retrieve my klx250, which went completely dead on me Yesterday after I stalled her in a puddle... all part of the game right?


My oh My.

[vortexwizard]

yeh sounds like heads cracked, mine was cracked and only had abit of white smoke at startup and then no smoke after about a minute but would push coolant into the overflow tank, does this happen to yours?

[vortexwizard]

i now have new head, low water warning light, rebuild fan and resistor mod on the temp gauge to make sure it wont overheat again