White smoke after heater core replaced

[alex.millar]

Hey everyone
I have a 3b motor and my heater core recently exploded while driving. I have replaced the heater core and all and it was running and driving fine for about a week, and suddenly it started to puff small white clouds out of the tail pipe after starting to drive away from sitting at sets of stop lights. The next morning when I started it up, it left a huge cloud of white smoke in my driveway and front yard! I turned it off and have left it since. Any ideas on what it may be? I was thinking a leaking head gasket (because of the white smoke). If anyone else has had that problem please let me know, what it was and how you fixed it! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Alex

[panzerwagen]

You have a leak in the weater jacket somewhere!

That white smoke is a clear sign of it. Check the coolant bottle, is there any brown/tan sludge in it? Check your tailpie while car is running, any odd smell?
Check your plugs for odd contamination on them. Check your dipstick...any sludge on it? Any signs of it anywhere means you GOT A BIG PROBLEM!

[alex.millar]

What would this BIG problem be exactly? When i get home from work today i will check it all.

[panzerwagen]

As my post was listed....

you have a leak in the engines water jacket somewhere..be it the head gasket or somewhere else but coolant is contaminating the combustion chambers.

[mcandmar]

It could also be the turbo oil seals, when our S4 went it did the same, lots and lots of white smoke when cold.

[alex.millar]

how big of a job is the head gasket?
mcandmar... how can I check that? if i let the car warm up and the white smoke disapates, is that a sign of turbo oil seals?

[mcandmar]

Not sure if there is an easy way, ours stared slowly and gradually got worse over a month or two. I knew it wasn’t coolant as it never used any, the coolant and oil also stayed clean so that ruled out head gasket. I was suspecting valve seals or turbo, decided it was turbo as valve seals are more prone to leaking on closed throttle, where as ours was producing a thick white cloud on full throttle. Fitted a second hand turbo and the problem went away.

[alex.millar]

hmm ok thanks. I will check for all the symptoms of head gasket tonight. How big of a job is it to replace the gasket?