Blown head gasket????????

[97-runner]

How can you tell if you have a blown/cracked head? Over the past few days my truck has been smelling really bad while I drive it. It smells like a burning rubber or oil or something like that, im not really sure. Its not overheating and all the fluids are good so im not really sure what is going on. My coolant overfill tank was almost empty so I filled it with water and I check it again after I drove it and there was little black chunks in the water.
Any one have any ideas of what it might be?

 

[4Runner_101]

How can you tell if you have a blown/cracked head? Over the past few days my truck has been smelling really bad while I drive it. It smells like a burning rubber or oil or something like that, im not really sure. Its not overheating and all the fluids are good so im not really sure what is going on. My coolant overfill tank was almost empty so I filled it with water and I check it again after I drove it and there was little black chunks in the water.
Any one have any ideas of what it might be?

head gasket goes when the oil and coolant mix, when the engines cold remove the rad cap, if it looks like muddy water then your head gaskets gone. Same thing with engine oil, but that can be checked when its hot as well, if thats muddy also then your head gasket is gone. If the heads cracked it usually over heats and may also have the same muddy oil and coolant symptom. if your oil and coolant looks good, might just be something touching the engine or headers or rad thats burning

 

[MattinLA]

Block tester

This is the absolute hands down way to diagnose a blown head gasket. Just make VERY sure, you get quality, fresh working detection fluid.

 

[97-runner]

This is the absolute hands down way to diagnose a blown head gasket. Just make VERY sure, you get quality, fresh working detection fluid.

so what is a block tester? and where would i get one?

 

[KidVermicious]

so what is a block tester? and where would i get one?

Any parts house should have one. Ask at the counter at NAPA or Oreillys or whatever you've got out there. It's a chemical test that evaluates your coolant for exhaust particles.

 

[02SE]

head gasket goes when the oil and coolant mix,

Head gaskets can fail in a number of ways. The coolant and oil don't always mix.

You can have a coolant leak into the combustion chamber, that isn't bad enough to fill the combustion chamber to the point that coolant gets past the rings into the oil. In that case it is often such a small quantity that you don't notice the smoke out of the tailpipe from the burning coolant.

You can have a coolant leak from the headgasket that just leaks externally (That was a common failure for the 3VZE).

You can have an oil leak from the head gasket into a combustion chamber, or an oil leak that manifests externally.