My 1995 3.4L V6 Camaro has white smoke from the exhaust, and is dripping something out of the tailpipe. It doesn't seem to be dripping antifreeze, but it is losing antifreeze from somewhere, but I can't see any leaks anywhere.

I was told to start the engine cold with the radiator cap off and look for bubbles in the coolant. I did that and there were a few bubbles every now and then, but it wasn't continually bubbling.

Also the car has a strong gas smell when running. I'm so afraid this is a blown head gasket. Could it possibly be anything else? If it is a blown head gasket, what problems would a blown head gasket cause, and how hard is it to fix?

The car and engine has about 230,000 miles on it also.

 

ok, first, if there is anything dripping out of the exhaust, its likely condesation produced from your catalytic converter, thats nothing to worry about. How much white smoke are we talking about? White smoke will almost always point to burned coolant, does it happen more the faster you go? Is it steady? Does it stop at any point? (ie once it warms up, once you run it for awhile)

This is generally known as "burping" the cooling system. I would say to do this if you were overheating, is the car running hot? overheating?



A strong gas smell will have almost nothing to do with a head gasket, it could be many other things such as a leaky injector, leaking fuel rails/lines or the car not running right and emitting unburned fuel. Have you ever done a tune up on the car?

A blown head gasket will generally emit white smoke, potentially overheat and make the car run rough. Are you seeing any/all of these symptoms?

 

There's not a lot of white smoke coming out, and it seems to lessen a little as the car warms up while idling. I've never ever noticed any smoke while driving. (Isn't it supposed to smoke a little anyway?) And it doesn't seem to be stopping. The car doesn't overheat now but it came dangerously close the other day because it was low on coolant. I put some coolant in and it doesn't overheat. I think the gas smell i'm referring to is just exhaust fumes. The car runs fine as always and there is nothing that I have noticed performance-wise.

 

update: I let it idle for about 30 mins, and the smoke slowed down but didn't stop. I drive it around for about 4 or 5 miles and when I get home the smoke has stopped and so have the drips of water out of the tailpipe

 

update: pressure tested the cooling system and it held lost about 1-2 psi in about 45 minutes.

 

The fuel smell could also be in some relation to a head gasket problem. When a gasket goes bad it can leak into the cylinders, which would be burning the coolant and making white smoke. But, it also causes misfires and the unburnt fuel builds up in the exhaust and leads to the smell of fuel. It can also detonate still and sounds like the exhaust popping or rumbling randomly.

 

Simple check for a blown head gasket: Is your oil milky?

 

That would only be in a very advanced case. The head gasket would have to be blown so bad that it would fill the cylinder with antifreeze and draining into the oil over night. With small drop in pressure over 45 minutes it could be a blown head gaskets but not an advanced case. Same with the cylinder miss (fuel smell) is a symptom of an advanced head gasket issue.

So the problem is not making sense unless the OP just did not mention a bad miss or the OP is confusing the smell of fuel with the smell of antifreeze. For raw fuel to get past the Cat unburnt (even with a miss) is a problem in itself. You could try to start the car with the pressure tester at 10 psi and see if it build pressure quickly (cause by cylinder charge leaking into the coolant system) the best thing would be to start pulling plugs and look for variation. If one is real clean with a green tint to it then the gasket is gone.