PO of my 94 did exactly what you (OP) did and made a mess of the engine. It had 130k on it at the time. You'd fill up the cooling system, start the engine, and a vast quantity of foul-smelling white smoke would spew from the tailpipe. See the pic. He had a couple of garages look at the car and they replaced the coolant pump and did cooling system flushes. Sadly no one seemed to notice that the underside of the front fascia had torn loose from the bottom of the radiator support and it was hanging down, *completely* blocking airflow into the radiator. A new coolant pump won't fix that !

I pulled the engine and rebuilt it. Didn't have the option of doing just gaskets becasue the PO parked the car with water in the cylinders. Head gasket was blown on the passenger side at the back cylinder. See the pic. Machine shop called to say that the passenger side head was cracked at that cylinder between the valve seats. See the pic.

Full rebuild cost about $3500. Bore, deck, new pistons/rings, cut crank, new bearings, new cam/lifters, timing chain/sprockets, gaskets set, do heads. A lot but 10k miles later it's problem free.

I had trouble finding a used 3.4. Very high miles on all of them. When i did find one that seemed good it turned out tobe junk and I was ripped off.

 

Yeah my car did what your picture four did twice after this but only for like two seconds. After adding coolant the temp stays where it should and no white smoke when i start anymore. I will get it looked out soon. Im unfamilar on how to check for combustion gas in coolant. Is there a test kit you buy or how does it work. I will check to see if the oil is milky brown also. What would a compression test say about a warped head?. I dont see what that would do other than tell you how well the engine is running.

 

 

Oil was not milky brown and the past three days everytime i check i coolant i have to add about a pint and a half every day to get it full again. But if the system was completly dry i havent even added enough to fill it so maybe it just comes to the top, but when the engine is running its just circulating?. Or once it comes to the top of the radiator should it stay there?.

 

But i also havent added the three gallons worth yet either.

 

Found a thing to test for gases for fifty bucks but he says it doesnt have the little squeeze thing on top, i have to hook it up to a vacumm source?. What does he mean by that, i wonder if it would just be cheaper to have a shop perform the test I dont have any vacumm equipment.

 

 

My dad said not to pressurize the system or do any vaccum stuff as it could just blow stuff out and make it worse. That kit doesnt do any of that does it?. or whats the exact purpose of the pump at the top.

 

your cooling system pressurizes to 16lbs every time its running so pressurizing, up to 16lbs, isnt going to hurt anything. as for a vacuum your not really creating a draw on the system. just enough to get some gasses into the tester, maybe .5lbs of vacuum, again wont hurt a thing. i use a block tester (combustion test kit) all the time at work, when ever a car comes in overheating first thing i do is block test (i go through the 16oz bottle in like 2 mths for you it will last pretty much your whole life).

 

Unless you're driving around with the radiator cap off (and spewing coolant everywhere), your cooling system is naturally under a good amount of pressure on it's own. Think boiling water and a pressure cooker.