Blown head gasket in Detroit 60

If it does not have white cream looking oil yet, but has white smoke out of ex. stack when 1st started up,Then its giving you warning signs

Take a sample of oil and send it off to oil lab in a bottle you can buy at any truck parts store

 

A blown head gasket can have several issues to look for. It all depends where on the head it was damaged. Most commonly the gasket is damaged allowing coolant to enter the combustion chamber and be burned off. The signs of this will be coolant loss at the surge tank, a sweet smelling, white exhaust which will ploom even in warm weather. Coolant can also find it’s way into the oil, which can easily be checked at the dipstick, where the oil will change color into a chocolate milkshake look. Also moisture droplets will be visible on the underside of the oil filler cap. Sticking a finger in the crankcase vent hose will reveal a thick, snotty consistency.

 

If the top radiator hose is rock hard but not boiling hot, youve got compression going into the water jacket. Could be head or liner orings too. Youll also usually see a mess out the slobber tube and maybe a thumpy rough idle but that can be valve lash or pushrod issues too.

 

You can blow a HG to snot and not put coolant in the oil noticeably btw.

 

My last ones symptoms started out as losing cab heat when you’d stop at traffic lights or park for the night. Coolant stayed full, temperature was always normal.
A week later I noticed coolant bubbling in reservoir and a couple days after the bubbles came then white smoke started

 

The cow snot in the breather tube comes from leaking liner orings too.