hi all,
i'm fairly certain that i'm having an issue with the head gasket, but not positive, so i wanted to get some opinions. my 1987 van has started to lose coolant at a moderate rate, but i don't see any leaks, cold or when it gets up to temperature. i had a leaky reservoir tank sensor, but i fixed that with permatex rtv water system sealant. a side note on that, no leaks so far. i pressurized the tank for a short period of time, and nothing came out the seal. so, with that taken care of, i'm still losing coolant.
i happened to notice today that the exhaust has a little bit of fog to it. i hadn't noticed this happening before, but wasn't watching for it. this fog occurs from the moment the engine is fired up. i held my hand in front of the exhaust for a while and it gets wet. i had previously ruled out the head gasket because the oil looks fine, no milky appearance. but now that i've noticed this, i'm wondering if maybe the gasket is damaged between the water jacket and a cylinder. can this happen without water getting into the oil. is this possible? this i my main question.
i was also wondering, is it possible to have water getting into the exhaust system at the exhaust valve, thereby not actually getting into the cylinder and not getting into the oil?
any thoughts on this or comments about similar problems are greatly appreciated.
thanks
clay