jclark

its a 97 f150 4.2. we drove it monday and every thing was fine other than oil pressure, but now i went out today and opened the hood and there is barley any clutch fluid, power steering fluid has gone down to the middle between min and max and there is fluid on one of the hoses going down to where the steering wheel shaft goes, lost some brake fluid but i think that is because we made an emergency stop, and the coolant is leaking, oil pressure is at 0 when we stop at a light, and i had to put 2 quarts of oil in last saturday. i dont notice it smoking, there is white smoke like other cars have when it is cold out but it goes away. there is a bunch of sludge on the passenger side of the engine. and i think the coolant is coming from the passenger side. any clues about where things are going or leaking from. ask as many questions as you like i will try to answer them.

ottawaguy

The 97-98 4.2's are known for the bad head gaskets.

What ever you do, I would stop driving the truck now!

The Coolant is getting into your cylinders and that is what is giving you the white smoke, You risk catastropic engine failure if you drive it. At the least the coolant is washing the oil off the cylinders and rings etc. and can cause engine damage. Others have had the engine hydrolock and find broken rods and many other bits and pieces.
Do a google search on this. You will find lots of stories.
The timing chain cover gasket is also problematic if I remember correctly.
Not sure what is causing all your other troubles, but this problem tops the list.
Hope it's not too late for you buddy.....
Let us know what happens

jclark

i have already replaced head gasket and intake but not timing cover gasket

jclark

i have checked the oil and its not milky. im going to look at all the plugs tomorrow. and clean some things. look at the valve covers and so on.

jclark

the timeing cover doesnt look to fun to replace and im not going to take it to a shop. i will do everything in my driveway the white smoke is not my concern because i think it is a freeze plug but i dont want to pull the engine to replace it. it.

ottawaguy

Well, I'm glad you're aware of the issue. The oil pressure gauge could be a bad ground, but I'm new to this generation of truck and am not sure of all the gauges. In the last gen. trucks, the gauge is a dummy switch that goes dead center when the pressure is greater the 7 psi. It is possible that these are similar and your oil pressure is dropping at idle, enough to not trigger the needle. That's just a thought though.
Whatever is causing the issues, fluids disappearing from everywhere is not good.
Hope you get it all resolved soon.