Long story short I just had my head rebuilt and head gasket changed a month ago, have only about 200 miles on it, I get home the other day and notice excessive smoking, so I rev it up and get a huge cloud of blue/gray smoke. I check the oil and its all foamy again.

Before the top end rebuild it did not smoke at all, ever! I was just getting a mix of antifreeze/oil from a cracked head gasket.

I call up the guy whos a family friend and tell him whats up and he tells me this:
"Replacing the head gasket caused your engine to have higher compression, so it has probably broken something internally, all I can say is you get a new engine or a new truck"

Part of me believes him, but part of me is thinking BS, the truck didnt smoke at all before all this, not a single bit, now I get a a cloud of smoke that would smoke out my drive way just from revving it up!

 

Cracked head gasket?
Blown head gasket/ Cracked or Warped Head


When you took it back to the shop, they said:?????????

 

ok, blown head gasket if that term is more correct...

they said there was a crack in the head gasket which was allowing oil into the coolant. The head was not warped but he wanted to rebuild it because all the valves where shot.

I have not had time to take it in as it just happened, I called today and thats when he said the new head gasket is allowing more compression so something is wrong internally.

 

He is F.O.S. 302 parts can stand 10-11.0 compression, and the head gasket will not bump the compression unless its an expensive thinner gasket, but that will raise the compression only a couple of tenths, sounds like a bad install.

 

I agree with dirtcrew51m. Sounds like they did something wrong. Just changing the head gasket should have no affect. Just in case though, what exactly do you mean by "I just had my head rebuilt"? Did you just mean they changed the head gasket and that's all or was there more?

 

for the head rebuild he said he had a valve job done because none of the valves were seating right.

I would have to agree, because the truck has way more power now and I am getting way better MPG.

But thanks for the info, I will go park it in front of his shop and tell him to re-do it...

 

OK, you've had a valve job done too. That's a horse of a different color. Sometimes, "sometimes" when you do a valve job on an older engine it can cause it to start smoking. That's because the newly seated valves aren't leaking like they were before and you do have more compression than you did before. Maybe back up to normal levels is a better way to put it. Now when that happens, sometimes it's too much for the old rings to handle and the oil starts to get past them. This of course means smoke. Unfortunately, it's pretty much hit and miss as to whether or not one will start to smoke. I rebuilt the head on and old Cavalier of mine that had 170+ K on it and it never smoked a bit. You just never know. Still, the foamy oil bothers me. I think I'd get a second opinion someplace. Just doesn't sound right.

 

can the added compression from a valve job cause foam in the oil?

 

No.

 

great.. so best case, my mechanic sucks.. worse case my engine is shot haha..

I guess thats what I get for buying a $2000 work truck then falling in love and wanting more from it that just driving it two or three times a month haha!