Wondering everyones take on this....

My rodeo smokes quite a bit at start up/throttle. If I start it and let it idle it doesnt smoke much, but when IM on the throttle it will smoke out the exhaust pretty well for about a mile or so... Its white smoke

Also, (i assume this is related) when Im cruising on the freeway for a while (5-7 miles) I will lose power, I can cruise at say 65 then push it to the floor and the rpms will not move and I have no power. I can push the clutch in and it will rev just fine and after that i can accelerate...?

AND, its going through water/coolant like crazy, but last time I changed out there was no water in oil that I could see....

Im no mechanic, but Im mechanical.... any ideas? I thought I might be getting water in the block, but there was no water in the oil and that wouldnt explain the lose of power at freeway speeds would it? I can tow my 4-wheeler fine (only about 800 pounds) except on the freeway... maybe it has to do with cruising at a certain speed for awhile, most of my driving is stop and go

I would bet money on a bad headgasket. Your losing water, white smoke out the pipe and a loss of power. Pretty good signs if you ask me. You dont always find water in the oil. SOmetimes you will find water in the oil, but no white smoke.

Dan

Arg

With the head gasket would there be loss of power all the time? Like I said its pretty rare only on the freeway after a couple of miles...

NJ, with the symptoms you posted, I would say H-gasket as well.... most likely between coolant passages and combustion chamber.. you can sniff the exhaust while is smoking, and it SHOULD have a slight antifreeze smell to it if the gasket quit where I think it did...

The reason you only notice it on the high(most likely), is you are cruising under more load(OD), adn at higher than normal rpms steady, for a duration of time, allowing the coolant system to flow a bit more, adn under a little more pressure, causing more coolant to flow into the chamber, thus losing power etc...

Do compression test, you should find the side/cylinder with leak with out much issue...do a leakdown test if possible, it will leak down much faster than normal as well..

You could also pop your radiator cap, fire the truck up, adn watch the radiator for a few minutes(enough to let the t-stat open... if you see bubbles coming up..("perkolating").. that is another sign as well...

HTH
Chase

didnt try the radiator cap thing yet, my oil isnt milky though, isnt that usually a sign of a bad headgasket?

It can be, but it doesnt have to be there. Do the tests that have been mentioned and that should give you a good indication of whats wrong. Pull the plugs and see what they look like.

Dan

If your coolant is getting into the combustion chamber on compression, you won't see any coolant in your oil. It all goes out the exhaust. However, Your check engine light should be on because the oxygen sensor should see this as an extremely lean (too much O2) condition. This ussually causes the computer to richen your fuel mixture and retard your ignition timing (loss of power).

Sometimes on an engine with a lot of miles, a compression test will not pinpoint the problem. You can pull your spark plugs and learn a lot though.

The plugs will be black on the side of the engine that has the coolant leak. So now you have all your plugs removed and you know which side has the problem. To further pin-point the leak, add one plug on the offending side. Crank the engine a few times. Now remove the radiator cap. If pressure was in the system; you found the cylinder that is leaking compression into the cooling system (and vise versa). If there was no pressure under the cap, then remove that plug and move to the next cylinder. If you get pressure on more than one cylinder, then you have a leak between them.