head gasket? (long read)

[mikeylikesit]

so i think i blew a head gasket. not too sure if it was the head gasket or not.
heres the scenario:
i turned onto the highway and stepped on it as usual. saw a little puff of white smoke out of the exhaust and smelled rad fluid. kinda thought wtf? then it went away after about 30 seconds so i figured everything was fine, that it was just burning something off.
pull into my girlfriend work, talk with her for abit. then i left again.
before i pull onto the highway my check oil light comes on (which was weird cuz my oil was fine the day before) so i figure its just being dumb, then my temperature went up to the N in normal. so i proceed to turn onto the highway again and see a little puff of white smoke out the back again but didnt smell any fluid so i figure maybe i'm just burning a little oil and i'd check it out later.
keep driving then more smoke comes out and doesnt stop. so i pull over and when i stopped white smoke was coming from under the hood. popped the hood and there was coolant all over the engine bay (splash marks looked like it was coming from under intake manifold) and there was white smoke/steam coming from by the fuel rail.

so heres the question. would it be the head gasket that made this happen? the car was still running and i'm not too sure if there was white smoke coming from the exhaust or if it was just going around my car and showing more at the back end. when i checked the oil there was no trace of coolant in there.
guys at work said it could possibly be a warped or cracked head.
the warped head could make sense because my car was overheating (well temp gauge at the N or normal) for awhile because my rad was clogged abit from some stop leak i put in.

any insights on what the problem could be?
the car is a 94 ATX

sorry for the novel i wrote i just figured i should be as specific as possible

 

[Mr Anonymous]

Check your dipstick for signs of coolant in the oil.

A compression test will give you your answer promptly.

 

[Mr95Gl]

If there's no coolant in your oil, nor white smoke coming out your tailpipes, or bogging / poor performance, then that leads me to believe it may possibly be a ruptured coolant line. Start it up, let it run for abit to pinpoint where the leak is coming from. Could be either one of your rad hoses, throttle body coolant line, heater core, amongst others. Good luck!

 

[jelloslug]

There is a metal crossover tube in the valley, under the fuel rails, that goes from the water pump to the thermostat manifold. If one of the o-rings that seals it goes bad it will make coolant spray from under the manifold.

 

[Entropy]

If you don't have a compression tester, and you might think this is stupid, but if your oil doesn't look milky, give it a quick taste (just a drop on the tongue) to see if it tastes sweet. If it is bitter enough that all you can think of is never doing that again - there is probably no contamination of AF in your oil.

 

[MerkXRTurbo]

A blown HG won't always cause the oil and water to mix. A compression test will tell you, and if you don't have a guage then get one. They're only around $30 or so.

 

[mikeylikesit]

There is a metal crossover tube in the valley, under the fuel rails, that goes from the water pump to the thermostat manifold. If one of the o-rings that seals it goes bad it will make coolant spray from under the manifold.

i had a talk with my mechanic today and he suggested to check that.
others said to check the tubes going from my heater core.

i pulled my intake manifold today but couldnt check anything else because it was time to go to work. but i will start checking lines this weekend.

 

[mikeylikesit]

anyone know of a place on the web that has a cooling system diagram for these cars?
or should i just go to a dealership and ask to look at a shop manual?

thanx in advance

 

[MerkXRTurbo]

anyone know of a place on the web that has a cooling system diagram for these cars?
or should i just go to a dealership and ask to look at a shop manual?

thanx in advance

Let me know what you find, because I'd like one too.