Engine sputtered, blew white smoke, and stalled.

[LGreen72F]

Hello all, as the subject says, my engine basically sputtered, blew white smoke out the tailpipes, and stalled. It is a 1972 F-250 with a 360 FE. I have been driving this truck as a daily for about 2 years now and everything has been running "relatively" alright so far. Only about 2 hours ago I was letting the truck warm up before I drove it and it was running smooth and fine and usual. However, all of a sudden it started sputtering and blew white smoke out the tailpipes and stalled. It also seemed to have spewed some liquid out of the tailpipes when this happened. Upon trying to restart the engine, it fired up but made a very loud clicking or pinging noise, blew a LOT of white smoke out the tailpipes, and died again. As I opened the hood to inspect the engine, I could hear fluid constantly pouring inside the engine, like a light stream of water from a faucet. I checked the radiator, and all of the coolant that was visible before was gone. I checked the oil and it did not have any discoloration, but was very high up on the dipstick. The truck was not warmed up at all, and had only been running for about 30 seconds, so I doubt it could have been an overheating problem, and the engine has NEVER had an overheating problem before. Only thing I have done recently to the truck was about 7 months ago I replaced the intake manifold with an edelbrock aluminum intake with a new carb, and have been running it daily ever since. My thoughts were blown intake gasket, blown head gasket, or maybe a broken block or piston, however i'm not completely sure. I will be towing it to the mechanic in the next few days, but until then, any ideas or suggestions as to what may be the problem and what may have caused it? Thanks!

[ButtaBean]

Pull the oil plug. Bet there is coolant in the bottom of the pan.

[tsherry]

And pull the spark plugs. If you have a remote starter switch, you could crank it over with plugs removed and see if you're ejecting coolant from one of the cylinders. It probably blew a gasket and you might have hydro locked a cylinder.

In any regard, this will not be an inexpensive proposition.

[Ohiotinkerer]

Everything you described points to blown head gasket - all the same symptoms I had on a 74 Buick Regal I drove when I was stationed at Ft Gordon GA.........not a bad job to do just takes $$$$$.........

[tnlprt]

I would lay money on the fact that you probably used printoseal intake gaskets

In the FE world they are called LEAK O SEAL gaskets ...they do not like antifreeze

[Jacksdad]

I agree. Head gasket more than likely. If you have time before it's towed, partially drain the oil. I'm betting coolant will be the first thing you see.

[LGreen72F]

Dang. Well it could be worse I suppose. I can't drain the oil at the moment due to the fact it happened to break down at work before I left, so it is stuck in the parking lot. However, if it IS a blown head gasket, would it be more worth it to replace the gasket(s) or just get a rebuilt engine? The engine has 170k miles on it and was planning on rebuilding it/replacing it eventually. Not sure if it's worth the money to fix the head gaskets on a worn out engine like this. Ideas?

[Jacksdad]

Just be aware that the shop you take it to might be reluctant to go the cheap route. They'll be thinking liability if the bottom end goes bad, and many shops will just be looking for extra work.
If it was me and it ran okay before, I'd change out the head gasket. The hardest part (except maybe the exhaust manifold bolts fighting you) would be the weight of the intake, and you already took care of that by fitting the Eddy.
Did you have any other issues with it before this happened? If not, just fix the head gasket and put the money toward parts for a future rebuild.

[LGreen72F]

I had already redone the exhaust about a year ago and redid the bolts, so they shouldn't be any trouble. The thing that concerns me most about replacing the head-gasket is that I had a friend with a '70 f-250 with the same motor. He had to take his heads off and take them in to get milled and fixed for some reason or another. In the process, he had broken all the head bolts and had to have stuff machined and re-threaded and all that. I had this experience when taking the exhaust off, which sat for at least 15 years, and broke half of the bolts. Not sure If I feel like rebuilding my threads haha

[Manny]

I had already redone the exhaust about a year ago and redid the bolts, so they shouldn't be any trouble. The thing that concerns me most about replacing the head-gasket is that I had a friend with a '70 f-250 with the same motor. He had to take his heads off and take them in to get milled and fixed for some reason or another. In the process, he had broken all the head bolts and had to have stuff machined and re-threaded and all that. I had this experience when taking the exhaust off, which sat for at least 15 years, and broke half of the bolts. Not sure If I feel like rebuilding my threads haha

You shouldn't have a problem getting the heads off if the exhaust is fixed up right.

[cep62]

If you recently changed the intake ,I'd look at those gaskets closely before pulling the heads.

Then change your oil , antifreeze in the bearings is not a good thing.

[tnlprt]

If the intake gaskets are leaking you will also have water in the oil

I still lay odds that you have an intake gasket leaking

You keep saying that water is coming from the tail pipes ..I am assuming you have dual exhaust .....Rarely would you blow both head gaskets at the same time and have water coming from both tailpipes unless it is the intake gasket that died

35 bucks and 4 hours

[LGreen72F]

If the intake gaskets are leaking you will also have water in the oil

I still lay odds that you have an intake gasket leaking

You keep saying that water is coming from the tail pipes ..I am assuming you have dual exhaust .....Rarely would you blow both head gaskets at the same time and have water coming from both tailpipes unless it is the intake gasket that died

35 bucks and 4 hours

Well, yes and no. The problem is I had a quick exhaust job done due to the exhaust system rotting away and leaking in numerous places, and it has "fake" dual exhaust. A Y-pipe leaves the manifolds and joins into one pipe, then splits again after the muffler.

[tnlprt]

Pull your spark plugs

The steam cleaned ones will show where the water is going

[Manny]

If the intake gaskets are leaking you will also have water in the oil

I still lay odds that you have an intake gasket leaking

You keep saying that water is coming from the tail pipes ..I am assuming you have dual exhaust .....Rarely would you blow both head gaskets at the same time and have water coming from both tailpipes unless it is the intake gasket that died

35 bucks and 4 hours

Well, yes and no. The problem is I had a quick exhaust job done due to the exhaust system rotting away and leaking in numerous places, and it has "fake" dual exhaust. A Y-pipe leaves the manifolds and joins into one pipe, then splits again after the muffler.

You pulled the pan plug yet see if there is water at the bottom. Plugs? just curious!!