What is the best way to isolate a bad head gasket before tearing the motor down? I have oil in my coolant (or it could be a leak stop additive) and I have white vapor coming out the exhaust after the car has warmed up for 20 minutes or more (not condenaste). Not a lot of vapor but enough to wet your hand if you have it at 1/2 throttle. Is there a way to determine a bad head gasket vs a cracked block etc without taking the head off? Car has 124K miles. 2.3L motor.

I don't know the history of the car but it runs well and has good compression. I'm not getting coolant in the oil. I do have a leak in the heater control valve and the heater core.

I'm assuming a cracked block is a rarity with this motor but was wondering if someone has some experience with this motor.

Decided to pull the head. I have read in some posts that one can remove the intake from the head in the engine bay. Is this possible? Looks like the nuts and bolts are hard to see let alone get a wrench on them

If you can like with the M103, do it! You'll save hours of extra work and less stuff to make mistakes on if you can do it that way.

__________________
2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

I pulled my head without the intake and exhaust for a new head gasket. Some of the bolts are by feel. Your head is probably warped and will need to be resurfaced at a machine shop. May as well do new valve guides and seals while you're there and all new rubber water hoses. You'll need a hex allen type tool, 10 mm I think for the head bolts. I got a set of 3 sizes at Advanced Auto for about $10 last year. Read the manual carefully before you start. Except for the part about taking the head with intake and exhaust off as a unit. Took me about 8 hours to remove and 5 to replace. I am not fast.

__________________
85 300 SD ~ 115K
82 500 SEC Euro ??K
78 450SL 164K

I plan to have the head rebuilt at a local machine shop. It looked as though it would take as much time to remove connections etc to access the intake bolts as it would to pull the head with the intake. Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Im doing my buddys 300e right now same situation as you mentioned, i found the oil in the coolant, previous owner said head was cracked but
i found no obvious signs of cracks , while pulling the head all the bolts were too loose, indicating possible prior overheat, measured 2 1/2 thousand warpage, resurfaced head , torqued bolts per manual and all is well, had to change all the rubber hoses as they were expanded from oil contamination , ive drained and refilled about 6 times to get all the milky
residue out , but its finally clean!, at the rear of head an oil gally is close to the coolant passage,so that must have been why oil was mixing with coolant.

Did you use new head bolts or where the original old ones within the stretch limits?
Ad

anybody have directions etc on how to remove the head with taking the intake manifold off in the engine bay. Looks as though I would need to disconnect the fuel lines and assorted other components. That is the only way I can see to get access to most of the bolts.