blown head gasket or intake manifold gasket?

[blowedupmotor87]

Well, I think I have finally mustered up the courage to dive into the belly of the beast, time to try to fix the Jimmy's 350 V8 engine.
Here's what's going on:
About 2 months ago, the Jimmy started puffing out clouds of sweet smelling smoke. So, most definately antifreeze in the exhaust. I don't recall it getting overheated 'cause I didn't have to drive it far, and I try to keep an eye on things like that. Got home, shut it down. Next day, time to go to work, about 28 degrees out, my roommate knows nothing of my engine problems and starts the truck to warm it up. I see this and just move the truck out of the way so he can get his car out and shut the truck back down, seeing little rivers of coolant behind it.
So, I had assumed is to be the head gaskets but, I have started hearing about cases where the intake manifold gasket has been at fault. How can I tell the difference, other than by doing a compression test? (I don't have the tools or knowledge to do that). Or, is there a way to tell the difference? Should I try to take the easy way out and just replace the intake manifold gasket and see if that does the trick?
Anybody know the torque specs for the bolts for the intake manifold? How about for the head bolts, I searched and saw 40, then 55, then 65 tightening in sequence, is that correct? Do you have to lube the bolts before putting them in? (I think I saw mention of that)
As long as I mark all the hoses, wires, and whatnot as to where they go, and mark which way the distributor was pointing, I ought to be good to go, right? Any special tips, tricks, surprises to watch out for?
Thanks everybody!

 

[blowedupmotor87]

Dang, I spent a bunch of time making the above post into nice, neat paragraphs with good spacing and everything, and when I posted it, it came out all lumped together, sorry.

 

[Col_Sanders]

See if your oil is milky and if your coolant resevoir bubbles when it is running. Thats the easiest way to see if its the head gasket.

Even if the oil isnt milky it can be the head gasket. Dont drive it anymore, or you can end up really doing a lot more damage to the motor.

 

[bigblock72]

Unlikely the head gaskets are blown, they rarely will leak coolant externally. Most likely the intake gaskets are leaking, very common problem. They will usually leak at the corners, there'll usually be a crust built up around the gasket at the corners of the intake most noticeable around the outermost bolts.
Replacing the intake gasket isn't to hard, just make sure you cover the inside of the motor up real good when you clean the old gaskets off. In fact cleaning of the old petrified gaskets is the worst part of the job. If you question if you can do the job it may be worth payng someone to do, or find a buddy with some experience with this type of work. There are a lot of potential leak spots and you can cause yourself a lot of grief if you don't get everything sealed up right. Make sure you change the oil after the job is done and before you start the motor because you will get some dirt and coolant inside the motor.

 

[4X4HIGH]

If it is burning water/antifreeze then it is either a blown head gasket or a cracked head. There is no way for water to enter the cylinder from a bad intake gasket so unless you have an external water leak forget about the intake gasket as the culprit. The intake gasket could leak water into the oil and make the oil milky but if you're burning water/antifreeze still not your problem with the intake.

 

[4xcrazy]

I just went through this myself, but my motor was actually hydrolocking when i'd try to start it first thing in the morning, or after it sat for awhile.

One day it just wouldn't turn over anymore, so i started pulling spark pulgs, and lucky #7 decided to literally dump water out when the plug was removed.

tore it down and it was in fact the headgasket, but just a deteroriated gasket between one of the rear water passages to the cylinder....luckily i didn't drive it hardly at all with this, and had JUST done an oil change, but the old stuff wasn't milky yet but just from running it from the street up into the carport it contaminated the new oil....i was done from then on

I would say you have a headgasket problem as well