Blown head gasket?

Ok, first off under your oil cap what you see is normal. Its just condensation collecting because of the cold & hot. Your oil usage sounds normal also. If your motor is not overheating, and you don't see any oil in the coolant system, or coolant in the oil, plus no white smoke coming out the exhaust, I don't think it is a blown head gasket. You can do a couple of test to check, 1 by pressurizing the coolant system to see if it holds pressure, 2 by doing a compression test on the cylinders. 1 or 2 cylinders would show. low in compression. The starting thing may be plugs and wires, but I would check the fuel pressure. It should be at 56 to 63 lbs.

I have been working on my own vehicles and changing my own oil since I was a teenager and I've never seen this before. The amount of that gunk on the cap and refill neck was shocking. It covered the rag I used to wipe it off (which I regret now that I'm going to have it looked at). Your probably right that it's not completely blown but something's not right. The bouncy oil pressure gauge can indicate something wrong with the head gasket as well. Also, the little coolant I'm using isn't pudding anywhere so where is it going? My brother who was a marine mechanic on amphibious veh. and has worked on the 5.3s before was the one who pulled the cap off and noticed it in the first place and said I might have some big problems on my hands. Add in the slight rumble while idling and to me there's just no way this is normal.

Also another cause of the moister could be the PCV and breather system. The PCV system takes crankcase gases created by churning oil and cylinder blow-by and directs them into the engine where they are burned along with the air/fuel mixture. This keeps harmful emissions from entering the air we breathe and prevents the buildup of crankcase pressure. The PCV valve regulates the flow of these vapors. A clogged valve can cause pressure buildup, which can in turn cause gasket failure and oil leaks, and also cause sludge buildup, which occurs when moisture remains in the crankcase and contaminates the oil.

I've seen many of these with residue under the cap and sometimes in the tube. Chances are your the first one to clean the fill tube. 1 inch in the overflow isn't hardly anything and 1 quart after 2000 miles isn't bad. How many miles on this truck? If your not getting white smoke out the tail pipe and the oil drained isn't chocolate milkshake then your head gaskets are fine. The starting thing in the morning sounds like the fuel pressure bleeds off overnight. Either check valve in the pump or pressure regulator. I think your getting alittle ahead of yourself.

Did you ever find a fix to this issue? My truck is currently having the IDENTICAL problems. Please help! Thank you!

Well, I had a few issues. The starting problem was my fuel pump, replaced that and have had no problems since. The bouncey oil pressure gauge is likely a faulty oil pressure sensor or a bad seal around the sensor causing oil to leak from there. I have just left it and have had no major issues. Still losing a bit of oil and coolant but nothing I can't keep up with. The fluid and gunk under the refill cap was attributed to condensation from the engine heating up and cooling down. Other than that, no issues.

our problem is very common. here is the deal the head on the 5.3 liter vortec with the stamped # 506 were defective when they left the plant the will crack the first time they get hot!! so here is what i did my engine had almost two hundred thousand miles on it so i looked on the internet and found a brand new engine for around $900 delivered it would have cost $ 800 the fix the old one so the new one came with just about everything oil pan valve covers water pump new pulleys i was shocked it came with all thaT STUFF put the new engine in that the end of the story it runs great no problems at 25.000 miles hope this helps larry b

Hello y'all, I hope all is well. I have a 02 5.3 Silverado with 319k on her. Cold days, especially in the morning I'm having these issues and it has had light smoke and moisture dripping from the tail pipe til I drive for a couple miles. Today I replaced intake gasket because last weekend as I was rinsing the motor off, when i sprayed around #8 plug, motor starting running rough and white smoke boiled out of the tail pipe. As replacing, 1st start was almost the same, I hope it was due to no fuel pressure. I let truck run for abt an hr, but i did shut it off for 30 mins in between within that hour. I added water with heater on max. I drove her 4 miles to the store, it ran great. I checked the water and still had to add abt 2" of water. Moisture still coming from tail pipe. Larramo, where did u get that steel of a deal?

i broke my heater core connector so i put a metal piece inside the whole and put jd well on it it dried got ready to go to work i drove it down the road noticed it started running hot so i pulled over put the new part on added water still rain hot a 02 chevy silerado 1500 does it mean i blown a head gasket

I have a 2002 chevy Tahoe 5.3L the Regency edition , I just bought it it has 271K miles , I have white smoke coming out my exhaust but that’s only when I start it up. The other day ago I had coolant leak and I couldn’t find from where , same thing happened again and I found it coming from the water pump , I replaced it and it leaked some more but not alot just some drips , the oil is fine , I’m just wondering I f I have a blown head gasket or not ?