Cadillac Repair: 96 eldorado white exhaust, head gasket problem, cadillac northstar

Question
I just bought a 96 eldorado touring (V8 northstar) with 92k miles.  car rides great, except for white smoke from exhaust at low speeds (not noticeable when idling), does this sound like a head gasket or is there something else?

Answer
Hi Joe,

      Because we are in the winter/colder season there are 2 possabilities.

      One is that what you are seeing is steam or water vapor comming out of the exhaust because the byproduct of complete combustion is water which is normal.

      The second is what you are suspecting and that is the start of a head gasket problem. If when the engine is running at say 1500-2000rpm in park you can cause the white smoke and the exhaust has a sweet smell then you have a head gasket problem. Unfortuneately the Cadillac northstar engine is showing signs that head bolt threads can strip out of the block. There might be 1 or more to start with and if you get those taken care of but not all of them then when tightening the head bolts you might have more strip out. Sounds like that is why the Eldo was sold by the previous owner. Some shops might get involved in repairing the threads and replaceing head gaskets but if not a GM engine might be $7500 plus 25 hours installation.

      If I had just bought this car from a dealer or car lot then I would go back to them and have it diagnosed and see what they would be willing to do for me. If from a private individual then your only recourse might be to fix it or sell it to someone else.

      There is an outside chance that if the cooling system were just flushed prior to you buying it then they might not have installed the 3 required sealing tabs and putting those in might solve your smoke problem after a weeks time. But dumping in a bottle of Bars Leak and hopeing it will fix things wouldn't be a wise move because it might not fix the problem and cause the heater core to plug up.

     Sorry I couldn't have better news. Good luck, Bill