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One of the reasons I suggested taking it and having it pressure tested and/or having the coolant tested for exhaust gasses, is that there are a lot of things that can cause the same symptoms.
My daughter came limping home at Christmas break with her 93 Camry, and I thought for sure it was a bad/blown head gasket. It had LOTS of bubbles in the radiator, lots of pressure build, and a total loss of coolant in the tank. When I pulled it in the garage, the oil looked milky, and it left a nice large puddle of both coolant and oil on the floor, coming from somewhere around the head seam. Or so it seemed.
She being the busy and important person she is, dumped it off, and 'borrowed' my 240.
For over a month and a half.
Since the Toyota had 245+k miles, and getting kind of tired anyway, I considered it junk yard bound. I was not going to all of the trouble ( big pain in the behooten!) to pull the head, only to find a trashed bottom end, or toasted valves etc.
Around the first of Feb, I got curious and pulled it back in to take a closer look. Also to maybe fix the damn thing, so I can get my Volvo back! No money for another car around here.
To make the proverbial long story short, it was not the head gasket. The water pump ( cam belt driven, GMB brand) was leaking, sucking air, and had blown coolant all over the oil pump flange swelling the gasket and making that leak. The pressure had built up to such a point that it had also trashed the bottom seam on the plastic radiator. When I pressure tested the thing, it started puking coolant everywhere, very easy to see. Compression test confirmed good head gasket. The milky oil was from lots of really short trips she had taken in winter.
New water pump, radiator, timing belt, oil pump flange gasket, oil and coolant change, and she is back on the road.
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Gary Gilliam Sumerduck VA, '94 940 Regina , '86 240
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