I think you need to do a leak down test.. the picture of your plug is def. from oil burning.. question is where is it coming from. Your choices are: Rings; Valves; Leaking oil through the head gasket.. Thats the only place for it to come from; as if it was the intake gasket or sucking into much oil it would be all cycl. not just one.

 

OK, so I went and talked to a repair shop and the dealer. Both were very helpful. Here was their take.

Repair shop:
Definately looks like something leaking into the coolant. Exhaust or oil. Wants to do a Radiator exhaust gas check. Also wants to check the elecrical system and injectors looking for the misfire. Said he wants to start on the outside and work his way in. $95 for that diagnostic.

Dealer:
Definately looks like something leaking into the coolant. Exhaust or oil. Pulled the dip stick for the engine and trans and there was no sine of oil in either.. This is good. says it rules out a leaking trans cooler in the radiator and a cracked block. Wants to do a Radiator exhaust gas check for $189, tell me the results and go from there. Says after hearing and looking at all the symptoms he's convinced 99% that the drivers side head gaskes has been compromised. Said if I they were going to fix it they would replace only the drivers side and not the passenger. No reason to over repair he says.

So both seem the think there is exhaust in the coolant. I guess I could spend the $95 to have it checked out and then know for sure. If that test comes back positive. I'm assuming the only place for exhaust in the coolant is the head gasket. Who knows, as careful as I was putting this thing back together I may have put the gasket in wrong or some crud got on the gasket on assembly or missed a torque setting somewhere. I don't know.

Would you guys replace both while your in there or just the one that failed?

 

i would replace both, but you were just in there- no?

if you only do one side, for the love of God use the same product# of gasket as is on the other side..

 

I want to know how they can tell which side is compromised. When I had my truck checked by a radiator guy he said, "Yep. You have a real minor leak from the head gasket into the coolant. What I can't tell you is which one is at fault." After tearing both heads down I discovered they were both slightly leaking, the reason being neither the machine shop nor I thought about decking either the heads or the block. Chances are you may have fucqued a gasket or the heads could stand to be decked. I'm the kind who errs on caution and would deck the heads thereby replacing both gaskets.

 

+1 on both above posts and on the gaskets, and have the heads checked for cracks when they are off. I know they are new and better heads but still have them checked.

 

For about $25 you can test for exhaust gasses yourself...

Try NAPA or Tooltopia.com

 

a test that worked good for me was using a leak down tester and a rad pressure tester. install the rad pressure tester,don't pump it up. then use your leak down tester and see if you start building pressure in the cooling system. this will give you a idea what cyl is at fault. i found the tester gd has is hit or miss.

 

Not always. I performed a pressure test and it held pressure, yet the exhaust carbon test of my coolant showed a minor head gasket leak.

 

when i do this test i am using the cooling system pressure tester simply as a gauge.the leak down tester is putting 120 psi into the cyl and if there is a leak in the head gasket etc it will build pressure in the cooling system.

 

Ok so I broke down and took it in for a checkup and here's what they found. NOTHING!

Checked the whole electrical system and found wrong. No codes, which I knew because I checked. They did 2 radiator gas tests. One at the Radiator like the one shown above with the blue liquid and another sniffer in the exhaust to detect coolant. Both were negative.

Says the coolant looke like it has stop leak in it. I have owned the truck since new, it didn't.

So now I'm just stumped. I was hoping that this would confirm the head gasket. A friend once told me that when you have a failure go back to the last thing you fixed and in this case was the heads. I guess the only way to know for sure is to replace the head gaskets and intake manifold gaskets. At least while going in you can look for failures each step of the way. Check for poor torque, gasket compromise, head warped, valve guide leaking, anything else that might have come loose. I don't know. I'm just pissed at this thing right now and needed to vent!