1983 e21 m10 head gasket issue?

[Jim530]

Stock m10 with 230k miles, at least that's what the odo says. Hasn't been driven on the street in 15 years or so. I have been working on it very on and off for the last two years.
I got it to run very poorly, it will idle and that's about it. Any blips of throttle and it will die but if slowly done, it can be taken to red line. It pours white smoke out of the exhaust. I would not say it is blue smoke at all, I am not sure how big of a difference blue vs white smoke is though. Does this automatically mean head gasket? I have done a compression test twice now, second time looks much more promising, I think I may have not had throttle open the first time.

Would a leak down test be the next test to see where to go? I don't have an over flow tank to see if it's missing coolant, and it really hasn't been ran much for it to go missing.

Dry compression numbers
1 - 125
2- 130
3 - 120
4 - 130

Wet Compression
1 - 155
2 - 155
3- 150
4 - 150

[cgifool]

Is the oil filling up with coolant or vice versa?

Maybe a cooling system pressure test?

[Somjuan]

I’d do that, and the leak-down. The leak-down would tell you what cylinder it was coming out of and if you pop the radiator cap at the same time you can see if it’s coming out through the coolant passages *if* it is leaking. You can also listen for other places it’s leaking from with the same method. Just make sure both valves are closed on the cylinder you’re testing.

[Jim530]

Oil is clear of coolant when checked by the dip stick. I’ll check the coolant tonight. Is there an easy way on these cars that doesn’t involve taking off a hose and getting coolant all over?

I’ll look into doing a coolant pressure check and a leak down check probably over the weekend.

[Somjuan]

Just the cap will work. Post a photo of your engine bay so we can make sure it’s stock/circle the point where you can check it for you

[Jim530]

Did the leak down test, fun to justify a new compressor for this to the wife.

Cylinder 1 - 70
cylinder 2 - 80
Cylinder 3 - 80
Cylinder 4 - 75

This was done on a cold engine due to it not running right now. Not looking so hot. Not sure where they were leaking at, 1 and 2 sounded mostly from the very front of the engine. 4 was a lot quieter and mostly at the rear of the engine, not sure about 3.