Does this sound like head gasket?

[dgp123]

Hi all, I've got a 1997 Nissan Pathfinder SE 3.3 v6. 126k miles. Purchased the vehicle maybe a month ago. Truck is running fine, no overheating, no fluctuating temps, no white smoke from exhaust pipe, no noises. I've been noticing a loss of coolant. I have to top up every week. I don't see any on the ground anywhere. I sometimes find the white crud under oil cap. Not powder, and it does go away after a long highway blast. Mind you, my driving is nearly almost all short city drives in cold weather now that I work only 3 miles from my house. Oil on the dipstick looks totally normal. No discoloration, no evidence of water there. There is no "milkshake" in the coolant reservoir. It's just the coolant loss and mayonnaise under the oil cap.

What do you think? Anything to worry about or is it possible it's just the lack of longer drives? Other things I can keep an eye out for, other than a compression test?

Thanks in advance.

Dan

 

[chief]

Dan; Follow the top radiator hose to where it connects to the water neck or thermostat housing. Its kinda hard to see back there but these engines bad about leaking there. You wont see a leak as the coolant evaporates as it leaks under pressure. You can see evidence of a leak by the junk around the neck. If this is you problem a gasket will solve the problem.

 

[dgp123]

thanks a lot, chief. This is my first experience with one of these trucks... and, well, you probably know how it is getting to know a new used vehicle. I'm replacing the harmonic balancer this weekend and will be sure to check this out.

 

[spasm3]

I've had good luck finding leaks by looking for the steam at night. Drive the car to operating temperature. Shut it down and with a flash light look for steam from the hoses, water pump cap etc. Sometimes i hold the light at arms length and look for steam between the area and the light. good luck!!!

 

[mechtech2]

With slow loss, you still may have leak or maybe head gasket problem.

You can manually inspect every connection and part, or maybe use a dye in the coolant that glows under black light [UV light].

Head gasket or cracked head? sometimes you can yank the spark plugs and see a really clean plug or combustion chamber. this is a clue.
A pressure test can help, but slow leaks are often tough to determine. Because a pressure tester reading goes down by itself to some degree.