Expert: Brad Sears - 8/9/2009

Question
I just bought an 84' Olds Cutlass Supreme Brougham. It has been sitting for about two years due to the  head cylinder(s) being cracked. The previous owner did not know for sure. The previous owner said that one day he was driving the car and it just died on him. He tried to start it back up but no luck. I bought it for really really cheap price. $100.00 to be exact. Anyways, I had the car towed to my house and checked out the engine. The oil is black and smells  burned. It is not thick or milky. There is no visual indication that there was any coolant mixed with the  oil. Transmission oil looks fine. It has a redish look to it like it just came out of the bottle. I checked the radiator and the water is rusted a little bit. The next day I decided to start up the engine knowing that it can cause problems. I turned the ignition and the engine sound like it want to start. I gave it some gas and it started up but as soon as I let go of the gas it stopped right away. I noticed that if I kept on giving it gas it would stay on. So I did that for about 20 seconds and took my foot off the gas. The engine stayed on and  I left the engine idle. I took a look around the engine and there wasn't any smoke  coming out of it but there was a hint of gas. I looked to see if there was any gas leaking. There wasn't but there is a small amount of oil on the floor underneath the engine. The next day I got ready to change the oil and started up the car with eo problems. I kept it running while I was getting everything ready to begin the oil change. 10 minutes passed and I revved the engine a few times before I was going to turn it off. Then my friend noticed white smoke coming out the tailpipe. I revved it up again to see how much is coming out. And there is a lot coming out. Then there was a knocking sound coming from the valves on the passenger side of the engine. I turned off the car and I looked around the engine. White smoke was coming out the place where you add oil to engine. Right away I knew it was a big problem. Either the head cylinder is cracked or the engine block is cracked or maybe a bad head gasket. I am not an  expert mechanic. That is why I am asking for your expertise on automotives and hopefully either tell me whats wrong with the car. How to  fix the problem or just point me in the right direction. The engine is a V6, 3.8 liters, 283, carbuerator engine.  Thank you.

Answer
These engines had a tendency to pop head gaskets. I would start the diagnosis process by removing the spark plugs and keep them in order. Look at the firing end and a cylinder with a blown head gasket will usually have either wet on it or a different color from the rest. I would then run a compression test on the engine check all of the cylinders to see if the rest of the engine was worth spending the time and money pulling the cylinder head off the offending cylinder. Once the engine is either repaired or replaced then i would address the rest of the problem.
Brad