thanks guys... yea gotta be the head gasket. bubbles are all in the reservoir and the rad too. just gonna swap the engine i think..more worth it in the long run. i checked the spark plugs they all seem alright

 

Yeah probably your best bet would be just to replace the whole engine.

 

1993 s-10 vortec 4.3 with 166k..... mechanic friend told me head gasket was blown and i see a lot of bubbling coming from the rad and reservoir, so it does make sense. truck runs really crappy and has almost no power, so i planned on getting an engine swap this weekend with 88k on it. now, the problem is i went to take it for a quick drive today up the road and it died literatly about 20 times on the way back when i let up on the gas. as soon as i let up on the gas it would die, i would loose my power steering and braking (battery light would go on too) and than would barely start at all. my mechanic friend said this is due to water being in the head..just wanted to maybe get a second opinion from any of you guys to make sure this makes sense? before i go and spend a grand to swap an engine when it's not even the problem. thanks again

 

I could maby see that happening. But if your head gasket is blown you definitely want to fix it or swap the engine anyways.

 

yeah of course. swapping the engine is better in the long run. just was asking to assure myself that the reason it was doing all that funky stuff was because of the head gasket , not for another reason that has nothing to do with it

 

If there is bubbling from the radiator more than likely yes. Does it smoke really bad, eat oil, and seem to have no power?

 

A blown head gasket can definitely cause all of that to happen. If you hydro lock a cylinder (water/coolant is basically incompressible), it can make bad things happen quickly!

Bubbling from the radiator is definitely a sign of a blown head gasket. You probably could pull the plugs and determine which cylinders are affected.

 

thanks a lot guys... really helped a lot. just wanted to make sure this was all normal symptoms of a blown head gasket before i wind up blowing a grand for an engine

 

Yeah, totally understand it sucks to spend a bunch of money on things that did not need to be done.

 

If your oil looks good, why not tear the problem head off (or both while you are doing it) and replace the head gasket? Especially if the compression is good on the non-affected cylinders.