Confused Between Head Gasket Or Valve Stem Seals

[busoptr]

Hi fellow lexus lovers!! Hows everybody doing this weekend? Anyways, my lex has started to emit smoke from rear side of engine only on first time start in the morning, after like 3 minutes, the smoke is gone and the car runs good. Yes, I have been searching and reading a lot of posts on the forum and I came up to maybe my valve stem seals are bad already. I have 223000 miles on my 94 es300 by the way. Here is where I am confused. 3 days ago, I drained the coolant from the radiator lower hose so I can replace the hydraulic fan motor with a new one because it was cracked. So after I installed the new hydraulic fan motor I reinstalled the lower radiator hose and refilled the car with coolant and started the car and checked the hoses for leaks. I did not detect anything, but yesterday morning, I popped the hood to re check the hydraulic fan motor's operation, I noticed my reservoir tank for the coolant was empty. I thought maybe because I drained the radiator it sucked more coolant when the thermostat opened up, so I refilled the reservoir to the right level on the mark. Today, I drove maybe 20 miles and the coolant level at the reservoir is low again, but no overheating and no visible leaks. Could it be I have a blown head gasket even though theres no white smoke or overheating? Does a blown head gasket always come with oerheating because my car is not overheating at all. Its not even at the halfway mark on the temperature gauge. Please help me diagnose why my coolant is disappearing. Tomorrow I will refill the reservoir again when the engine is cold and see if it disappears again after driving the car. If anyone has an idea , I would greatly appreciate. Thanks. By the way, my oil looks good too, no gooey stuff, just clean oil. I am hoping that because I drained the radiator, it just needs more coolant. But I am confused. Any help will be received.

[dcfish]

Hi fellow lexus lovers!! Hows everybody doing this weekend? Anyways, my lex has started to emit smoke from rear side of engine only on first time start in the morning, after like 3 minutes, the smoke is gone and the car runs good. Yes, I have been searching and reading a lot of posts on the forum and I came up to maybe my valve stem seals are bad already. I have 223000 miles on my 94 es300 by the way. Here is where I am confused. 3 days ago, I drained the coolant from the radiator lower hose so I can replace the hydraulic fan motor with a new one because it was cracked. So after I installed the new hydraulic fan motor I reinstalled the lower radiator hose and refilled the car with coolant and started the car and checked the hoses for leaks. I did not detect anything, but yesterday morning, I popped the hood to re check the hydraulic fan motor's operation, I noticed my reservoir tank for the coolant was empty. I thought maybe because I drained the radiator it sucked more coolant when the thermostat opened up, so I refilled the reservoir to the right level on the mark. Today, I drove maybe 20 miles and the coolant level at the reservoir is low again, but no overheating and no visible leaks. Could it be I have a blown head gasket even though theres no white smoke or overheating? Does a blown head gasket always come with oerheating because my car is not overheating at all. Its not even at the halfway mark on the temperature gauge. Please help me diagnose why my coolant is disappearing. Tomorrow I will refill the reservoir again when the engine is cold and see if it disappears again after driving the car. If anyone has an idea , I would greatly appreciate. Thanks. By the way, my oil looks good too, no gooey stuff, just clean oil. I am hoping that because I drained the radiator, it just needs more coolant. But I am confused. Any help will be received.

Possibly had a good amount of air in the system.

[gabep]

I suspect a pressure leak at the lower hose where you disconnected. When the enginge is hot it leaks and when it cools off the pressure abates.

[wwest]

I suspect a pressure leak at the lower hose where you disconnected. When the enginge is hot it leaks and when it cools off the pressure abates.

If you were leaking coolant you would NOT be able to miss the sickeningly-sweet odor.

[eatingupblacktop]

Like DC says, there could have been a large air pocket. You will know after several days of topping off. If it's continuously losing coolant, then I would suspect the hose connection. It might not be so loose as to drip overnight, but under pressure, it could be leaking just enough while driving that you wouldn't notice any smoke. If you weren't losing coolant before, then I would check there. Old hoses can damage easily. Make sure there are no cracks at the hose end under the clamp. I would also make sure the connection was cleaned of any buildup.

[kingjack133]

If there are no leaks i agree with dcfish that there is an airlock. Once that is rectified you should see normal cold and hot levels at the expansion tank.

[busoptr]

If there are no leaks i agree with dcfish that there is an airlock. Once that is rectified you should see normal cold and hot levels at the expansion tank.

Okay, I will check for air in the coolant system. Thank you so much. I was worried but now not too much, because if it was the head gasket I would have overheating right? You guys are life savers, this forum is the greatest!!!!!

[mburnickas]

Okay, I will check for air in the coolant system. Thank you so much. I was worried but now not too much, because if it was the head gasket I would have overheating right? You guys are life savers, this forum is the greatest!!!!!

yup, and leaking (as you should see)