White Smoke, Head Gasket, Intake Manifold Gasket

[mtarrents]

Our 92 ES 300 is overheating, now we have developed white smoke out the exhaust. We have done the following:

Replaced thermostat

flushed radiator

There is no milky substance in the oil (oil looks great)

How can we tell if we have a cracked head gasket or intake manifold?

Thanks for your help

[capnfred]

Do you have an Advance Auto parts store, or Autozone store by you, if so they have a cooling system pressure tester, with the engine cold, use the pressure tester to see if you have a leakdown proplem. If the system is intact, then it should hold pressure for some time.... unfortunately you said that you have white smoke........ good indiction of a blown head gasket, good way to tell is run a compression test......if you have a blown gasket then the affected syl. will have little or no compression.... I beieve the FSM says 178 psi is normal.....I would do the compression test first..... that will preclude the possibility of forcing coolant into the blown cylinder.... any questions you can email me..... I don't have any experince with the lexus/toyota, as my previous experience with the Camry was superp, over 300K miles with little or none corrective maintenence required. However I have been sucessfully wrenching for close to 50 years....good luck,,, I just got a 93 es300, so I am learning about them... LOL