Not necessarily true. Low compression alone doesn't warrant a bad head gasket since worn rings, valve seats, and poor valve adjustment can also effect one cylinder more then the other.
You do need to do a compression test/leak down test and post the readings though. Anything more then about a 10% difference between cylinders is considered abnormal. At the same time, remember that you have a wet intake manifold and a leaking intake manifold can leak coolant into the runners and into the cylinders. Looks just like a blown head gasket, but no coolant gets into the oil.
EDIT: Seems like we haven't even confirmed yet that it's burning coolant, and not oil. What does the smoke smell like? Are you loosing any coolant?





Reply With Quote