Fluid mist from cylinder on compression stroke
 

Hey guys, I just bought a project truck that started blowing white/grey smoke while the previous owner was driving. I was able to start it up when i went to look at it and it was blowing lots of smoke and knocking on the #2 cylinder. Shop thought it was a head gasket... I noticed nothing wrong with the oil in the crankcase or coolant so I went ahead and bought it anyways. Now, today I go out and go to do a compression test and crank it over to eject any fluid in the cylinders. The #2 cylinder is pushing out a mist of fluid on it's compression stroke. I think it's coolant but it's difficult to identify because it is such a think mist but very noticeable. If it is coolant, it leads me to believe the head gasket has failed or possibly injector orings (I'm unsure if this could even be a possible problem)

What do you guys think? Anybody faced this? Could it be a cracked injector cup also? I'd hate to take the head off if it's as simple as pulling the injectors and replacing the orings and cups. I know 7.3's hardly ever have issues with head gaskets, this isn't my first 7.3 and surely not my last. I just wanted to see if anybody has had similar issues and gone through this. I am just looking for some educated information.

Thanks.

Don't worry guys, figured it out..

After renting a coolant system pressure tester, I realized I wasn't leaking coolant anywhere, not the injector cup or head gasket. Talked to Joe, for chits and gigs, swapped the #2 and #4 injector. The squirt followed the injector and turned out to be diesel fuel. So its just dumping fuel past the injector nozzle.

so it was a bad injector?

Looks as though it's a cracked nozzle or something broke inside of the injector that is allowing fuel to dump. I think it's called a fuel injector pindle...

lucky for you, that it didn't dump enough fuel to burn a hole in the piston

I was more worried about hydrolock and bent pushrods/broken rockers...