Blown head gasket?

Topic: Blown head gasket? (Read 2784 times) previous topic - next topic

Blown head gasket?

Reply #15 – November 03, 2009, 06:07:00 AM

updated too soon....

Car overheated on me today. I forgot the check it before I left work. Its weird, its not overheating, just eating coolant. I didn't have the gauge get hot, but the heater quit working. Ended up pouring two bottles of anti-freeze with water in it.

Whats really scarry about the wheel almost falling off, is I just got off the freeway before it happened.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #16 – November 11, 2009, 01:29:00 PM

Well its the heater core. Gonna be tearing into in hopefully in the next couple of days. Can't bypass it because my wife drives it too right now. I also have saftey and emissions at the end of the month and need a set of tires.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #17 – November 13, 2009, 12:48:48 AM

heater cores are a mother effer to replace in these cars, have fun!

Blown head gasket?

Reply #18 – November 13, 2009, 02:52:32 AM

Thanks, I'll probably be doing it in the morning. It let go all the way. It won't stop "smoking" out of the heater box and is leaking bad on the floor. We'll see how it goes.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #19 – November 14, 2009, 02:21:03 AM

Starting tommorrow morning, just in time for the snow to fly.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #20 – November 15, 2009, 04:15:35 AM

Snow flew. Spend a couple hours cleaning out my dad's garage with him and got it inside with a heater.

I had competely forgotten about all the under hood stuff on this. I had the hoses off for the core, but left the ac hooked up. I stayed up for about 36+ hours before starting this and ended up getting to tired to work on it. I am actually just waking up from a "nap" from about 5 pm.

I have the heater box out as well as most of the dash. Just got to get the core itself out and start putting shiznit back together.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #21 – November 15, 2009, 08:44:37 AM

Haystack:

Read my post "Anyone Got a Sludge Hammer?". Before I put a lot of money into this I'd get the cooling issue resolved. I'd bypass the heater core and monitor it awhile as most likely it is a head gasket problem not a heater core. If you get a coolant pressure tester and a couple of rubber hoses you can make a jig which will allow you to test the heater core separately. My2cents.

Sorry just saw you had replaced the heater cored. Other comments are valid.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #22 – November 15, 2009, 03:20:52 PM

where are you getting the heater core from?
couldve swore ive read nothing but bad news from parts house one accross fox forums.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #23 – November 15, 2009, 10:00:09 PM

I got one from checker. I did everything for the swap for under $40. Which was my budget. This was all off of left over tip money driving for domino's, otherwise, it would be a ford core.

I forgot that you had to remove the ac, I ended up cutting one of the none threaded lines with bolt cutters after messing with it for 2 hours without getting it undone. I got it undone and pulled the blower motor since I was in it this far, looked okay to me, threw the new core in and got it all fixed about 6pm. I really took my time on some parts. Probably have 10 screws left over I can't find where they go.

For future reference, get a ford core. If I had more then $40 I would have done that. It would also be cheaper to just get regular hoses and loop them around then buy the molded ones. Molded ones work fine though, and that is what I ended up with. I bought the core at checker. I like autozone better, but the checker one was 16 dollars cheaper at $20. I planned on getting it done in 6 or so hours, but ended up taking around 16 total.

The first day I messed up alot and was a majority of my time. I was on no sleep any not thinking correctly, about 36 hours when I started. Took a long rest and forgot that you have to remove the A/C. If I would have had it deleted, I would have had it gone and done in less then 4 hours easily my first time. There are two bolts on the firewall behind the ac lines that need to be removed. Do those first. Then there is just two-four more behind the dash. The dash itself was easy. I did not have any bracket behind the glove box, but it was worth it to remove.

All and all, if I did another one tommorrow, 2 hours if everything goes wrong, around an hour if it all goes good.

Print off the coolcats walk through and bring it with you.

I don't think you actually have to remove the bolt under the steering colum, and added some to how long it took. I could have pulled the dash out if I felt like pulling alot of wires and done it easy as anything.

But yeah, print off the walkthrough and you'll be done in no time.