Blown head gasket?

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Blown head gasket?

October 15, 2009, 09:40:26 AM

I think I may have blown a head gasket in my car. It keeps using oil like crazy, and in the last two weeks, its been eating antifreeze without leaking any on the ground, and I started losing 2 quarts of oil a tank of gas. First alittle history on the car.

I bought it for $400 and drove it 2 miles each way and it never got hot. When I first got the car, I threw a new radiator and water pump in it but didn't want to mess with the thermostat laying in the snow. While I was there, I replaced both hoses and both heater hoses. almost 1 year later, the wifes car broke down, and now I'm doing pizza delivery, making this not only my only car, but now I can't afford to have it down for more then 1 day.

When I did the t-stat, the old one was rusted into little peices. I dug chunks out of the intake and was able to peice it all together, so I am assuming I got all the chunks. After putting the new one in, the heater started working fine. A couple of days later, the heater stopped working and smoking out of the vents. My gauge didn't read any higher, so I assumed it was the heater core. Checked my fluid every time I filled up and left it at that.

I overheated on the way to work, stopped at a gas station for about an hour and filled it full of water and drove to work. Now its eating antifreeze every two days I have to fill it up.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #1 – October 15, 2009, 01:16:59 PM

does it smoke out the tailpipe? white? black? look at the coolant shortly after the motor warms up and see if there appears to be oil in there. my dads truck just blew a head gasket and he was reading misfire and nasty looking coolant.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #2 – October 15, 2009, 05:04:30 PM

oil needs to be changed, but dosent look particularly milky, and it does not smoke more then normal, which is what is killing me. I took the car to a power washer and cleaned everything under the hood best I can, but the car leaks from the valve covers. I can't think of where it is leaking from, unless it is leaking between the core and the firewall, or from the back pipes on the lower intake. I didn't really think about the oil color/quality.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #3 – October 16, 2009, 01:58:22 AM

disconnect hoses from radiator
stuff lower hose with a golf ball and clamp it

rig up a plug for the other hose and transition down in size to allow you to use a bike foot peddle pump.

pump system with air
if it holds, its not the engine or core but up at the rad.

if it holds air but bleeds off, pump air in and run back into the pass side and listen for the air leak.

same process to test the radiator but hoses stay on the radiator end.
clamp off over flow hose if you want to exceed the rad cap rating or dont if you want to test to see if the rating is correct.

another indicator it may be a hg is to inspect your plugs and lay the odd looking ones to the side remembering what holes they came from.
Dont install the odd ones in the same hole, but use different ones.

come back and check on the odd holes and see if the spark plugs look like the others you removed. I can remember what the visual inspection of a water effected plug is.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #4 – October 16, 2009, 02:28:33 AM

Next day off, maybe sunday, I will see what I can do. Thanks for the idea's scott.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #5 – October 16, 2009, 09:16:43 AM

Be careful, too much pressure and you'll pop the heater core... I'd disconnect it prior to the test, but that can cause a old core to start leaking as well...

Blown head gasket?

Reply #6 – October 17, 2009, 12:41:00 PM

A couple of updates. I checked the water on it yesterday before I left, about 3/4 of the way up the rad. By the end of the night (I do deliveries right now), My heater quit working. I parked the car as soon as I got back and let it sit to cool. Checked it and it was empty. put just alittle bit of water in it, babied it home and bought some non deluted anti freeze. Dumped it in then filled the rest full of water.

Started the car and waited for the t-stat to open. When it did I kept squeezing the hose to get rid of all the bubble till it seemed more solid. Topped it off and put the cap on, and it started leaking immediately from the cap. I pushed down on the cap to see if there was alot of pressure on it, and it would not stop. Pulled the cap off and set my hand on top (little warm by the way) and it did not spit any coolant out, or build up any real back pressure that I could feel. And, it started to suck coolant out of the resavoir. I have never had it do that before.

I found a small crack in the reservoir hose. Parts stores were all closed, so I wrapped it up good in electrical tape and bought a new cap this morning. Forgot about the hose for the resavour. Put the new cap on at the parts store and drove it home. No coolant is leaking out of the cap, and the reservoir is now empty.

I couldn't find any difference between the new and old cap, other then the new one fitting tighter. The springs seemed to be about the same. Could a bad cap be causing all of my problems? It stopped leaking out of the top, and now I have suction on the reservoir, which I did not have before. The thing that is killing me, is that I could find any leak because the first thing I did was take the cap off while cold so I could top it off. Then after putting the cap on, it all gets caught under the front bumper cover, and doesn't leak imediately on the ground. I generally checked it after driving on the freeway for leaks, no doubt spilling out what ever coolant was in there and having it blown away by the time I got to work.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #7 – October 17, 2009, 12:53:29 PM

Oh also, the oil color is fine, little darker then it should be, oil change will have to get done when I have some spare change left over. I'm putting almost 500 miles a week on the car right now. 15 miles to and from work, plus all the city driving and my wife driving the car during the day, I can easily hit 100 miles a day if I have to run an errand or two. I used about 25 dollars a day, or about 9 gallons a day, and all my extra money is more or less going into the gas tank.

I will be doing the H.O. intake and the valve cover gaskets soon probably, if i have this licked. I'm spending $10 every two days on antifreeze, and 2 quarts of oil every 400 miles or so, because of the valve cover on the passenger side. As much as I like this car, they can really get away from you if you neglect them. My biggest problem is I cannot work on my car at my apartment complex. They tried to give me a $20 fine for checking my oil one morning.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #8 – October 24, 2009, 04:47:37 AM

I am calling it fixed. It was the radiator cap of all things. I'll remember that next time I have this problem...

Car is leaking ridiculous amounts of oil now, looking at over 1 quart a day. Valve covers will be done wend say next week, along with the H.O. intake.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #9 – October 24, 2009, 03:48:28 PM

Like I've heard before concerning little problems and fixing them...."Pay a little now,or pay a lot later".

Blown head gasket?

Reply #10 – October 25, 2009, 01:20:47 PM

check the pcv screen and pcv valve in the lower intake. the screen is an mf'er to get out, but it sounds like it could be clogged causeing the engine to build excessive pressure in the valve covers and blow oil out around the gaskets. i have seen lots of cars, including mine, do this. the screen is around $10 at autozone, mine was clogged up so bad that NO kind of cleaner would even attempt to clean it out. i honestly do not even have one in my car right now because at the time i took it out i couldnt afford the extra $10 and have not had a problem.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #11 – October 25, 2009, 01:33:35 PM

Quote from: Haystack;295180

My biggest problem is I cannot work on my car at my apartment complex. They tried to give me a $20 fine for checking my oil one morning.

That would make me so freaking angry if they tried to pull that on me. I've lived in a ton of different apartments, though, so I feel your pain. I've done everything short of swapping an engine in an apartment parking lot, but I've never been hassled like that.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #12 – November 01, 2009, 11:32:42 AM

any updates on this?

Blown head gasket?

Reply #13 – November 02, 2009, 07:44:44 AM

I have had no problems since. I have not put any more fluid in the car since my last update, heater is still working fine, still haven't checked the level though. I am sure that it is fixed.

When I filled the radiator all the way, I put the cap back on, and as soon as the thermostat opened up, it started to leak out of the top of the cap. Since I put the new cap on, I have had no problems at all. I can tell when the car is getting hot due to the gauge, and I have two antifreeze bottles in the trunk full of water, just in case.

Since then, I had one of my wheels try to fall off. About 6 months ago, I went to put new brake pads off, and noticed how bad of shape the rotors were in, so I threw new ones on. While I was in the middle of it, I got called into an "emergency" job at work, threw it together as quick as I could, and booked it to work. On the 25th, I started hearing a weird squeek. Sounded almost like a grinding noise, but very quiet, and I couldn't hear it unless my window was down and I was going under 10mph.

I was doing my last delivery of the night, and it just started grinding like no other. I pulled the car to the side of the road, and when I turned the wheel to get it close to the curb, I was not able to move the car with less then 3/4 throttle, and I lost brakes. The outer bearing was shot. Upon further investigation, I never tightened the hub down all the way.

The only thing keeping the wheel from falling off was the caliper. Just so you know, the little tabs that the banjo bolts go through on the brake pads CAN hold the car up, and even let you pull it up to the curb.

The 25th was also my wifes birthday, so I spent the first 4 hours of the morning with a hack saw trying to cut the old inner bearing piece off of the spindle. I got a ride home, and waited till the parts stores opened up and replaced the inner and outer bearing on the drivers side,and called it a day. Today, I decided to do the other side since I rushed the job so badly last time, and 4 out of I think 16 rollers fell out of the bearing, and I had alot of metal shavings in the grease. Got that done today and fixed my speedo cluster light and a couple of other small things.

I have not had time or money to work out the oil leaking issues, or to replace the upper intake. However, the car still has not over heated, and I will check the level in the morning and update everyone.

I have washed the engine off alittle bit, I am leaking out of my filter, and on both of my valve covers. I will be picking up a new PCV "filter" and gaskets when I can afford to do so. I am also dying to throw that upper intake on there and get enough time to fix one or two vacuum lines while I am at it.

In the next month, I need to get new tires, fix my EGR(hoping the intake will help here), hook my smog pump back up, and get the car ready to go for safety and emissions at the end of this month.

Blown head gasket?

Reply #14 – November 03, 2009, 12:24:26 AM

i'm glad to hear that everything is ok so far and i'm glad you didnt get hurt by losing a wheel. i had a wheel come off at about 15mph once and it was pretty effin scary....

i'm so glad to live in a state with no inspections/emmissions...i have absolutely NO smog equipment on my car...smog pump, egr valve, charcoal canister, all the related vacuum lines/wiring, cats...all found their way into the trash