Just like the title says, how do you know if your head gasket is gone or going?

 

Is the car overheating? Are you losing/burning coolant? Plumes of smoke from the tail?

 

Typical symptoms would be water in your oil - take off the oil filler cap and see if any sign of oil frothing up etc and same for the water reservoir - check no muck collecting in it... If they are OK you could still have an issue if the water or oil are making it into a cylinder - usual checks would be white smoke or smell of burning oil from the exhaust... I have had all of those symptoms over time with a number of cars... If you are still unsure then a visit to a local garage or mechanic would be an idea...

I hope none of these are the case for you :-(

 

Mr. XType, like the others have said, if you are having a mixing of liquids (ie, oil in the coolant, water in the oil), then that is a pretty obvious sign. If you are getting white "smoke" out the tail pipe after the car is warmed up, depending on how much it is may be a sign of a problem or not.

The best advice that I can tell you is you need to have a compression check done of the engine. You connect up a gauge to each of the cylinders and then you roll the engine over to see how much pressure each cylinder can build up. A cylinder with a bad head gasket, leaking valves, and/or leaking rings will have a pressure that is significantly lower than the rest of the cylinders. As a general rule, all the pressures should be around 150 psi with the difference between less than 10% between the highest and lowest cylinders.

Another check that you can do is to get a modified spark plug (metal threaded part with an air hose attachment welded to the threads) and then you can stick that into the plug well in place of the spark plug. Then, with the cylinder under test at TDC and both valve shut, you pressurize the cylinder to about 90 psi. From there, you can look at your coolant bottle for any signs of bubbles/rising water level, you can put your ear next to the fill opening for the oil to listen for air escaping, and you can put your ear next to the muffler for the sound of air leaking. Just have to make sure that each cylinder is at TDC and have both valves shut, otherwise you will have false indications of a major problem.

 

I don't notice big clouds of white smoke, just a little when the car is cold or it is cold outside. The rest of the time it seems normal. I ask because i was telling my girlfriends dad about my car over heating, having to replaces some hoses (ripped), coolant bottle, rad fan control module and after doing everything when I drive my car in normal city traffic I can hear my rad fans running louder than normal with the slightest vibration felt in the car. After a good 30 minute drive when I park and turn off the car the fans keep going for 8 to 10 minutes.

I tried bleeding the coolant lines through the pinch and release method discussed in another thread to get any possible air out of the system but still no luck. i tried what another member said, to drive the car 100 miles (i did about 200KM) and then turned off the car, popped the hood and opened the coolant bottle to let any escaped air out but all that happened was a loude hiss of hot steam being released from the bottle, some coolant bubbling in the bottle and coolant dripping from what it seems out from under the bottle. Is this normal? Is there some sort of vent under the bottle? Then when I look at under the car after this pressure is released and there's a trail of coolant spilling down my driveway from the front drivers side to the rear drivers side.

Theres no other leaks any more anywhere in my cooling lines. the only time it leaks is when I release pressure. Anyone have any idea whats going on and how to fix it? I cant stand the noise of rad fans any more and hate that they run when the car is turned off.

So after telling him all of this he said pull your dip stick out and if you see some white or grey stuff on it it means you have coolant leaking due to a bad head gasket. I checked and I don't see anything on the dip stick, nothing on the oil cap either. Didn't try the TDC check with a modified spark plug thing, but I guess I can ask my mechanic to pressure test the motor. Even my mechanic cant figure out what is wrong. The only thing he thinks is that the rad fan control module I got was from a wrecker and maybe that one was defective too.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Never remove the pressure cap on a hot engine. This warning is in every Driver's Handbook for a very good reason.



The only thing it will do is eject steam and boiling coolant under pressure with a serious risk of injury.

If you have no evidence of oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil and the fans are running excessively, the probability is higher of a sticking thermostat and/or faulty cooling fan module.

Graham

 

I know it was wrong to do, and you are right we should follow the warnings. I put a heavy rag over the cap and opened till I herd the pressure then backed away and let it all bleed out, then removed the cap. I just had the thermostat replaced when all of this happened, is it possible I had a brand new faulty thermostat? Is there any way to test a thermostat?

 

Also I paid about $250 for the thermostat alone because apparently its attached to some hoses or built in. I don't know the full story because my dad had it replaced while he was driving my car and I was on vacation. What a great big mess to come back home to.

 

If you are not losing any water or oil, your thermostat has been replaced, you have bled any air out - I may be corrected on this but my next though would be the water pump as a possibility

 

I am thinking the water pump too. this would be true also if you are having the fans run while on the highway.

If the fans are not running on the highway, I say to do a fan check by parking the car after a long run (leaving the engine running). Open the hood/bonnet and then lean over the radiator a little bit with the fans running. Are you getting a nice gentle warm breeze getting blown on your face or are you getting the hair dryer blast of hot heat in your face? You should be getting the hot air blast. If you are getting the gentle breeze, then most likely you have a bad fan module. You are getting the hot blast, one more reason to be looking at the water pump.

Probably a good thing to check the thermostat by doing a hot bath check. If you need assistance with that, let me know. easy to do.

 

wel;l...

i've just had my mystery leak diagnosed as head gasket failure on the rear bank.


give away is exhaust fumes in the coolant expansion tank....


a garage can put a sniffer in there for hydrocarbons to test it for sure, but you can often smell it if you start up from cold with the cap off , and let it start to warm up, sniffing the top of the vent as it does...

 

What is a hot bath check?

When I start the car with the cap off and let it warm up all I smell, and this is a bit difficult to describe... something like a burnt or stale/ very old coolant/ plastic type of smell. I thought coolant was sweet and I would smell something sweet, am I wrong to assume?

Idris, did your rad fans run continuous as well?

 

When the car is at normal temperature, according to the dash gauge, try sticking carefully your fingers on top of the radiator to check if it's hot or not. Or best the tube/hose that comes out of the thermostat, but it can be reached only from under the vehicle (with the plastic cover removed even).

If it is, the thermostat should be OK, and so is the pump most probably.

 

mr.xtype, a hot bath check is where you pull the thermostat out of the car and then you submerge the thermostat in a large bucket of water and then you heat up the water (top of the stove works wonders). Then you have a meat thermometer to monitor the water temp. As the temp nears the marking on the thermostat (should be 195F for your car), you will see the internals of the thermostat start to move. It should be full open (ie, not moving any more) by the time it reaches 198F or so. Kinda like you should see it start to move around 190F.

The big trick is you should not let the thermostat or the thermometer touch the sides or the bottom of the pan as this can cause heat to be transferred unevenly and lead to false indications.