Bad Head Gasket?
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Bad Head Gasket?
My car has been sitting the past four days and when I went to start it something strange happened.
When I first turned the key I got maybe half a rotating before it wouldnt crank anymore. Then I tried again and it started. I thought maybe because it was colder out than usual and it sat awhile.
However after it started the car ran rough like it was dropping a cylinder and a decent amount of white smoke was coming out the exhaust. The car has never done anything like this before.
After the car warmed up it seemed to run fine and the smoke went away.
However when I turned off the car it was puking coolant out the overflow.
I tried bleeding the system and couldnt.
I have been losing coolant for awhile to what I thought was a bad radiator. The gauge never went above the half mark before this or after.
Right now I am thinking my head gasket just let go and allowed coolant to leak into the engine and the engine was hydrolocked and that is why it stopped cranking.
I am also thinking the bad HG is allowing the engine to pressurize the cooling system and making it puke the coolant.
I checked the number 1,3,4 spark plugs last week and they looked fine. I couldnt remove the boot on the number 2. My oil still looks like oil, no milkshake.
Does this sound like a bad head gasket?
When I first turned the key I got maybe half a rotating before it wouldnt crank anymore. Then I tried again and it started. I thought maybe because it was colder out than usual and it sat awhile.
However after it started the car ran rough like it was dropping a cylinder and a decent amount of white smoke was coming out the exhaust. The car has never done anything like this before.
After the car warmed up it seemed to run fine and the smoke went away.
However when I turned off the car it was puking coolant out the overflow.
I tried bleeding the system and couldnt.
I have been losing coolant for awhile to what I thought was a bad radiator. The gauge never went above the half mark before this or after.
Right now I am thinking my head gasket just let go and allowed coolant to leak into the engine and the engine was hydrolocked and that is why it stopped cranking.
I am also thinking the bad HG is allowing the engine to pressurize the cooling system and making it puke the coolant.
I checked the number 1,3,4 spark plugs last week and they looked fine. I couldnt remove the boot on the number 2. My oil still looks like oil, no milkshake.
Does this sound like a bad head gasket?
Last edited by bordin34; 01-24-2013 at 10:18 PM.
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I havent seen either of those yet. I think so far only crankcase pressure is going into the cooling system while running and coolant seeps into a cylinder when sitting.
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had the exact same thing after a 3 day airplane trip i made last february with the car left in the driveway sitting. won't get into detail about the a few minor warning signs that led up to it, but it's almost identical to your story. there i was needing to get from Manasquan, NJ to Dover, Massachusetts and all of a sudden i'm running 1 gallon of coolant out the back of the tail pipe about every 5 miles..... once i got the coolant out, and back on all water, i added the headgasket sealer and.... 18 k miles later, she was still holding fine..... so, flush the coolant out and pour a bottle of Blue Devil in there. why ? because you've got absolutely nothing to lose before pulling the head. and that includes all the worry wart crap about damaging you radiator or heater core..... i made it through 105 degree stop and go in NYC over and over after dumping a gigantic bottle in my beater.... repeat if necessary if you begin losing coolant a second time (within a few k miles).
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i thought so too.... but, i jumped off and surfed the mountain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...jR4s77z8#t=67s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...jR4s77z8#t=67s
#13
With all due respect to you, it will absolutely cause white smoke out of tailpipe. Actually it is fairly common. Coolant gets past bad oil cooler seals into oil and throughout engine, ending up overfilling oilpan with milkshake solution and kicking up on cylinder walls, and everywhere engine oil goes. I just repaired one two weeks ago with this exact problem.
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With all due respect to you, it will absolutely cause white smoke out of tailpipe. Actually it is fairly common. Coolant gets past bad oil cooler seals into oil and throughout engine, ending up overfilling oilpan with milkshake solution and kicking up on cylinder walls, and everywhere engine oil goes. I just repaired one two weeks ago with this exact problem.
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Ok I did a compression test. The tester does not perfectly seal in the plug hole.
The test was done on a cold engine, 34*F, WOT, no oil
1- 135psi
2- 140psi
3- 135psi
4- 140psi
Plugs, number four is on the right side of every picture.
They all look uniform except for #4 its a little darker looking. They have around 8,000 miles on them.
The test was done on a cold engine, 34*F, WOT, no oil
1- 135psi
2- 140psi
3- 135psi
4- 140psi
Plugs, number four is on the right side of every picture.
They all look uniform except for #4 its a little darker looking. They have around 8,000 miles on them.