Possible blown head gasket?

[allgripnoslip]

I think I may have blown a head gasket....

I was driving and I look down and the temp gauge is pegged out. So I immediately shut the car off and pulled over. I open the hood and all of my coolant has escaped thru the overfill bottle as it is suppost to. I wonder why the car was overheating though in the first place... I look around the engine bay and I see that there is a shit load of oil sitting on top of the transmission. So I start looking for places where the oil could be coming from but basically a lot of things are coated with oil. To make a long story short I was in the middle of nowhere without a cell phone, but 3 hours later I got my car towed back to the parking lot at school. I then check the oil.... read a little over the 2nd notch that indicated a quart low. How could my car be overheating when I dont have a coolant leak and the oil level didnt go below less than a quart? after the tow guy moved my car there was a large oil puddle on the passenger side of the engine compartment on the ground where the car was. Im going to go out right now and see if I can see things better in the day light... Please help guys, Thanks

 

[Mr4G]

Check to see if there is oil in your antifreeze or antifreeze in your oil. If there is then it is a head gasket. Good luck.

 

[blackGSX2g]

Check to see if there is oil in your antifreeze or antifreeze in your oil. If there is then it is a head gasket. Good luck.

Good thing to look for, but its not always the case. In my case the gasket blew out just to a nearby coolant passage. It would be good to drain the coolant and oil to see for any cross-contamination.

If that doesn't yield any results, try running a compression test to see what those numbers are. If any are abnormally out of spec or significantly lower than the others, that would be the cylinder with the break in the gasket.

If that doesn't turn up anything (it didn't for me) then your best chance would be to have your coolant tested for hydrocarbons. Most shops have a simple testor for that which often doesn't cost anything.

Good luck.

 

[allgripnoslip]

Thanks guys Im going to go out there right now and check that. Hopefully all my coolant isnt gone. Ill be back in a few hours with some updates.

 

[allgripnoslip]

well I went out ther and I may have found some other possible leaks, but its pretty unlikely due to the volume and area covered. Does a head gasket normally make a noise when it blows? or does it just kinda fail? It never made any indication that it was going out. There was oil on the top of the hood on the passenger side of the engine bay. Im kinda hoping that it was just a bad rtv job at the halfmoon on the valve cover and when I was boosting it just shot oil everywhere, but then you have to think how did I loose all that coolant? and why did I overheat? Also when I pulled over last night after I noticed the gauge, the cast manifold was glowing orange in the center where the collector is from on top. Any more ideas guys? Thanks

 

[hereitcomes]

There could have been a blockage in the lower pipe. The lower pipe is the inlet for the coolant to flow into the engine, so if there is nothing in the inlet, coolant cant make its way to the block - and thus overheating.
Also check the thermostat as is may have malfunctioned and caused a backup in the cooling system, and caused the overflow. The thermostat should open up at a given temp. - allowing coolant to flow through. It may have non opened up and reversed itself.

good luck buddy.

 

[Red97Eclipseboy]

That exactly what happend to me when my t-stat went.

 

[allgripnoslip]

I thought that most newer cars had thermostats that when they fail they get stuck open, but I guess thats not the case. Ill add some more coolant in it to see if it is actually leaking from the block or if its just over heating and emptying itself out of the overflow bottle. I will repost back tonight, Thanks for the replies guys!

 

[allgripnoslip]

FIXED! I took the thermostat out and added some coolant so I could tell where the coolant would be leaking from and it turns out my lower coolant line to the turbo has been wedged between the engine block and the wastegate actuator and it tore a slit in the collant line and caused all the coolant to quickly rush out. The oil was from the valve cover half moon, I didnt use the new one because I forgot and had everything RTV'd already and figured it was good. So I re-RTV'd the NEW half moon and Im going to replace the coolant hose and I should be all set! Thanks for the help guys! Without the advice I would have gone ahead and done the head gasket

 

[gSx_r1der]

, I did every test in the world before I declared my head gasket was blown and started buying shit. IMO a very expensive job and I dont ever want to go through that again.

 

[grans0o]

, I did every test in the world before I declared my head gasket was blown and started buying shit. IMO a very expensive job and I dont ever want to go through that again.

I blew my Headgasket a while back, It really wasn't that horrible of a job in my opinion. I think this motor is actually pretty easy to work with, while I was in there I also replaced the timing belt, balance shaft belt, waterpump, and upgraded to ARP Headstuds. All in all EVERYTHING ended up costing about $500 bucks.

Another good indication that your headgasket is blown is when you pull a spark plug and it looks brand new, no deposits on it at all. Means you are getting coolant into your combustion chamber. I'm glad yours ended up not being blown.

 

[jasteel13]

yah the headgasket isnt too bad.. when i had my random misfire issue i went thru about 1 headgasket a week for a few months.. near the end it would take 29 dollars and 3 hours to fix