Head Gasket Blown!!!

[terbo]

well I checked my compression today on my motor, and I have 102/102/100/103 on my cylinders. the last couple of weeks my cars performance has gone down hill and I could'nt figure out why, I thought it was an sensor type problem,the engine was rebuilt 2 yrs ago.
is there a way to know for sure that it is the head gasket, once I have the head removed? will it show signs of a damaged head gasket? I don't know if it's the rings or not, I think it's unlikely that it could be all 4 rings at the same time. I checked my compression about 3 weeks ago and it was 135/135/125/115 and now it's dropped to about 100 all the way across, and I've only driven the car 3times for about 20 mins a time.

let me know what you guy's think!

thanks
TERBO

 

[johnk]

You can lose compression more than one way. If your headgasket blew you would most likely have mixed oil into the water, vice versa or large puffs of smoke from the exhaust. You can also lose compression from burnt valves at which you would lose all compression in one cylinder or worn out piston rings.

Did you over heat your engine? That's the easiest way to make a head gasket leak.

 

[terbo]

no, I did'nt overheat the engine and there is no smoke, that I can see when I'm driving the car, It just has no power, and the acceleration is very poor out of first gear, like the gas pedal feels spongey, the car isnt responsive to the amount of acceleration that is given, seems like you have to revv the engine to get going, and if you fall below a certain
rpm in any gear the car wants to almost stall , unless you down shift.

I already checked the fuel/injectors/ignition/intercooler leaks/mass/fuel pump, and all seems ok. can you burn all 4 rings at the same time?

how do you check for bad valves?

 

[johnk]

Have you tried a leakdown test. That would tell you if you valves leaked or your head gasket.

 

[99gst_racer]

Yeah your compression should be about 165 across. Check your oil and coolant to see if they are mixed. If they are not, then it's gotta be either the rings or the valves. Either way, the head has to be pulled...... Do your plugs have oil on them?

 

[johnk]

if you want to check your rings easy try putting a capful of oil down the spark plug well and see if that raises the compression.

 

[girlieracr4g63]

I have not always seen the mixture. So it is possible that it (headgasket) could be leaking not fully blown. Yes it will show signs once you pull it off the car. Imo I dont think its anything worse than that, but I could be wrong. They all seem to be fairly close number wise. So maybe your in luck.

 

[4GSixty3]

Hey girlie, my rebuilt engine with 50 miles on it overheated b/c of a coolant leak and now my compression from #4 - #1 is 120,90,87,85...possible that the headgasket no longer is good or did I flat out warp my head? Sorry to post this here, but it seems like this is a good thread.

Edit - "and the acceleration is very poor out of first gear, like the gas pedal feels spongey, the car isnt responsive to the amount of acceleration that is given, seems like you have to revv the engine to get going, and if you fall below a certainrpm in any gear the car wants to almost stall , unless you down shift". Same problems here and the turbo takes forever to boost.

 

[girlieracr4g63]

Hey girlie, my rebuilt engine with 50 miles on it overheated b/c of a coolant leak and now my compression from #4 - #1 is 120,90,87,85...possible that the headgasket no longer is good or did I flat out warp my head? Sorry to post this here, but it seems like this is a good thread.

Edit - "and the acceleration is very poor out of first gear, like the gas pedal feels spongey, the car isnt responsive to the amount of acceleration that is given, seems like you have to revv the engine to get going, and if you fall below a certainrpm in any gear the car wants to almost stall , unless you down shift". Same problems here and the turbo takes forever to boost.

Damn man what luck.. I just finished reading your other thread, and I noticed you didnt have the head machined. Sadly that could be the culpit. As far as the head being warded thats hard to say. How long was the car in the red before you shut if off? Did you have any coolant at all left? I also noticed you didnt use ARPs..I personally am a big fan of them myself, and havent had a head problem since I got them, but everyone is different. What headgasket did you go with? With that kind of compression. Im wondering if you may have bent a valve or two. The only true way to tell if the head is warped is to break it down, and if the gasket is blown your going to have to do that anyways. I take it your getting the nasty brown mixture?

 

[4GSixty3]

Car was in the red for 10 seconds at most...no coolant was left in the lines at all when it was shut off...The stupid thing I did,however, was dump the rest of my coolant from overflow into my lines when it was that hot and it was steaming bad .I re-use the stock headbolts every time and teamnabr actually did a study and found 1g headbolts are better than arp's....compression was like 130-40 when I first did my compression test and the car ran fine until all this...Headgasket was a Topline gasket.