Blown head gasket?

[Breezio69]

I took a small video of my car at cold idle with the Rad cap off... Some interesting stuff happened. Blown head gasket?

If so since its from compression to cooling system would i be ok to drive it for about 2 weeks 15 miles a day? its my DD and would need to drive to work and save up for parts. Thanks, here is the vid

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[Breezio69]

still having an issue with coolant in overflow. the wierd thing is it is going in there COMPLETELY reverse... It will be half full when I stop and the motor is hot, then when I go out and check it cool it is full??? can the white valve at the top be hooked up backwards?

ok well the 16 psi cap brought up a another leak that i noticed once i could look at the car in daylight. The water pipe o ring on the thermostat side, I went out and squoze the upper rad tube with the cap on and watched a stream of coolant flow on to the tranny, ripped it apart, sure enough it was as hard as a brick and the edges were completely flat. the water pump was replaced and im assuming the guy before me only did the water pump side instead of both like he should. anyway, Im waiting on some rtv to dry before i torque it down and fill/test the system but figure id keep my findings up to date... hoping im getting close to this "not blown head gasket" issue, hoping... next step is renting a cooling system tester since i fixed the obvious leaks i can see. keeping my hopes up big time that ive got this under control

EDIT UPDATE:

Well i got everything bolted together, filled it up and left cap off upon start, left it off for about 2 minutes. The bubbling was bad like in the video at first then started to slow down to hardly anything. let the coolant expand till it was at the top of the filler neck and then put the cap on... I then did the coolant check by using the overflow tank, filled to full line and it dropped about 1/4" topped it off again and let it idle for 25 minutes while I cleaned up my garage, checked temps and coolant level and everything was great. no leaks, temp was at 190*, and coolant seemed to be "pulling" from the overflow again. Ill keep an eye on it still for a while but all looks good so far

EDIT AGAIN!

did a couple more visual checks like the guy did in the video NHerron posted, everything came back looking good, oil looked normal on the dip stick, peeked in the head with a light, and pics of my nice square o ring i just replaced....

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what im trying to get fixed, did all the paint/wire tuck/ clean up myself

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[NHerron]

I then did the coolant check by using the overflow tank, filled to full line and it dropped about 1/4" topped it off again and let it idle for 25 minutes while I cleaned up my garage, checked temps and coolant level and everything was great. no leaks, temp was at 190*, and coolant seemed to be "pulling" from the overflow again.

I'm not following. You fill up to reservoir to x amount and the level drops leading you to keep adding fluid? That's just not possible unless the reservoir has a leak in it and dumping on the ground. When the engine is idling it won't pull fluid from the reservoir

Do you have ARP head studs, by the way?

 

[Breezio69]

Was doing reading on the cooling system and people said that is the way you fill the system, leave the cap on and fill the Res.... then it draws what coolant it needs as the air transfers out of the cooling system... was that misinformation? It all said to do a few revs to 3k... maybe that makes the vaccum to pull it?

And no, I do not have arp studs

EDIT
Soooo.... I have NO idea where this coolant is going, checked it this morning and it took 9oz of coolant. went to the parts store after work and they wanted $165.00 to "rent" their coolant system tester, F that, they said yeah we take it and then when you return it we refund it, but it takes up to x amount of days... um no...

Then the guy said, "Ive seen coolant go to a transmission", I say "on a manual?" oh yeah a few times... Highly doubt it buddy.

im so confused right now, at the rate im going through coolant you think it would show up somewhere, or be putting out a white cloud equivalent to a diesels black smoke


Well, screw it, tomorrow ill be buying a head gasket, timing belt and head studs... if thats not it then at least i know its done. running down to my car every 3 hours checking coolant and all that crap is getting old and ive spent about the cost of a head gasket just on coolant in the last week

 

[NHerron]

Try my link, it's a lot cheaper. Please be careful, don't over pressurize and blow a hose! Also pull each spark plug and take a look at each one. If you have a skinny flashlight, peer down inside the cylinder as well. A cylinder that is burning coolant will look really good/clean/shiny inside. Burning coolant is basically steam cleaning the cylinder so it's a good vsual indicator. Same goes with the spark plugs.
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...440201-10-coolant-system-pressure-tester.html

Is the oil level magically rising? Is the interior carpet wet near the kickpanels? I don't mean to point out the obvious, but you have checked under the car looking for signs of coolant leaks right? That o-ring that was leaking before, it may still be leaking, but since it's near such a hot place it might be burning right off little by little before it hits the ground. A coolant test can show you the trail though!

 

[Breezio69]

I checked out the link and was gonna try it with my old cap but I tossed it! Anyways. I didn't full give up because what's going on makes no sense... went out last night and found the mother of all leaks! It was in a place I couldn't see without moving some wires harnesses and things around. It was probably from when the guy before me took the AC off the car. There was a t in the heater core return line that had a 2" piece of hose that was capped off, well the hose clamp on the barb was so loose I could slide it up and down on it... I took it off, cut it down a little more and put it back tight (could hardly get tools down there let alone my hands

But anyways, peeking around the back of the block under the intake manifold showed heavy dried deposits of coolant. I'm sure I found it, and the location makes sense with how much coolant I'm missing every time I fill it...I typically put in enough to fill the state housing, probably 1/4 of the head and then the upper hose... 9-10 oz... hope that was it

EDIT

Whelp! I opened up my Rad cap after work,completely full of coolant, cap even made a suction noise when I pulled it... sooooo glad I stuck with finding these small problems instead of ripping my motor apart and probably making more! Thanks NHerron again, I'm sure ill be back with more problems later... its a dsm , thanks everybody!