Blown Head Gasket

[Artofschiffy]

While driving home yesterday from getting new tires on a hot day, my head gasket blows... Literally drove two miles not even pushing it but it was an uphill drive and coolant shoots out from under the hood. When I pulled over right after the incident my oil still looked and smelled like oil so I ended up filling it back up with coolant/water to get it home (downhill drive) but on the way home I was blowing white smoke. When I was a couple blocks away from my house the white smoke stopped but when I got home I checked the oil again and it had that creamy cappuccino look so I know coolant got into the oil. I'm hoping nothing was destroyed during the drive home, it doesn't like there is any bottom end damage but I'm not 100% sure.

I have read a lot about replacing the head gasket as well as thermostat/timing belt/water pump/maintenance and I plan on doing everything myself. I feel like I can do everything on my own but I'm more concerned with the current health of the engine.

Some info: Car has 150k, last owner said the car was rebuilt but didn't know when, the current belts look brand new and I'm pretty sure the car was partially rebuilt at some point (while dismantling the front fender a couple months ago, I found the end piece of an exhaust valve...) Day after I purchased the car I realized there was basically no coolant so I don't know how long PO drove it with low coolant.

My questions are:

Is it okay for the car to sit a couple days with coolant/oil mix or should I drain and flush/fill it with oil as soon as possible?

I'm definitely going to get the head looked at once I get it off but do I need to have the rest of the engine checked out? Nothing was leaking from the car but I did drive it a couple miles in order to get it home.


Any information and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TheLemon]

Is it okay for the car to sit a couple days with coolant/oil mix or should I drain and flush/fill it with oil as soon as possible?

I think it would be fine if you didn't try to start or run it, it's pretty much up to you when you would want to clean/flush it.

I'm definitely going to get the head looked at once I get it off but do I need to have the rest of the engine checked out? Nothing was leaking from the car but I did drive it a couple miles in order to get it home.

That is basically personal preference; you can get the head checked out and gamble that the block is fine the way it is and just reassemble it from there, or you can take the time to inspect the lower end on a questionable block that may or may not have been rebuilt properly.

 

[crash]

The car will be fine to sit for a few days with the mixture. You'll want to do another oil change about 100 miles after you get it fixed anyway so that will clean out what leftover stuff is in there.

As for getting the block checked out, more information is needed for a better answer but here are my initial thoughts. I read through your other post. It sounds like you've had the car for a couple months? And it was in a pretty questionable state when you got it. If you changed all of the fluids then, how did the oil look? You said the car barely had any coolant in it so I'd say it's possible the HG was already gone when you got it. If there was not any debris (shavings, rtv, etc) in the oil when you changed it initially then I wouldn't bother pulling the block. Just have a good look at the cylinder walls and pistons while you're in there and look for any signs of previous damage. Judging from your previous post, there's probably a 50/50 shot of finding some jacked up stuff while you're in it. Go ahead and plan on replacing all the seals on the front of the engine while you have it apart. Then once you have it back together you can do your compression and leakdown tests. That will tell you the health of the motor. Pulling the head is not a terrible job and can be done pretty quickly and inexpensively if you plan.

If this is your first timing job, welcome to initiation! There are some very good writeups on here, I think @pauleyman has a pretty good one, plus there's vfaq. Good luck!

 

[Artofschiffy]

The car will be fine to sit for a few days with the mixture. You'll want to do another oil change about 100 miles after you get it fixed anyway so that will clean out what leftover stuff is in there.

As for getting the block checked out, more information is needed for a better answer but here are my initial thoughts. I read through your other post. It sounds like you've had the car for a couple months? And it was in a pretty questionable state when you got it. If you changed all of the fluids then, how did the oil look? You said the car barely had any coolant in it so I'd say it's possible the HG was already gone when you got it. If there was not any debris (shavings, rtv, etc) in the oil when you changed it initially then I wouldn't bother pulling the block. Just have a good look at the cylinder walls and pistons while you're in there and look for any signs of previous damage. Judging from your previous post, there's probably a 50/50 shot of finding some jacked up stuff while you're in it. Go ahead and plan on replacing all the seals on the front of the engine while you have it apart. Then once you have it back together you can do your compression and leakdown tests. That will tell you the health of the motor. Pulling the head is not a terrible job and can be done pretty quickly and inexpensively if you plan.

If this is your first timing job, welcome to initiation! There are some very good writeups on here, I think @pauleyman has a pretty good one, plus there's vfaq. Good luck!

Thanks for your input! I've had the car for a couple months yes but I've probably only put about 20 miles on it. When I change the oil, it was really thick and dark but there were no shavings or any debris. It was also really low but there was a huge crack on the valve cover, after replacing the cover it stopped leaking oil. Before changing the plugs I did a compression test with the engine cold and I got 170-180 which is why I think it was recently rebuilt.

I still need to tear it apart but I'm really hoping it was just the head gasket that gave out.