Can drive after temp. repair of broken radiator neck?

[MrAleGuy]

Boy do I hope this is the right place.

The neck broke off the radiator on my daughter's '98 Eclipse RS. 2.0 Non-turbo (I guess that's a 420A).

I was able to remove the broken piece of neck from the hose and reattach the hose to the broken (but shorter) neck, add some water and limp home.

Since then, I've noticed what I think is white smoke. It will put out almost none, then it will be really noticeable for a while, then almost none. I'm still smelling coolant but the engine compartment got covered pretty good that's not a surprise to me.

A local "expert" tells me that there COULD be a chunk of the broken neck in the cooling system (and I believe that's possible despite how careful I was), and that I shouldn't drive it AT ALL until I do a total flush of the radiator/block/etc. He says if I do, there's a good chance I can kiss the engine good-bye. That seems quite bizarre to me.

He suggests that the source of the smoke is probably a head gasket, but could possibly be some oil which has leaked into the #1 plug well, indicating a bad intake gasket. I'm afraid to run it any more to see if it is actually more blueish smoke.

Can I drive this thing to a repair shop about 5 miles away or do I need to do a total system flush before I move it?

Thanks so much!

 

[hdoerr]

If it is actually five (5) miles then yes but the head gasket will still leak so there may be smoke even in five miles.

 

[mesarius]

Was the smoke coming from under the hood, out the exhaust or both?

 

[MrAleGuy]

If it is actually five (5) miles then yes but the head gasket will still leak so there may be smoke even in five miles.

So, you also are of the opinion that it's a head gasket.

Was the smoke coming from under the hood, out the exhaust or both?

From the exhaust pipe. Also, it was intermittent. Wouldn't a bad head gasket cause white smoke at a steady rate which increased as RPM increased?

Any thoughts on the suggestion that some small free-floating pieces which broke off the plastic radiator neck could cause catastrophic engine damage between home and the shop?

 

[hdoerr]

A blown head gasket does not have to be major. The intermittent nature is probably due to the fact that when the coolant cycles the cooler water takes a bit to heat up and when it becomes hot enough to vaporize it gets into the combustion chamber via a microscopic hole. Hope that helps.

 

[MrAleGuy]

A blown head gasket does not have to be major. The intermittent nature is probably due to the fact that when the coolant cycles the cooler water takes a bit to heat up and when it becomes hot enough to vaporize it gets into the combustion chamber via a microscopic hole. Hope that helps.

Makes perfect sense. Thanks!

Is the head gasket replacement a repair that needs to be done immediately or can it wait until it's smoking more significantly?

I know the radiator repair must be done ASAP, since the connection to the top radiator hose is a bit tenuous. I'll probably be ordering one from 1-800-RADIATOR and taking that to the shop with the car.

Boy, I'd like to talk to the engineer that decided to make part of the radiator out of plastic...