Berserker78

I don't know if i have one, but I suspect it... how bad is that?


see earlier post of problem:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=609666

Augie 79

Funny you should ask. I think I blew one Friday night. My motor has a couple hundred thousand miles on it I think, so......I going to either just rebuild it or put a GM "Goodwrench" crate motor in it. If your motor doesn't have 80,000 (a lot of miles) miles on it then I would replace the head gasket. It's not a beginner job, maybe an intermediate job? Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

77Dream

That would be pretty bad. Is there water in the oil? I have blown a head gasket or two and each time there was no doubt about it. Oil looked like thick mud and steam was comming out the tail pipe, over heated and ran like crap. Check your dipstick, hopefully it will look like clean oil.

WA 2 FST

Often times it will give you the same symptoms as a cracked block... water in oil and vice-versa, possible loss of compression (extreme case).

The problem is that if you get too much water in the oil then you are contaminating the oil enough to cause premature bearing, ring, cylinder wall wear.

IOW, you do not want to drive around with a blown head gasket. Typically, it will run hot enough to be overheating anyway, but not always.

The main thing is to try and figure out what caused the gasket to blow...can be a number of things: detonation (lean condition under full throttle), improper torque on head bolts, warped head/block surface are the three primary ones.

But yes, it is a big problem til you get it fixed.

Dwayne 76

Where is the 'head' gasket located (diagram would be great)? I know, a real newbie question

Berserker78

I am going to change the oil tonight, so I will know then if there is any water in it.

I have 86k miles on the engine.

I am running on a very low budget, so how cheap do you think I could get this fixed? I am relativley handy with my tools, I replaced all of my suspention and brake system by myself. Should I try to get it fixed by a pro?

I have no idea what would have caused it. I had been going easy for the last 100 miles or so, and it was below 90 outside. The engine therm was reading about 200...


dang... I was just getting excited about having my baby in SoCal with me...

77Dream

It's located between the head and the block. Lots of stuff that has to com off to get too it: carb, distributor, intake manifold, exhaust manifold/header, then the head with all the little moving parts in there. There is more stuff depending on which side blew, like the smog pump or AC compressor, or the alternator and who knows what else. All that to replace a 50 cent gasket. :rolleyes:

Packy76

A little OT but my 93 blazer v6 blew a head gasket an I did a little bubba job. retorqued the heads and then put in a couple of cans of stop leak and amazed to my surprize it worked!!! I'm not sure for how long it will last but it has 195000 miles on it and I did it 3000 mi ago I also bypassed the heater core when I added the stop leak so it wouldn't end up in there.

68shark

I did the same thing probably many years ago to an old Datsun 710 (POS) that I owned. It worked for about 6 months (10,000 miles), then I did it again, then a year later sold the rustbucket for parts. Never did have to replace the headgasket!

Aside from being a PITA....as you have to tear down the entire top half of the motor...you really have to think if it's worth it. If high miles, may be worth rebuilding the engine, or if relatively low miles, using this as an excuse for new or reworked heads/cam/intake/timing chain etc!! :thumbs:

Jvette73

A bad head gasket could cause problems in different ways. Some are worse then others. It could be leaking between the waterjacket and the cylinder which will burn off the coolant as you drive. It could be seeping into the oil drain back which wopuld allow water in yur oil. It could be blown out between two cylinders causing a loss of compression in those cylinders. A couple of things you can do to determine if its worth while to remove the heads for further investgation would be:

Get a compression tester at a parts store for about $20. Remove all the spark plugs and screw the tester into the spark plug hole and crank the engine with the throttle wide open. I usually prop the throttle wide open so the accelerator pump doesnt squirt gas in while testing each cylinder. Crank the engine for a few seconds or untill the gauge pumps to its highest reading. Write down the results. Compare all the results. If thier relitivly colse to each other the the head gasket is sealing good for compression purposes.

The head gasket also seals the water jackets between the heads and block. If your cooling system is building and holding pressure then that part of the head gasket is probably ok too. you can squeeze the rad hose after the car has been run for a while and fully warmed up. If it feels tight and under pressure and hold it for a while after shutting down then the head gaskets are sealing the water jackets good.

On older cars with high mileage pressure build up in the cooling sys can lead to blown gaskets as well as hose blow outs and leaking radiators. I do a little bubba trick to prevent pressure build up on 3 out of 4 of my cars. What I do is remove the bottom seal from the rad cap. the top seal stays on and the cap is screwed all the way on tight which wont allow the coolant to leak from the cap. with the bottom seal removed the pressure wont build and when the fluid expands under heat it just passes into the overflow tank. when the engine cools and the fluid contracts it draws it back out from the overflow tank. This trick has worked well for me without any ill side effects. Granted the sys wont ever be under pressure so it wont blow anything out.

GDaina

other than coolant mixing with oil, and loss of compression....not bad at all..... :jester

ldyoung

I WOULD NOT USE STOPLEAK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES since it will at best hide the real problem and at worst clog up your radiator/heater cores and have to be replaced!!!. :nono:

IF YOU'RE PLANNING ON KEEPING YOUR CAR FOR A WHILE and if you're not very confident in replacing a head gasket yourself, then my recommendation would be to take the car to a good mechanic and have it checked out and fixed. It'll cost you a few extra bucks but may save you some $$$ over the long haul if you've not got the experience or patience to diagnosis and/or do the job right the first time. Good luck. :cheers:

OatBoy

would putting in 4 quarts too much oil possibly cause a head gasket failure?
p.s. no it was not me who did that

LemansBlue68

Putting in too much oil raises the oil level to the point that the crank will whip the oil into a froth. Not a good thing because the oil pump will start sucking air and pushing it into the bearings which can cause them to fail. It can also the oil from draining back properly causing too much oil to stay up in the rocker covers and drip down the valve guides. Never heard of it causing a head gasket failure, though.

Drain the excess oil out as soon as possible.

Likewise a blown head gasket can allow coolant to leak into the oil. Besides causing damage to the bearings, where will you be when you've run so low on coolant that your motor over heats?

Change the head gasket and check the flatness on the block deck face and the head deck face. Like the others said, a blown head gasket is often the cause (and sometimes the result) of a blown head gasket.