How hard to fix blown head gasket?
calaverasgrande
New Wagonist
I am having some sudden crazy issues with my wagon. I have just fixed the cooling fan. So I thought I was good for some driving. :roll:
Had a job in San Jose (I live in Oakland 45 mile drive each way) So I drive to south San Jose to buy a bass guitar cab (mesa boogie 2x15!) then on to the job in North Jose. Well I got stuck in that famous San Jose traffic and the car overheated for a while.
It kept going and the temp never got above 3/4 the way up. Made it back home that night too. Drove to band practice no problem a few nights later.
Yesterday I get in to drive downtown and it overheats super high after I am on the freeway like 5 minutes. I hear this Psshhht sound and look at my temp and its the highest I have ever seen it!
I guess that was the radiator overflow bottle getting blasted by some hot ass steam? Or maybe the radiator itself blew off steam. I get off and check the hoses thinking I blew one (even though I didnt see steam from under the hood. No blown hoses? So I cool down, fill up with straight water. Made it home by surface streets, but with the heater on full blast and the cooling fan on it was still creeping up in heat.
I popped the valv cover cap and notice a little white residue
I also see more water than normal coming out of the exhaust.
SO I am guessing head gasket or cracked head.
I pull the plugs and they all lookfine, if not a little old.
Also, and this is the weird part, its reving hell of high in idle and every other gear. In fact it was revving high yesterday before it went all nutso and overheated.
Soooo.... Is it a real bear to do the headgasket?
I've done other cars like fords and stuff.
It's basically just yank the valve cover,
yank the head,
get the head machined,
put it back with the right gasket
do the timing belt over again,
right?
Had a job in San Jose (I live in Oakland 45 mile drive each way) So I drive to south San Jose to buy a bass guitar cab (mesa boogie 2x15!) then on to the job in North Jose. Well I got stuck in that famous San Jose traffic and the car overheated for a while.
It kept going and the temp never got above 3/4 the way up. Made it back home that night too. Drove to band practice no problem a few nights later.
Yesterday I get in to drive downtown and it overheats super high after I am on the freeway like 5 minutes. I hear this Psshhht sound and look at my temp and its the highest I have ever seen it!
I guess that was the radiator overflow bottle getting blasted by some hot ass steam? Or maybe the radiator itself blew off steam. I get off and check the hoses thinking I blew one (even though I didnt see steam from under the hood. No blown hoses? So I cool down, fill up with straight water. Made it home by surface streets, but with the heater on full blast and the cooling fan on it was still creeping up in heat.
I popped the valv cover cap and notice a little white residue
I also see more water than normal coming out of the exhaust.
SO I am guessing head gasket or cracked head.
I pull the plugs and they all lookfine, if not a little old.
Also, and this is the weird part, its reving hell of high in idle and every other gear. In fact it was revving high yesterday before it went all nutso and overheated.
Soooo.... Is it a real bear to do the headgasket?
I've done other cars like fords and stuff.
It's basically just yank the valve cover,
yank the head,
get the head machined,
put it back with the right gasket
do the timing belt over again,
right?
Comments
I wonder if I was running at 4-5k when I was going 60-70 and didnt notice it? It's kinda hectic after the onramp so I wasnt paying any attention to the gauges.
My radiator fan switch is busted so I have it wired to a switch on the dash. It wasnt working for the first 2 months I had it and that was no problem on the freeway. On city streets it was a problem!
After reading a few threads over at red pepper racing I dont think I have any of the symptoms of a blown headgasket.
No chocolate milk oil,
no blue smoke from tailpipe.
None of the plugs are fouled.
I do lose coolant and tranny fluid at a steady rate. Also oil is always leaking out of the valve cover on the right (drivers) side. Not a lot but enough to make a mess.
I was about to tackle that by getting a new valve cover gasket and maybe a new valve cover cap?
I am looking at getting a new thermostat/housing/gasket. I feel like the previous owner did some silly shit with the water hoses. I can get way more cooling from the heater on full blast than I do from the radiator?
Oh yeah, other than that, power is fine, I get speed wobbles at 85 or so before I run out of power. (bushings or shocks?)
I feel like this high rev and the heat issue are related somehow as well.
Shoot, this is my datsun 210 all over again. Except that one never passed smog, and this one is in reg until Jul 2011!
Air in the coolant system (or lack of coolant) can cause crazy ideling.
Well I just ran it for about 7-10 minutes. Didnt even get close to overheating. It did idle rather high for a while, then came back down to normal.
There was water in the exhaust for a couple of minutes. But then it completely cleared up about the same time the idle dropped.
I checked the top and bottom radiator hoses and they are both hot after running for a while so I think coolant is getting around.
Hmmm. Maybe the thermostat is just old and gets stuck only sometimes? Is the heater before the thermo? I cant tell from my book.
Oil looks fresh and peachy as heck, tranny fluid is peachy as well.
No oil in the coolant that I can see. hmmm.
Oh wait, its the 4th. Doubt Kragen is open.
Assuming I have most of the tools, what does a head gasket job cost?
I always hear such horror stories about doing them, but it seems fairly common at the same time.
I've also never done a timing belt/chain on an interference engine. So I am a bit skittish about that.
I think I want to try getting the thermostat sorted and take it from there?
I did see some tiny tiny bubbles. Not big ones, but a regular stream of very tiny ones. So maybe I have a minor head gasket fail? Surely it will get worse over time. Also, checked the oil, and no water in the oil. No oil in the coolant. (that I can see). So I am getting exhaust leaking into the coolant only? Or, maybe something else causes bubbles?
Also, I watched some vids on youtube of what bubbles look like when you have head gasket failure. They all were majorly bubbling! mine just has very tiny bubbles. Like when you are heating water on a stove and its not boiling yet but will be in a minute. So maybe I dont have exhaust coming into my coolant after all, but there is the water in the tail pipe, which disapears after it runs for a couple minutes.
They didnt have compression test stuff for sale, butthey did have ones you can rent with a $40 deposit. I may go that route.
Though I would rather do the thermosat ($12 with gasket) and be done with that part.
so far the only symptoms I got are over heating when driven (not when sitting) and some loss of coolant. The oil looks great. there arent major bubbles in my radiator.
Lame past couple of weeks.
Computer dies
dog screws up a leg,
job cuts me off
honda starts acting lame.
speaking of I need to look for work now...
Its very easy, Auto zone has a loaner tool program if you don't want to buy one(you have to leave a deposit).
Part of me actually wants to just go for it with doing the head gasket. Bu then I like getting in over my head! Even if it isnt critical, this engine has low miles and is over 20 years old. May as well do what I can to keep it humming along. It does leak oil a bit so maybe a full gasket job will remedy that. If I got that shit squared I could start thinking about picking up those nice seats I saw at pick and pull. lowering the front, and...perish the thought, getting a paint job?
I am not seeing bubbles like they say you should see. Bout to head out (get it?) to the former Napa on High st. to see if they got the combustion gas shit. Maybe hit up retardzone on teh way back for the compression test kit.
How on earth do you compression test cylinder 2 and 3? I can not get the damn thing to go in straight due to the cat being right in front of the engine. (uh.. why?)
I got 150 and 140 on 1 and 4.
this stuff is driving me crazy.
I tried to track down teh exhaust gas kit but all anyone has is the UV stuff for finding leaks.
The fella at Parts Plus said he doubts I got a headgasket if myoil looks normal.
Ugh.
I am just worried about trashing my engine if it is a headgasket prob and I pop in a thermostat and start driving around. Like right now the oil looks kosher, and I get a little water in the tailpipe.
Ps. Woohoo, I think I may have notice coolant slowly leaking from the radiator. or it could also just be where the coolant splashes too when I have teh cap off and the fan is spinning.
I cleaned it all up and I'll check back in a few.
I'm gonna do the thermostat after lunch.
I called around, is $200 normal for a machine job on a head?
Well I am back to retardzone to return the compression kit.
Finally got it to work. 150, 140, 150, 130 on 1,2,3 and 4. Not awesome but not paint the ceiling red and grey bad either. My plugs are pretty crap looking as is my PCV filter. Gonna apply my deposit towards those and get a frozen pizza. It was a mutha getting to that thermostat!
Wow. I have done thermostats and water pumps on many cars and this one was freaking buried. My back actually is sore! Well I guess thats how they get away with such a small hoodline on these wagons!
Funny thing is it coulda been smaller if they had stuck the cat under the car (where it belongs!).
phew.
Well, now with the new plugs it starts right up!
Sheesh. I wish I had a local friend that was a honda nut. I havent ever done an engine tear down on my own. Doing that thermo was a PITA! Well, its that or sell it with a blown gasket.
The exhaust gas test fluid gets here today. Though at this point I am pretty sure the headgasket is fucked.
Thing is there seems to be the same 3 Fel-Pro gakset sets everywhere I look.
HS9219PT-1
HS9219PT-2
HS9219PT-3
With the first being the most expensive, the last the cheapest.
Anyone know the difference? I cant find ANY details on what is included. Is the cheap kit just minus a few gaskets or are they all different gasket kits for different models. They all say they are from the EW1, but I am wary.
So all I have gotten done is the air cleaner, the spark plugs/wires and some misc hoses.
I would like to get the dang throttle cable off before I try removing anything larger. It is very in the way!
ps dude there are a LOT of vacuum lines on this thing. I have never seen so many!
I guess I will have to clean them off and number them vary carefully, there are literally dozens!
Back to the wagon now....
Oh yeah, apparently the joker that last had at this engine didnt bother with putting a valve cover gasket on. So THATS why it was always seeping oil! Ugh. After I get all this done, hopefully it will be running nice and clean.
So if you need any tech advice or whatever, I will be right there with ya bro, hunched over the fender of a hotass wagon in the 100 degree heat of summer hatin life! lol :?