Possible bad head gasket? Confused. Topic is solved

[abscate]

Ouch. That’s a lot of milkshake. I’m a risk taker, but I would park this one and donate bodily fluids until I could afford a head gasket

[Gtin]

Wish that was an option, unfortunately I'm starting a new job Friday and have to have transportation, I'm hoping it will get me to my first paycheck. The confusing thing about it is it's still running strong and the oil I drained out of it looks fine, the only place I see symptoms is the dipstick and the occasional smoking on start up, I'm also losing coolant almost too fast now I topped it up today and within 10 miles the light was back on so I'm wondering if I have a separate leak also because I would assume if all of that was going through the head gasket I would have constant smoke and more water than oil by now :$

I can probably borrow enough money for a can of head gasket sealer and pray for a miracle, but I definitely can't gather enough for a new gasket set and I don't wanna spend what money I can get without being certain that I've diagnosed it correctly, is there a way I can test it to be certain?

[abscate]

About all I got left is try running it with the radiator reservoir cap off to keep the cooling system pressure down and keep coolant out of that oil. If you are using 500 ml per 10 miles, it’s getting burned in the cylinders and some of it is going into the oil. It’s simple conservation of mass. On that topic, cap off , drive like Miss Daisy, and go to churches on Sunday by bike. I mean churches, because you are going to need to all of the deities to pull this one off.

Definitely put in the sealer..I think Blue Magic is the one found in threads here? I’ll search

Pulling for you....congrats on new job

[abscate]

Blue Devil is the name that cropped up. Another reason to hit the church(es)

And user Faust tried it too..... it worked for him but we haven’t heard from him in awhile other than a post on checking his AC performance.

[Gtin]

I'll give it a go, blue devil didn't work for me in my Saturn but I don't really know why I expected it to, I was losing compression between two cylinders in it so no doubt a sealant in the coolant wouldn't help me, I'm gonna take my heater core out of loop again and suffer the cold today to make sure everything I losing is being lost into the engine and not due to my half cocked ghetto rigging for warmth. If I continue to lose coolant I will take your advice on driving without the cap until I get my hands on some sealant and see what my car friends think about standing in a circle around the bottle of blue devil and chanting in the hopes of summoning Satan himself to offer a sacrifice in return for a working car

[abscate]

You can just crack the cap.rnough to,prevent pressure from building. Secure it with tape or string so it doesn’t wander off.

Watch the temp,gauge like a hawk for any deviation above 3boclock and stop immediately

[Gtin]

Hey guys, been a while since my last update but I was waiting until I had results to show. Here's what has happened.

I took my last bit of cash to autozone and bought the best head gasket sealer I could find for what I had. A whopping total of about 14 dollars. I chose bars block seal head gasket repair.

I ran this through last Sunday night (the 26th) following the instructions on the bottle as closely as possible. The only instructions that didn't get followed were

1. It ask for the engine to be idled for a while and then let cool and run again at a high idle. My car consistently idles at 1500rpm so It was a "high idle" both times

2. After the treatment it ask for the radiator to be drained and left open for 12-24 hours. I finished this procedure at around 3:30 am and it only had about 4 hours to sit while I slept before work.

During the flush before running it through I noticed that not all of the coolant I was losing was going into the head, I had a leak where the upper heater hose runs into the firewall. I looped the heater out or the cycle and continued the treatment.

The idle had become rougher before the treatment and though fully warmed up the car was smoking when I was performing the treatment. During the treatment I saw the idle smooth out and the smoke slow to a stop. Both good signs.

Upon completing the treatment my milage was 256186. Ive been driving the car regularly for the past week and put nearly 200 miles on it. The milage is now 256375. I did not have the cash for an oil change so I've been watching the oil for the past week and noticed less and less milk on the dipstick. I've also noticed no smoke even on cold morning starts. When I checked the oil this morning there was no milky residue at all. I took the car for a short drive to the gas station (about 7 miles round trip) and still had no residue when I got back. Here is my dipstick now

I believe this was a success. This stuff worked for me. I've put nearly 200 miles on it now and it seems ok. It still has a small amount of the treatment in the cooling system as I haven't been able to flush it again yet. But if anything changes when I flush it out tomorrow I will let you guys know.

[abscate]

Well done!

Drive this thing like the re are eggs under your foot on the gas pedal and save. Every novel for 5000 mile synthetic oil changes. About 22 bucks for a 5 liter container when your eye falls upon such a price, pick it up

[erikv11]

... synthetic oil changes. About 22 bucks for a 5 liter container when your eye falls upon such a price, pick it up

Walmart, Mobil1.

[rspi]

Grrr, not sure why I did NOT see this post earlier.

I don't think you had any issues with a head gasket. Glad you found the source of your coolant leak, likely the firewall coupling. Stopping that leak likely solved your coolant loss issue.