'04 V70 n/a Head Gasket Sealer Disaster.

[Faust]

Recently I began having warnings of low coolant level. Without doing much investigation, because of the mileage 256K, I just assumed a small head gasket leak. Having had good reports of Blue Devil, I decided to toss in a can. Following all directions car was cold and heater on (no levers of course, but all knobs and switches on). The first thing I noticed was that having let it idle for 50 minutes, the heater had never even warmed up, just blowing ambient temperature air. I then took it out for a ride. After about 10 miles with the temp gauge reading about halfway, it moved right up to pegging the needle. I managed to get it home with frequent stops. It steamed but can't say it was really boiling over. I added some anti-freeze, but not all that much.

OK, aside from the obvious of draining the cooling system, can anyone suggest other steps. Would a can of some kind of flush be worthwhile?

PS I can't say I am now sure that I ever had a head gasket problem.

[yanga001]

These were my steps when i had success.

Step 1: Flush fully with water, there cannot be any antifreeze left in the system at all. i had to flush 5-6 times with water and then used the coolant flush.

Step 2: Remove the thermostat, it must be removed and you essentially leave the car to idle. I left mine for 2 hours, and accelerated in park a few times to warm up the engine. Once its up to temp you leave it.

Step 3: You are in the upper 48, 100% drain atleast a gallon of it out and put in a gallon of concentrate. DO NOT LET IT FREEZE OVER. IT WILL DAMAGE THE WATER PUMP IF IT FREEZES, I KNOW FROM EXPEIRIENCE.

You need to use the premium stuff, ie the big bottle. Follow directions to a T.

To verify if you have a headgasket leak, remove the thermostat, turn on the car and tilt the coolant expansion tank to cover up the upper fill port (the small hose on the top). Watch for bubbles, if they continue to come through there then congratulations you have a headgasket leak.

Unfortunately, if it got to the red then id say you defiantly have some sort of issue now. Check your oil to see if its any way milky.

My recommendation. Do the verification test first, see if you have bubbles coming up into the expansion tank when you cover that area with fluid (tilt the bottle when the car is 100% warmed up). If you do have bubbles then you can try the treatment again, i actually did it twice as i had a hose pop off after which led to a small overheat. Both applications solved the head gasket issue as we had small leaks (no oil in coolant nor coolant in oil).

Please feel free to leave any question here, i was surprisingly impressed with the blue devil stuff on my 98.

[yanga001]

I used the blue devil radiator flush as well

[dikidera]

If you didn't, you do now. If the car was steaming....it overheated especially after you didn't immediately stop and tow it. Now you have a warped head that needs to be machined as well as potentially the block.

[abscate]

Since you have contributed to MVS your head has cooled and straightened it self and awaits flushing and testing for bubbles. Watch those outside temps

[yanga001]

I believe the instructions called for the car to be cool when you do the treatment. Something about the glass fibres reacting with the hot exhaust temperatures and oxygen to reseal the system. It activates at a certain temperature which is why you must make sure you engine gets up to temp when doing the treatment.

If you have chocolate milk in your oil or coolant then you will need to remachine the head as its a big leak.

[vtl]

2.5T has a multi-layer steel (MLS) head gasket, it never fails, unlike non-steel gasket on older 2.4T. Engine block does fail. Head warps, too.