1993 Head Gaskets
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,624
Likes: 431
From: Dale City VA
Overheating, loss of coolant, combustion gas in the coolant, water/coolant in the oil.
Over heating should be self explanatory.
You can check coolant levels yourself everyday before you start the car and every night after it has cooled down.
A good shop will an analyzer that can detect trace amounts combustion in the coolant.
You can check for coolant in the oil by checking the oil leve on the dip stick... it will usually be over full and usually milky white.
Will
Over heating should be self explanatory.
You can check coolant levels yourself everyday before you start the car and every night after it has cooled down.
A good shop will an analyzer that can detect trace amounts combustion in the coolant.
You can check for coolant in the oil by checking the oil leve on the dip stick... it will usually be over full and usually milky white.
Will
Race Director
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 10,641
Likes: 13
From: Slidell Louisiana
Early in a head gasket problem it can overheat, without noticible amounts of coolant loss/no water in oil.
If its overheating and for no apparent reason (fans working, radiator clean, good T-stat, good Waterpump, air passage through radiator not blocked)
Pull your plugs and look for a clean one..... or have the coolant checked for combustion gases.
If its overheating and for no apparent reason (fans working, radiator clean, good T-stat, good Waterpump, air passage through radiator not blocked)
Pull your plugs and look for a clean one..... or have the coolant checked for combustion gases.
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 10,036
Likes: 346
From: Anaheim CA
I had none of the aforementioned symptoms when my head gasket went bad. What I did have was a hesitation when I first started cranking. It got worse over time.
What was happening was the pressure in the combustion chamber kept the water out while the engine was running but when shut off the #7 cylinder would fill up with water. It was hydrolocking on the first revolution but when the valves opened the water would get blown out and the engine would start and run fine.
I found it while doing a compression test. I was checking #1 and saw water on the exhaust manifold, blown out of the spark plug hole for #7. There is one water passage hole very close to the cylinder and the head gasket rusted out.
What was happening was the pressure in the combustion chamber kept the water out while the engine was running but when shut off the #7 cylinder would fill up with water. It was hydrolocking on the first revolution but when the valves opened the water would get blown out and the engine would start and run fine.
I found it while doing a compression test. I was checking #1 and saw water on the exhaust manifold, blown out of the spark plug hole for #7. There is one water passage hole very close to the cylinder and the head gasket rusted out.
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
From: CA
Ok CH,
It's not over heating at this time, nor am I loosing coolant. My mechanic stated It could be a sign of the head gasket going bad, due to the fact when he changed the ECT sensor and bleeding the coolant, he notice small boubles in the coolant tank. Would that be the case?
It's not over heating at this time, nor am I loosing coolant. My mechanic stated It could be a sign of the head gasket going bad, due to the fact when he changed the ECT sensor and bleeding the coolant, he notice small boubles in the coolant tank. Would that be the case?
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 3,556
Likes: 13
Racer
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 306
Likes: 26
From: Chandler,AZ,USA AZ
I don't see that this has been resolved so I'll throw in my $0.02. I put a new engine in my 91 and after a few starts I had oil in the cooling system and milk shake in the engine oil. It did turn out to be oil cooler. For trouble shooting I took the cooler off the car plugged one of the coolant ports and put 15 PSI on the other and dropped it in a bucket of water it started bubbling (bad). Crazy problem, when the motor is running the oil pressure is higher than the cooling system pressure so oil gets pushed into the coolant then when you turn off the motor the pressure in the cooling system is higher and it pushes the contaminated coolant into the lube system. Really makes a mess. I installed a cooler that doesn't use the engine coolant to "cool" the oil, too risky for me on a $8000.00 investment.
