darthtony360

I check with my mechanic two days ago to see if I had a bad head gasket. He used this lube tool (forgot the name of it) which indicated that if it turned color yellow , then indicated that there is a small leak of oil , meaning bad head gasket. The cost to fix the head gasket from him is going to be $622.00 (parts included) , but he recommended me to use bars head gasket fix put it in the system so it can seal or fix that small leak. However there is no guarantee that it would work and I debating whether to fix it if the engine is also in a bad condition.

My questions are: Is it recommended to use bars or blue devil head gasket fix for the bad head gasket?? Would it be better to just replace the head gasket and is it hard to do the labor by myself?? Would would be the tools and products that I need to fix it?? Is there a manual I can read or video to watch with instructions on how to fix the head gasket and check if the engine is bad??

oneheadlight

if you're good with DIY, then yeah do the head yourself. I would never used that "fix in a can" stuff. Either do it right or wait til you can do it right.

TomCat39

The person W95 in my signature demonstrated what blue devil does to an engine and ended up being the quote of my signature because of it.

I wouldn't recommend the bars or blue devil fix.

And just as an FYI, the tool with the blue liquid that turns yellow to indicate combustion gases in the coolant is called a block tester or combustion leak tester as can be seen here on amazon:



You likely know the history of the car better than even your mechanic. Was the car running pretty decent before the recent rough running of the head gasket leak?

Those kinds of details will help you decide if you want to get another low mileage used motor, rebuild yours or just fix the head gasket.

darthtony360

Hey everyone , Im just posting an update in terms of my situation. Two days ago I checked the car again with the mechanic and we saw that the engine block also got damaged. There was oil in the black box behind the engine. Now I have the choice of spending $1200 to replace/repair the engine or sell the car as it is. For how much could I sell the car?

Former User

I recommend that you fire that mechanic and find a competent one who can reliably diagnose your car.

The test you mentioned is a block tester kit, which detects exhaust gases in the cooling system. You may want to repeat the test using the free rental kit from AutoZone. There's a YouTube video showing how to use it.

http://www.autozone.com/loan-a-tools/block-tester

Finding some oil in the breather box is not out of the ordinary. How many miles on the engine?

darthtony360

There is weird noise coming out behind the engine block and we saw the oil mixed with water. He used the block tester kit twice and got yellow at both times. The car has 163,000 , but the previous owner put a used engine and they gave the car to my mom 8 years ago. I have been using this car for four years , so I have no idea how many miles does the engine have.

Former User

The headgasket is blown or the block is cracked. What engine?

Have you been driving the car with the engine severely overheated?