iceman7329

A guy told me tonight one way to tell if a head gasket is blown is to pull the radiator cap off and if water blows out when you rev the motor a little then its blown. Of course this is with a cold motor.

True or crazy?

highrev1987

true

iceman7329

Ok, cause mine will do this and Ive though for a few weeks before noticing it does this that my head gasket is blown.

sauceja

Do you notice coolant in your oil when its changed?
Check your radiator resevoir, if it looks brownish then bad.

Does it blow more smoke than it used to, bad.
Try a compression and leakdown test as well.

All good ways to tell.

iceman7329

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sauceja &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Do you notice coolant in your oil when its changed?
Check your radiator resevoir, if it looks brownish then bad.

Does it blow more smoke than it used to, bad.
Try a compression and leakdown test as well.

All good ways to tell.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nothing in the oil, yet anyways. The resevoir tank is brown/gunky but its been like that since I got the car.

It smokes at very high RPMs and after long drives it idles like it has a miss to it. And about once a week now it will over heat a little and the radiator is near empty.

highrev1987

head gasket for sure had this problem on my first Z6

sauceja

Over heat and blowing with cap could be caused by air in your coolant system. I would try a rebleed.

If low on coolant and gunky I would be tending to draining and flushing. But first start and let warm up fully or get a pressure tester and pump up the pressure and investigate a leak.

Maybe bleeder on waterpump or other leak.

Would cause loss of coolant and overheating.

Overheating causes detonation and that would be missing noises.

iceman7329

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by highrev1987 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">head gasket for sure had this problem on my first Z6 </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ill drive it till a piston is laying in the road haha

I might fix it but if I do it needs a valve job too... I dont know...

iceman7329

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sauceja &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Over heat and blowing with cap could be caused by air in your coolant system. I would try a rebleed.

If low on coolant and gunky I would be tending to draining and flushing. But first start and let warm up fully or get a pressure tester and pump up the pressure and investigate a leak.

Maybe bleeder on waterpump or other leak.

Would cause loss of coolant and overheating.

Overheating causes detonation and that would be missing noises.</TD></TR></TABLE>

No air in the system, no leaks, all new hoses, radiator, water pump, everything flushed out. Its not overheating when it starts missing, I can make it miss by holding the RPMs at 2400 for a couple minutes too.

sauceja

My accord wagon does that until about 2200 rpms. Maybe ignitor in your dizzy.

Pull the cap and double check the wires and tightness. That is my problem. 2200 and it disappears.

Did you check the plugs, wires?

Maybe thermostat causing overheat?

Sounds like fun wish I was closer.

iceman7329

No the missing is only at idle after it is ran at cruising rpms for a little bit.

But its has new plugs, wires, and cap. New t-stat. There is nothing that should be causing it to lose coolant other than a head gasket. Im going to do a compression test after graduation is over with.

And Im a diesel mechanic so yes all the obvisous crap has been checked. Im not totaly clueless like some people who post here haha

sauceja

That sucks. I am sure you will find it. Probably small. Maybe check if the fans are coming on/off at operating temps.

May have to resource a helms for overheating and run through the steps.

iceman7329

Fans come on. But like I said it only runs hot once it has lost enough coolant. I think Im going to pull the head and see whats up. Anything I should know before diving in?

dtapia

ok a silly question have you pressure tested the radiator cap yet ? that will let the coolant out of the system/

iceman7329

New cap too.

dtapia

ok

dtapia

im leaning towards a blown head gasket.

iceman7329

Im going to pull it this weekend and see for sure. Thanks for your help.

sauceja

If you haven't pulled a head before than take the intake manifold off with the head. The bottom nuts are a pain and that may save some time.

Make triple sure you have all electrical connectors and coolant lines disconnected before pulling. You don't want to get the head 6 inches off and then realize you forgot something.

Otherwise it is somewhat pretty striaght forward. Get even a shitty haynes manual for torque numbers and patterns. Invest in a good 1/2" torque wrench if you don't already own one.

Clean the piston tops off while the head is off and decide if you want to go ahead and change timing belt and water pump at the same time. maintenance stuff.

Might as well change valve seals while head is off it is alot easier. Take intake manifold off and clean it real good with carb cleaner or something.

Just get the head set for all the gaskets to take stuff off and replace. Head gasket, intake manifold gasket, throttle body gasket, injector o-rings, valve cover gasket, dizzy gasket, cam cap if applies, cam seals maybe a couple more.

Good luck.

iceman7329

I think Im going to do the mini me swap since Im pulling the head. What is the best head to use? Y8 or Z6?

sauceja

Pm me if interested, I have a d15b vtec head for sale with intake manifold.

Don't have a dizzy but it would work.
it is the regular vtec head and not the vtec-e.

iceman7329

Thanks man but I can get everything locally for peanuts. Id like to know what is the better head to use. I searched on here but didnt find much info. I do know the Y8 engine has slightly higher compression than the Z6.

iceman7329

It was the head gasket. It has more power now than it ever has. Whole new animal IMO, but its slow as hell.

sauceja

good for you.

iceman7329

All my valves are burnt pretty bad too, 4 month old plugs look like hell too.