My girlfriend's 95 Civic DX recently blew the headgasket. This much is known.

It's got all of the symptoms; milky oil cap, constant air in cooling system, etc. etc.


Now, I'm not mechanically inclined enough to do this myself, nor do I have the space or tools to do it. So, I need to take it to her mechanic. His shop is about 2.5- 3 miles from where the car now sits.

The car has not been driven (or started) since we figured out the gasket blew, which has been about a week and a half.

Is it safe for me to DRIVE this thing to the mechanic's place, or do I run the risk of effectively doubling the repair cost by hydrolocking the thing due to coolant in the cylinders?

So, is hydrolock something I should worry about, and call a towtruck? Or is it driveable?

Dumb question, sorry in advance

 

TRIPLE A DUDE

 

don't have it...guess i'll have to pony up the cash to get a 2 mile tow

 

2miles. drive the bitch. if it cuts off on the ride there, tow it. you should be ok to drivie it

 

with the heater on full blast and get enough anti-freeze..give it breaks when you can and the car should be fine..drive slow lol

 

it would be very unlikely if not impossible to hydrolock the cylinders WHILE driving, because when the engine is running the cylinders are compressing, blowing air into the cooling system, it would be hard for the coolant to come into the cylinders while they are making pressure. that is why there is air in the cooling system, the cylinders are leaking past the gasket to the coolant passages. usually with a blown headgasket water will get into the cylinders after you shut the engine off and the coolant is under pressure from being hot and that pressure pushes the coolant past the gasket into the cylinders. but rarely does this happen if it is lightly blown gasket, it is much easier for the cylinder to push past the gasket with a minimum of 160 lbs of pressure, that is when cranking the engine there is no telling what kind of cylinder pressure there is during combustion, and you only have a maximum of 16 lbs of pressure in the cooling system due to the radiator cap venting pressure at 16 lbs.

 

Thanks for the reply....


Well, it should be fine. She accidentally started the thing yesterday and let it run for a few seconds, so the greatest danger moment has passed.

Guess we'll be driving it to the shop (very slowly, lol)

Thanks for the help