Change a head gasket, and still smell coolant..?? I've heard it's expected because the coolant is brought into your exhaust system when the original head gasket goes bad, but I'm just seein if anyone else has experienced this?

 

soon after replacing a blown hg, sure i might expect to smell something. but if you're still smelling coolant after having driven the car for quite some time then i'd probably be concerned. i assume you're not seeing white smoke come out the *** end?

 

nope, no smoke or noticeable loss of coolant.. but if the car is started with the garage open an I give it a minute to warm up you'll get a sense of coolant in the air... not super strong, but once you smell burnt coolant you have that smell sensibility forever...

 

is it possible that while the hg was being replaced some coolant spilled onto the portion of the exhaust behind the engine. maybe its still burning off?

 

Could just be you.

Have a friend drive the car and see what he thinks.

 

its your minding playing tricks yo lol

 

spilled coolant smells for a while ....

 

10 mins max is all you should smell the coolant.let it keep running for a bit so it burns off. but i've seen a car where 20 mins later there is still smoke coming out of the exhaust ( HG WAS gone for a few thousand kms so the exhaust was full of coolant)

 

Yeah lol, I did think it was just me at first but it's definitely not me because my girl asked me "whats that sweet/bitter smell" assuring me that it's still noticeable...

And it's been about two months now, and I can still smell it although I'm not smoking at all and not losing any coolant...

I'd assume it's possible some coolant spilled into the exhaust ports when I changed the headgasket, but would I still be smelling it two months later..?

thanks for your input guys...

 

You'll smell coolant for a while if it got on the block, exhaust, head...lots of cracks and crevices.. and coolant hangs around.

 

check heatercore. its gonna be a bitch but thats my best bet.

 

this is what I originally heard, but was just comin on here to double check an see if anyone else experienced this... thanks for the feedback guys...

 

i still get a slight hint of burnt coolant in the air after im done driving but still not losing any coolant... this is weak...

 

If you're still smelling it, I'm willing to bet I know what your problem is.
This happened to me a while back.

You're not leaking anywhere during idle or low RPMs..but when you start
getting into the mid-higher RPM range and building up pressure, you've got
a hose in the rear of the engine that is leaking onto the head or the block.
By this time, the engine is hot enough to evaporate anything that is on the
head or the block pretty damn quick. When you stop and your car is back
to idling, it's not leaking and everything has "burned" off..just leaving the
smell to annoy the hell out of you. It doesn't take much to make a pungent
coolant smell. Just a teaspoon or so. The only other diagnosis I can think of
is that your water pump is weeping onto the block and burning off as well.

I'm putting my money on the leak, though, man.

 

Thanks for the ideas bro I'll check into that... I was sure nothing was leaking cuz I'm not losing any from the reservoir but it just doesn't make sense that it's not losing coolant but I can smell it after I drive a lil bit... Thanks again, I'll post back my results..

 

Coolant smells like ****...

 

Are you huffing coolant? It's not a big deal if you are man, we are here to help.

 

^^ This is a prime example of why noobs shouldn't have a keyboard..

 

^^^
LOL!

...Have you found anything out, man?
Are you losing coolant at this point in time?

 

Yeah bro the smell has gone down a lot... Still faintly noticeable, especially after 20-30 minutes driving but it's definitely gone down some... And nah it's not losing anything noticeable, but I check it every day...

Maybe if I gave it a few days or a week or two and checked I'd notice something but I don't notice it losing anything really noticeable...

 

I think it's all cool, man.
I dumped some coolant on my block and trans a couple weeks ago and
it smells like I blew a hose when I get out of the car in the garage after
a long drive.

 

Yeah bro cuz when I changed my headgasket not all the coolant was drained so when I took off the head it fell into my header ports and on my exhaust and all kinds of **** lol... I just was being overcautious so that's why I asked for some feedback haha... thanx bro..