Have a 1983 accord that overheated and has been sitting for at least 2 + years. I believe the head casket is blown. The car has only 60,000 miles or so. What is the best approach to this situation? Troyjeff..................

 

Do a compression test, see how the numbers look. Check for murky brown oil, which is coolant in your engine, or check for oil in the radiator. Those are all sure signs. Also if you run the engine, and you get bubbles in your radiator, it's definitely a BHG.

All you can really do at that point is start tearing it down.

 

2X,

Napa or other parts store sell a kit to detect gas in the coolant.

I found that coolant in the oil is sometimes not obvious until you drain the oil because it is so thin. One of my kids did better that the headgasket, the head and the block cracked, when I checked the oil... it was fine.... well almost fine... the oil level was 1" over the max mark.... The excess was coolant.