I'll try to keep this condense, I have loose/scattered information on what's already been done on this car at two other shops

• Fan comes on appropriately, seems to be pulling air fine
• AC system and condenser fan also working appropriately
• Radiator cap and thermostat have already been replaced (not confirmed, only what owner was told by shop)
• Car seems to be losing coolant from unknown source (I suspect headgasket, more below)
• Cooling system has (apparently) been pressure tested successfully.

I've only seen this car overheat once, however I noticed that when I started the car back up and started to top off the coolant, it would not stop bubbling/burping in the filler neck even after several minutes. Also, just loosely based on what I was seeing, it seemed like it was at least somewhat "insatiable" as far as how much coolant it wanted until it was topped off.

The engine is filthy right now, I want to wait until I have enough time with the car to pressure wash the head and block (still in the car) and wait to see if I observe a leak around the head gasket, as that's currently what my best guess is as to why it keeps overheating, losing coolant, and why there's air in the system.

Thoughts?

 

yeah, head gasket.

 

compression to to verify

when the head warps, normally it's the 4th cylinder that shows initial compression drop

 

Will do. If I can schedule the time for a leakdown test I'll do that as well before pulling the head, gotta finish this in crunch time whenever it's in my garage.