My ex's car wouldn't start today, so came over to check it out. The car would begin to fire, but would die before it ever ran. Checked spark, checked fuel, both good. Then I noticed that the upper radiator hose was rock hard with pressure even though the car hasn't run all day. From my knowledge and experience, I believe that the cooling system only has pressure when hot, which means the source of pressure would most likely be one or more of the combustion chambers. Hence, the headgasket is bad. I took the radiator cap off after releasing the pressure, and when she turned the car over, it would spew coolant out when it started to fire and died. Head gasket for sure???

 

did you check the oil for water mixture??

 

spew as in shooting out? if so best bet would be the headgasket

 

Yeah it was definitely shooting out. The coolant and oil aren't mixing, but that wouldn't happen if the head gasket had a leak from the combustion chamber to the cooling system.

 

well i would proly go with headgasket then but must be pretty bad if it won't start thats for sure....if you have fuel and spark and it's not starting the other thing would be timing have you checked that ??

 

Yeah, the timing hasn't been messed with for sure and the belt is not broken so I am really thinking head gasket. I also tried removing one of the spark plugs and there was a little white smoke puffing out, which shouldn't happen unless something is pushing it out from inside(like cooling system pressure)

 

here is a perfect way to check, if you have a coolant pressure tester, hook it up and watch the gauge, if it builds up any pressure then its ur headgasket

 

Well I don't have one, but I am absolutely certain it is building up a lot of pressure because the cap blows off of the radiator