I think i blew another headgasket

philstad28

Registered User
So a few weeks ago I finished my slave cyl and master cyl on my 95 5spd. I also installed a new freeze out plug because one just decided to fall out when it was on jack stands. On my drive home from my friends garage my car overheated and died. I do not have a working temp guage so I didn't know it was running hot until it was too late. I went to look at it and it turned out the freeze out plug I replaced just fell out again :(. After that I replaced the freeze out plug and used red rtv to make sure it wouldn't fall out again. I went and started it today and it had milky oil in it. I did the hg's a few years back and I am wondering if they went again or if just from overheating maybe some coolant went in the oil. The car isn't worth doing hg's again so idk what im going to do. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks, Phil
 
Overheating by itself wouldn't cause the coolant and oil to mix, but certainly can cause HGs to pop. Sounds to me like that is what happened. Out of curiousity, when you did the gaskets a few years ago, what gaskets did you use, and did you use new head bolts/studs, or did you re-use the old ones?
 
I just used the felpro gasket kit. I did use the arp head studs though. It seems like every time I drive it something else breaks on it lol :rolleyes:
 
I'm curious as to why that freeze plug is failing....if the HG's were faulty to begin with that would (overly) pressurize the coolant system and could explain why the freeze plug keeps working its self out no?
 
Could be wrong but sound like either plug was installed wrong or block is warped. Are you sure its not condensation in the oil?

I installed new plugs when I rebuilt my engine ~8years ago and they were just a press fit (installed dry).
 
The freeze out plug just fell out on its own when the car was on jackstands sitting when I had the trans out the first time. It seemed weird to me but I hammered a new one in and it fell out when I was driving. I used rtv on the new one this time so it wouldn't fall out again. The car is smoking a little bit but it could also be from the old gas that's in it. I really hope I don't have to do hg's again. They were such a pain to do the first time :(
 
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smoke from the tail pipes and milkshake under the oil cap...that sounds like a bad HG to me..ro rev ur car and take a good smell of the exhaust, if its white and smells sweet.ur burning coolant through ur pipes...
 
Good, you've done them once. Wont be that hard the second time. You already have studs, so that saves you the cost of new bolts. Make sure you get the heads checked for warpage and cracks. Most importantly, get moving on it asap so you don't ruin the bearings with the intermix.

Regarding the freeze plug, it should have went in pretty tight so its weird that the new one would have fallen out. I've never had an issue with that before, but I would imagine you have to pound those in with a hammer. You need to make sure you have that issue addressed with a sure fix.
 
Yeah im deciding what I want to do with the car right now. I feel like its not worth doing headgaskets on because its in pretty rough shape. the $100 for the gasket kit is approaching what the car is worth after I strip my performance parts off of it :rolleyes: lol
 
Also idk whats up with the freeze out plug issue. I never seen one fall out while it was on jack stands before lol
 
Rampant rust will make things like that happen pretty easily, I think. But if it was clean and tight and sealed, yes, that's strange.
 
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