Did I blow a head gasket?

89psychobird

Registered User
About a week ago on my way home from work (engine still cold), my 89 SC stalled at a stop light. It started back up a few minutes later but sputtered and wanted to die for a few minutes. This worried me because my SC has ran very well for the 2 years that I have owned it. A few days later the same thing happened again and has ran a bit rough until it warms up. Thursday afternoon I was driving it pretty hard shortly before the CHECK ENGINE light came on. I stopped and turned it off. I opened the hood and found my coolant overflow tank bubbling furiously. There was coolant on my air intake that looked like it sprayed out of the top of the tank (cap was still on). Not wanting to pay to get it towed home, I started it up (very hard to start like before, but worse), and gently drove it about 2 miles home and parked it. After getting home the level in the tank had gone from above HOT to only about 2 inches from the bottom of the tank and it was still bubbling. There is what appears to be oil in here now, but it seems thicker than the oil in the crankcase (almost like grease).

I have read every post about blown HGs, so I have been expecting the worst possible scenario; that's how things usually go for me. I drained the oil today and was very surprised to find no coolant in with the oil, no sediment, nothing. It also measured out to be just over 4 quarts without draining the oil filter (just barely fit in a milk gallon). Next I drained the coolant. It looks brand new, no sign of oil. The bottom side of my rad cap has very thick oil (I think) and what seems like rubber (smells like oil).

Did I get lucky and blow a HG without getting coolant in the oil, or oil in the coolant? Should it try to get a hold of a code reader to see why the CHECK ENGINE light came on? :confused:
 
At first your description sounded like it could have been a cam sensor.. but by the other symptoms, its definately some problem with the cooling system. It may be worth checking codes just to see what triggered the engine light.

You say you saw contamination in the coolant. Where, and how much? You also mentioned your oil was clean, but if there was only a little coolant, it may not be obvious. The oil will foam in the event of coolant. They do not mix when settled, oil floats on the coolant.

Then you said you drained the coolant and found no contamination. Where did you drain it from? You may not have all of it. Any oil should float to the top in an open container over time.

Where was your temperature gauge at this time? It could have been a simple overheat from something like a bad thermostat, but unfortunately it doesnt sound like it.

I think you may have a headgasket problem, but if so, its too late to drive and run it for a compression check. This means you must thoroughly check the fluids, and report the results.

How often do you change coolant, out of curiousity?
 
The contamination in the coolant is in the overflow tank and the bottom of the radiator cap. In the tank it looks like oil, but thicker (not much, but it was not there a week ago). The contamination on the radiator cap looks similar but even thicker (about 1/4 inch thick coating). I also found was feels like a piece of black rubber stuck to the radiator cap. The oil was not foamy, but it sat for about 48 hours before I drained it.

I drained the coolant from the pitcock at the bottom of the radiator with the bolt out of the thermostat housing. The only coolant that should be left is what is in the block.

My temp gauge was around the O or R, which is normal for my bird.

I have changed coolant 2 times in the 2 years I have owned my SC. Right after I got it and once last summer. The coolant that I drained out the first time looked good. I bought the car from my mother-in-law, who bought it new and had it serviced religiously.

Does Auto Zone or Advance Auto rent or lend code scanners?

Thanks in advance,
Mike
 
as long as the engine turns you can do a compression check
it doesn't have to run.

did you notice any smoke white is antifreeze burning
 
The sludge is very odd, others have noticed this after a hg blowout, though you've no other symptoms. Its odd that your temp guage did not register a change if your overflow is boiling. Has stop leak ever been used? Sometimes there simply are no other symptoms. If you still have the used oil, you may want to have a chemical analysis. Also, buy a kit from the auto store which tests your coolant for exhaust fumes.. it should tell you if there is a leak. You can also buy a kit which will pressurize the cooling system, it will of course indicate the same.

Sounds like headgaskets to me, but I think more input from others will be helpful..
 
I may have a solution to the ever asked question of "did I blow a Head Gasket?"

It involves using a safe chemical.
 
i had that sludge in the bottom of my coolant reservoir. i took the tank off and flushed it out with a garden hose. i don't know what it was but it hasn't come back. knock on wood.
 
Key word. MAY


I'm still working on it.

Victor Malvar with spinningwheels-sc should be able to help you out more. I sent him a sample since he has the means to test for it's effectiveness.

You may want to e-mail him about it.

If it works, then you will have to go through him to procure it.
 
89psychobird said:
What is the safe chemical?

89psychobird, there are tests available at most autoparts stores which you can use to check for exhaust gas in the cooling system. The presence of gas here will surely indicate a leak.

Go to an autoparts store and ask about this. Also ask about a cooling system pressure check. These two things will report any leak.

A third thing you can do would be to perform a compression check. As schaef said, you don't even need to run the engine. The first two things are easier though, and if they prove positive then a compression check is really uncessary.

Then again a mechanic can do all these things too.. how will you be repairing the headgaskets?
 
I may not be able to do these tests. I first drained the oil into a brand new oil pan and poured it into a cleaned out milk gallon (over 24 hours now and no signs of coolant at the bottom). I then cleaned out the oil pan with paper towels. I know I did not get all of the oil. It is one of the pans with a built in spout for pouring and I did not completely clean out the spout before pouring the coolant into milk gallons. The coolant now looks quite oily (brownish-green in color), more oil than I think it would pick up being poured out of a spout with some oil residue in it. I dont think I noticed the brown color before, due to being in a black oil pan. Would the test still work after contaminating the coolant with some oil when I poured it?

I borrowed the coolant system pressure tester from Autozone. Unfortunately they did not have the correct adapter to hook it up to my radiator (of course Ford would pick a less common size diameter filler neck). Maybe I will see if I can get one from somewhere else.

Is it possible to test the sludge found on my rad cap?

If it is a head gasket, I will be tackling this wonderful project. Fortunately I know quite a few gearheads at my job that are willing to help. One of them actually did HGs on a 93 SC a few years ago. :)
 
89psychobird said:
Is it possible to test the sludge found on my rad cap?
Oh, I'm sure you could test it if you had a gas chromatograph available. :p

But Other that that, I do not think so. Although, I have to give you props for the idea of letting the oil sit overnight. Not many would think of that.

If I may, a humble suggestion:

Make sure you let that oil sit overnight in a nice and warm area. Over 60F. Oil and water separate better when they are warm.
 
You have to ask Autozone for the tester adapters . They have them for rent too. That just happened to me, had to make two trips to Autozone. I brought my radiator cap so I could size up the correct adapter.
 
I brought my rad cap back with me, they agreed that I needed an adapter. I hope the next Auto Zone actually has them available. :rolleyes:
 
I pulled codes using the poor man's technique; I used a jumper at the test port. CODE 21 - cooling temp sensor out of specified range or ECT out of range. CODE 91 - oxygen sensor indicating system lean left side.

I am going to borrow a cooling system pressure tester tonight with the correct adapter, and will check that tomorrow.
 
ECT is the engine coolant temperature sensor. This sensor is located near the thermostat housing and sends the temperature of the coolant to the ECU. The ECU then uses this information to determine fan operation and several other factors.

While these two codes by themselves could be the result of many different phenomena including simple failed sensors, unfortunately they could also correspond with a headgasket blowout. The ECT would read out of range if the coolant were boiling in this area due to extreme heat, which yours seems to have done, and the o2 sensor would be damaged by coolant entering the exhaust stream from the hg.

Like I say though, the only way to be certain is to run the tests. Exhaust in coolant test, cooling system pressure test, compression test, ect.

From the coolant and oil you describe, it certainly sounds as though contamination has taken place.

Also, this is imperative, the engine can not sit with bad gaskets. If the gaskets blew, there could be coolant in the oil, combustion chambers, and other undesireable places. The longer it sits, the potential for damage increases exponentially. It sounds like you already had oil contamination, which means the bottom end is likely compromised. If at all possible, you may want to consider new bearings. All this is of course preliminary..
 
Back
Top