About time to sign me up for the head gasket club....

[91_SC_BIRD]

Hey guys,

Unless it is some winter phenomenon where some thicker white stuff comes up on the bottom of the dip stick, I think my head gaskets are going. I noticed that yesterday (I was doing an oil change). And when I was refilling it, I looked at the stick to see if it was full and there was some white stuff on the bottom of the stick :( . Now normally I guess it wouldn't be such a big thing, cause it is something I was expecting to change. But the problem is that I'm going to do a 1500km trip on thursday. I'm screwed, I just hope that it won't blow up on the way down! I feel like driving it off a cliff, with me in it!!

[Jason Wild]

Don't drive it whatever you do or kiss the motor good bye.

[coolhand]

Don't drive it whatever you do or kiss the motor good bye.
If your gonna take the trip, just sell it to me really cheap before you do!!!!!!!!!!!LMFAO

[coolhand]

Don't drive it whatever you do or kiss the motor good bye.
If your gonna take the trip, just sell it to me really cheap before you do!!!!!!!!!!!LMFAO

[MercsSC]

there is a bit of moisture [condensation] that floats around in the crank case and throughout the PCV system ..just a act of nature ....with the heat cycles of the motor ..not to mention the cold blast of air we just had... you can find signs of yellow crap under the oil filler cap ... PCV valve ... if you are really concerned ..take it to a rad shop and let them check ...pressurize the system with there fancy gauge ...and see ...the stuff you are seeing is water oil mix ..and maybe not a anitfreeze/oil mix of chocolate milk....dave

[91_SC_BIRD]

there is a bit of moisture [condensation] that floats around in the crank case and throughout the PCV system ..just a act of nature ....with the heat cycles of the motor ..not to mention the cold blast of air we just had... you can find signs of yellow crap under the oil filler cap ... PCV valve ... if you are really concerned ..take it to a rad shop and let them check ...pressurize the system with there fancy gauge ...and see ...the stuff you are seeing is water oil mix ..and maybe not a anitfreeze/oil mix of chocolate milk....dave

One more thing, if there was coolant in the oil, wouldn't it be visible in my drain pan. Because I looked very very carefully, and did not notice anything. I guess it's wishfull thinking. Because tthe temp is as same as normal, so is everything else. :confused:

[Blown_347_SC]

Don't drive it whatever you do or kiss the motor good bye.
LMAO... I don't think he heard ya Jason.... :D

[91_SC_BIRD]

LOL

I know, i know!! And I though thats what it was too, but what Dave said, is exactly what I have, there was some **** on the bottom of the oil cap when I pulled it off. If I didn't need it, I would get it checked out, but I'm leaving tomorrow, and I'm taking someone with me! :mad:

Matt, if I blow it up, i'll give you a real good deal on it lol.

[coolhand]

Matt, if I blow it up, i'll give you a real good deal on it lol.[/QUOTE]

I would never wish anything bad for anyone. Heres hoping it all works out fine. I am not sure why I want a S/C so bad. The board is always so full of horror stories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ryan A Harris]

Damn man, you just can't catch a break can you. If your motor does go, I can sell ya a short block for like 50 bucks to help out on the rebuild, if you need it. ;)

[BlueThunder90]

One more thing, if there was coolant in the oil, wouldn't it be visible in my drain pan. Because I looked very very carefully, and did not notice anything. I guess it's wishfull thinking. Because tthe temp is as same as normal, so is everything else. :confused:

Have you been losing coolant?

Did you check your oil right after driving the car? Sometimes after driving you get that "bubbly" type look on the stick.

If I recall correctly, if you have coolant in your oil, it would be foamy.

[kano]

hey i drive with no coolant.....
what are the consiquences?

[SeanMatteson]

hey i drive with no coolant.....
what are the consiquences?

:rolleyes:

kano, it's OK to drive a car with no coolant, so long as it's a NA 3.8L V6 in your T-Bird, and you have ghey chrome trim over the wheel lips.

;)

Cheers,

Sean

[Superbird281]

With yellow brake calipers you can drive without engine oil.

[Ryan A Harris]

:rolleyes:

kano, it's OK to drive a car with no coolant, so long as it's a NA 3.8L V6 in your T-Bird, and you have ghey chrome trim over the wheel lips.

;)

Cheers,

Sean

Thats funny. :D

[lazybird4pt6]

Oil? Coolant? Can someone help 'cuz i'm a newbie. What is this stuff? Do I NEED it, or is it just a good idea? Is that what the supercharge is for? Can I fit one on my 4.6? Where can I get the chrome fender rings, I need them too for it to fit, right?

(kano, they're pulling your leg man!!! actually, so am I, sorry.)

So, it's Friday morning - I wonder how Kevin is doing? (knocking on wood)

(shouts out) Hope you got there alright Kevin!

[Blown_347_SC]

:rolleyes:
kano, it's OK to drive a car with no coolant, so long as it's a NA 3.8L V6 in your T-Bird, and you have ghey chrome trim over the wheel lips.
;)
Cheers,
Sean
ROFL .... :D

[kano]

o ohh, i aint got crome fenders yet.... must hurry up on getting them, i dont want my car to break w/o coolant

[kano]

:) :) :) :) :) :) :mad:

[91_SC_BIRD]

Hey just wanted to tell you that I made it. Everything went fine, it took us 14 hours which is very good, considering I thought it would of been longer because of the storm. Now all I have to worry about, is going back!

I wish you guys have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year, see you all at the next meet :D

[lazybird4pt6]

That's GREAT Kevin!!! What a tremendous relief that is. Have fun out there. Merry Christmas to you and yours, too!

[SC4LIFE]

ME........."Hi my name is Luke and I'm a BLOWN HEAD GASKET VICTIM"
CROWD..."HI LUKE!, WELCOME TO HEAD GASKET ANONYMOUS CLUB"
What's funny about these anonymous clubs is everyone states their names, what's anonymous about that?.. lol

Welp, I too have fallen victim to the BLOWN HEAD GASKET winter gremlin. It happened today around 9:30 pm, white smoke like you wouldn't believe, freaked me out as smoke started comming from under the hood and then it looked like I hit the SMOKE SCREEN (BATMOBILE) button as there was so much smoke comming out the tailpipes I couldn't see the car behind me. Looks like the bird will be a winter project now, as I will attempt to do the job myself :EEK:

Cheers,
Luke

[91_SC_BIRD]

ME........."Hi my name is Luke and I'm a BLOWN HEAD GASKET VICTIM"
CROWD..."HI LUKE!, WELCOME TO HEAD GASKET ANONYMOUS CLUB"
What's funny about these anonymous clubs is everyone states their names, what's anonymous about that?.. lol

Welp, I too have fallen victim to the BLOWN HEAD GASKET winter gremlin. It happened today around 9:30 pm, white smoke like you wouldn't believe, freaked me out as smoke started comming from under the hood and then it looked like I hit the SMOKE SCREEN (BATMOBILE) button as there was so much smoke comming out the tailpipes I couldn't see the car behind me. Looks like the bird will be a winter project now, as I will attempt to do the job myself :EEK:

Cheers,
Luke

Ouch, that sucks, especially this time of year. Do you have a winter beater? I'm leaving for T-O tomorrow night, and I hope I make it, I don't have much faith in this motor... lets hope it holds together!

Happy New Year!

[91_SC_BIRD]

Don't drive it whatever you do or kiss the motor good bye.

Well, I did make it back, but these words from Jason will haunt me now.... sure looks like fried headgaskets to me :(

[SeanMatteson]

I too have fallen victim to the BLOWN HEAD GASKET winter gremlin. It happened today around 9:30 pm, white smoke like you wouldn't believe, freaked me out as smoke started comming from under the hood and then it looked like I hit the SMOKE SCREEN (BATMOBILE) button as there was so much smoke comming out the tailpipes I couldn't see the car behind me. Looks like the bird will be a winter project now, as I will attempt to do the job myself :EEK:

Luke,

Depending on how long you ran the motor after the gaskets blew, you need to be careful about damaging the bottom end. I would suggest you take measures to get that glycol away from the bearings. When mine blew, I dropped the coolant (so that no further contamination could happen when the engine runs), and changed the oil and filter. I then started the motor up, and ran it for about 90 to 120 seconds just to flush out the old dirty oil/coolant mix from wherever it was. I then shut it down while the motor still wasn't anywhere near hot, changed the oil again, and after letting the motor cool right down, I repeated this procedure. After twice, the oil was coming out nice and clean/clear. In my case, the car then sat for a couple of weeks while I gathered up advice, parts, etc. to perform the work.

Remember that your exhaust is probably full of coolant, so you will likely still see some steam coming from there while running the engine with no coolant in it. That's OK. You want to burn that crap out of the cats if you can, although they won't be getting that hot. Factor in a couple of new O2 sensors as part of the job, as they tend to get toasted when the coolant gets to them.

Regards,

Sean

[Jason Wild]

Luke
sorry to hear your head gaskests went.

I never ment to scare you or anything I just did not want to see your motor blow up or anything.

[SC4LIFE]

Sean,
Thanks for the tips, I did however drain the crank when I parked it up, I didn't however do the flush like you've suggested. I didn't have any oil and I didn't have any means of making it to my local gas station or CT at the time, I do however have a couple jugs of oil now and will do the flush later on tonight. Hopefully I didn't do too much damage, i'm thinking of just getting the engine rebuilt just to be on the safe side and even if the bottom end isn't bad i'd like to have the engine get a refreshening anyway being that she's got 190,000 clicks on her now. Thanks for mentioning the O2's aswell, I'd forgotten about those, i'll be hitting up Ed in the next few weeks for the necessary parts.

Jason,
Thanks for concern bro.

91_SC_BIRD,
I've got a winter beater now, my brothers 94 VW Corrado VR6 is sitting at his place doing nothing which he said I'm more than welcome to use for the winter. It even has SNOW TIRES on it, i've never driven a car with SNOW TIRES :cool:

If anyone knows of a good shop I could take my car to and have the engine rebuilt please fire me an email with the phone numbers and contact names. I'm located in Scarborough so anywhere close to me would be prefered but if need be, i'll get her to where ever. If anyone here has the room/tools to do the job and is upto the task, i'd be more than happy to pay you for the job, name your price.

Cheers,
Luke
lukejones@sympatico.ca

[SeanMatteson]

Luke,

Don't forget to drain any remaining coolant, or it will still get into the oil when you fire the motor back up again with clean oil in it. A couple cycles of this treatment will help to decrease the exposure of the bearings to coolant. This may be sufficient to save the bottom end, but that's really a risk you would have to be willing to take. Certainly, if you can afford the full rebuild, then that is safer.

If it wasn't for a very busy schedule at work (which in my case means that I won't be home much), and for the fact that I'm really looking forward to getting my new cam swapped into my SC, I might consider doing the HG replacement, or the engine removal and reinstallation for you for a fee. We really need someone like David Dalke up here in our neck of the woods to take care of situations like these! Maybe if we pool our savings, we could con the guy into moving back to Canada, his native land??? ;)

Seriously, Luke, if you've got a warm garage where you can afford to have the car laid up for a while, I think you can handle the job. There are others here besides me who have pulled these motors apart, or yanked them from the car for rebuilding. I'm sure someone could assist you with the stuff that you're not totally comfortable with.

Good luck!

Sean

[SeanMatteson]

Well, I did make it back, but these words from Jason will haunt me now.... sure looks like fried headgaskets to me :(

Kevin,

What signs are you seeing? Coolant in the oil? Steam out the tailpipes?

Sean

[91_SC_BIRD]

Kevin,

What signs are you seeing? Coolant in the oil? Steam out the tailpipes?

Sean

I'm seeying some white stuff on the very bottom of the dipstick. No steaming, no abnormal temp, no signs of anything in the coolant?? But on the way up from N-B. I checked under the hood along the way, and some some oil on the lower intercooler tube, bottom of the brake fluid resevoir, and some went on the manifold as well... from what i'm reading that would be something with the PCV valve or hoses? Dave did mension that it could have something to do with the PCV valve at the beginning of the thread... I would hope thats all it is... but I have the feeling that I won't be so lucky

[SC4LIFE]

WELP!, some good news... as it turns out it wasn't my headgasket that had blown, it was actually the HEATER hose that runs over top near the passenger side valve cover. I guess from all the coolant pouring out onto the exhuast manifolds I assumed it was my head gaskets, boy was I relieved. I was baffled at first becuase when I drained the oil there was no coolant in there... but I decided to start the tear down anyway since i'm off work and have all the time in the world to do my first ever HG replacement.

So off I went removing parts from the driver side first, got everything out and/or out of the way and then I moved onto the passenger side. I took the air intake off when I noticed something strange, the heater hose that is up by the passenger valve cover had threads hanging out of it and upon a closer look and giving it a squeeze, I noticed a huge rip about 2 inches long.. BINGO I said, that's the problem and not the HG... I laughed for about a minute, grab a beer, sat down with a sigh of relieve and chugged the beer :) I decided I would continue and take the supercharger off and clean it up since there was a CRAP load of oil in the tubes and IC, low and behold the supercharger was filled with oil also, I mean it was BLACK and CAKED on all over the top and rotors!! She's all back togother now and is running great but I need a new RADAITOR (got a pretty bad leak at the top of the rad) and new license plates since mine were stolen sometime back in January :( I've reported it to the police back in January when I noticed it was missing. Anyway just wanted to let everyone know what I found out and don't rule out that maybe it's your heater hose that has blown out and could be your problem making you think it's your HG's that have blown :confused: .

Cheers,
Luke

[fturner]

WELP!, some good news... as it turns out it wasn't my headgasket that had blown, it was actually the HEATER hose that runs over top near the passenger side valve cover. I guess from all the coolant pouring out onto the exhuast manifolds I assumed it was my head gaskets, boy was I relieved. I was baffled at first becuase when I drained the oil there was no coolant in there... but I decided to start the tear down anyway since i'm off work and have all the time in the world to do my first ever HG replacement.

So off I went removing parts from the driver side first, got everything out and/or out of the way and then I moved onto the passenger side. I took the air intake off when I noticed something strange, the heater hose that is up by the passenger valve cover had threads hanging out of it and upon a closer look and giving it a squeeze, I noticed a huge rip about 2 inches long.. BINGO I said, that's the problem and not the HG... I laughed for about a minute, grab a beer, sat down with a sigh of relieve and chugged the beer :) I decided I would continue and take the supercharger off and clean it up since there was a CRAP load of oil in the tubes and IC, low and behold the supercharger was filled with oil also, I mean it was BLACK and CAKED on all over the top and rotors!! She's all back togother now and is running great but I need a new RADAITOR (got a pretty bad leak at the top of the rad) and new license plates since mine were stolen sometime back in January :( I've reported it to the police back in January when I noticed it was missing. Anyway just wanted to let everyone know what I found out and don't rule out that maybe it's your heater hose that has blown out and could be your problem making you think it's your HG's that have blown :confused: .

Cheers,
Luke

Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky............

Frit

[91_SC_BIRD]

Lucky you!!!

I neglected my hg too long and I'm sure i filled one of the cylenders with coolant and hydrolocked the motor :( . I'm waiting on my new motor http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?p=384802#post384802 . In the past year, i think i walked more then i drove! It sucks, I love this car and I don't want to get rid of it no matter how much it costs!

Cheers

[SC4LIFE]

Kevin, I guess that's why they call me LUCKY LUKE... sometimes ;) But I too was looking to get a new motor myself, I was quoted $3,500 for one that had been rebuilt and had some performance enhancements done to it, I was about 2 weeks away from having the money to get it but I was laid off. That's probably a good thing, not having to spend all that money on it, but I know I would have loved it. That really sucks about your engine beeing hydrolocked, all my buddies keep telling me to get rid of my lemon, I flip them the bird (haha, get it) and tell them to *BEEP* off (this is my 3rd SC and I can't see myself driving any other car)...The funny thing is, now that it's back together and running, they INSIST we go out in my car but that's not going to happen untill I decide on what I want my new plates to read. When are you expecting the motor to arrive Kevin?

Frit, Sorry to hear that bro.

Cheers,
Luke