How bad is it?

Kube

Registered User
Looks like I blew a head gasket. Wife drove car to work and said it was trying to die on her. On her way home it started to overheat so she pulled over. Had car towed home. Once I got a round to looking at it, I found water in the oil pan! Not happy.

My question is, if that oil water mix pumped through engine, is motor trashed? If the head did not warp, can I just change gaskets and will she be ok? Don't really have the money for a new motor so I 'm hoping for the later. Any thoughts?
 
Drnaline said:
Could be intake gasket if you didn't see white smoke. Was it knocking when she turned it off?


She was not very specific. Did not mention smoke though. Once it was home, I added some water to the radiator and left the cap off while crabking it over and all the water spewed out(is that normal). I got it to start(before finding waterin oil) and it sounded like it was running on 1 cylinder.
 
I would not run it any more.You could hydralic a cylinder.
1.Drain the oil out of it NOW!
2.Drain the radiator.
3.Take the plug out of block drain coolant.
4.Put some new cheap oil in it.
5.Take the spark plugs out.
6.Turn motor over until oil has ran through the motor,To get anti freeze off
and out of bearings.
7.Then check to see what your problems is.

It sounds like you blew the head gasket.Between a cylinder and a water jacket passage.
This would send pressure to the radiator to make it spew
water out the radiator.

Good luck Randy
 
I have drained the oil, but will not be able to get to the rest till this weekend. Thanks for the tips. Will do that then look for the problem. Will just cranking the engine pump the oil through enough to clean it out?
 
Make sure you remove antifreeze NOW.And remove the plugs before turning
motor over.Turning the motor over will pump oil through the system.

1.I would then drain oil again.After turning motor over with no plugs in.
2.Then refill with cheapest oil you can buy.And check again for antifreeze.
3.Put new plugs back in.Your old plugs will most likly be fauled out.look at them,clean or replace
4.Start motor WITH NO WATER OR ANTIFREEZE.listen for a rod knock.Its ok
to run motor a couple minutes with the radiator and block drained.
5.Then start to take the heads off.
6.After you removed the heads.Turn motor over by hand,And check each piston height to deck with a dial indicator.To see if you have any bent rods.
If you do not have a dial indicator.Not the best way ,but use a straight edge placed on block & across piston.Then use a feeler guage to check piston height.
7.If no rods are bent,Put new head gaskets on,& reassemble top of motor.
8.Then cross fingers for up to 30 days,and hope you have no bearing damage.

Randy
 
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I have drained oil and radiator, where do I find the plug to drain the block? When I pulled the spark plugs, water/anitfreeze came out of the back passenger side and at this point I started pulling the blower and there is water in the intake manifold! I am not very optimistic...Is this still recoverable?
 
Kube said:
I have drained oil and radiator, where do I find the plug to drain the block? When I pulled the spark plugs, water/anitfreeze came out of the back passenger side and at this point I started pulling the blower and there is water in the intake manifold! I am not very optimistic...Is this still recoverable?
Basically, if the engine was running and for not too long, don't sweat it. Coolant in the #3 cylinder is normal when the HGs go. If you can turn the crank with a ratchet by the main bolt, you should be OK.. just don't wait weeks to get around to fixing it. :cool:
 
Kube said:
II started pulling the blower and there is water in the intake manifold!
Is this a 5peed? If so, you probably have EGR which means that the exhaust is pulled back into the intake.. in the case of a HG failure, it would explain how coolant might get into the intake. :cool:
 
The car is an auto so I'm not sure about the egr stuff. My wife was driving home went it broke down, so it was running at that point but it did die on her. Once it was towed home, I did get it to start once but it sounded so bad I sgut it right off. Will make sure I can crank the motor over with rachet, I don't think that will be an issue so maybe once I get it all cleaned up all will be well. Plan on flushing the new oil tonight or tomorrow. Any ideas on getting the water out of the intake manifold? I was thinking of using the wet vac and suck out what I can get to before flushing with the new oil.
 
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