gasket or warped?

[7002chris]

so i was driving home about a week ago when i noticed the temp gauge was in the red i pulled over and discovered i blew a radiator hose. Since than i replaced and everything seemed to be ok until i noticed that i keep getting low on water i ordered all the stuff for a head gasket job. Since this is my only car at the moment i have been driving it to work and back with no problem still runs great does not get warm at all everything is good besides the losing water thing and a little white smoke puffing out the tail pipe. What im wondering is if its just a small leak in the gasket or if i actually warped the head, figured if it was warped it would be overheating and sputtering?

[Guest Anonymous]

I don't think you can know if it is either, or a cracked head, until you pull the head.

[7002chris]

ok well i know you can check for warp by using a straight edge is there an easy way to check if its cracked?

[AceAndrew]

..... Look for cracks.

Mainly between the valves, then have it pressure checked.

[Chris_B]

Many shops have an instrument intended to check for hydrocarbons in the coolant, and will check yours for free. This is a very accurate way to determine whether you have a cracked head, leaking head gasket, etc. At least, if it doesn't register hydrocarbons in the coolant, you can eliminate most problems relating to cylinder gasses getting into the coolant.

[OriginalOwner]

losing water, white smoke puffs .... I had that problem in 1999, it was the head gasket. Fortunately did not warp or crack the head. A new head gasket and all has been fine since then. Hope for the best !!

Cheers,

Carl

[ponchis]

Mmm ive seen many overheated heads... Sounds like it wasnt severely overheated but as a few mentioned, it could be cracked.

Options- be prepared for a cracked head! Bimmer heads dont usually crack unless its an e36 head... Ive done a lot!

Second, im pretty sure its warped. Not sure whats in the kit you bought but honestly, nothing like getting it resurfaced and a 3 angle valve job. I would love to have your business but im not near you

Also hand lapping the valves could be a waste of time if your seats are distorted.

Depending on your budget now, theres several thing you can do.

If money and transportation is a concern right right now, go to autozone and buy a headgasket sealant (the bright green one!) not really the best way of doing things but it works for a bit.

Or

R and r your head, have the shop vacume test the valves for leaks and if all good, just resurface it.

Or

Complete valve job, grind valves, resurface

Alfonso

[TobyB]

Well, if you need it daily, your best bet is to do a gasket over the weekend.

Inspect the head carefully (yep, a good- quality machinist's straightedge

will find the warp, and a feeler gauge under it will tell you how bad)

and go from there. Thing is, you can bolt a warped, cracked, damaged

head back onto the block, and chances are it will seal at least as well

as it was, if not better.

Then if it's NOT OK, start shopping for a replacement head, go through it,

then do the swap when you have everything ready to go.

That'll minimize your down time at the potential expense of a weekend

for diagnosis and a gasket set. In other words, pretty cheap.

Because as others have said, there's just no way to know how bad it

got.

I've got plenty of cracked M10 heads kicking around to prove it.

But I've also done gaskets on leaky engines and had them seal up

and run fine for years.

hth

t

[7002chris]

so an update i did the head gasket on sunday actually pretty easy only took a couple hours and got to clean up the head and intake a bit of all the years of gunk and grim. It all went pretty smooth and started up no smoke drove it the last couple days and radiator was still full seems i got lucky.

[OriginalOwner]

AWESOME !!!

Cheers,

Carl

[c.d.iesel]

Bob's yer Uncle!

did you change the oil? i hope ?

[7002chris]

o yes i changed the oil and im going to change it again in a week or so to make sure i got all the water out.