poketad

So my car was idling a little rough, I go home and look under the hood. I just saw the LEFT portion of my engine drenched, looks like I burst my head gasket. To be honest I'm just a honest hardworking 19 year old. My car only has 54k miles on it and I honestly should have saw this coming and steer clear considering how old the car is. I checked my radiator and to be honest It looked like there was more oil than coolant in there. I only have $100 to my name right now since I'm just making it by paycheck to paycheck. My family hopefully will be able to help me out. But back to my question what do you think the best semi-affordable way to take care of this is? Thanks in advanced.

BrutalGTA

iTrader: (2)

Fix it right the first time!

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

99.99999999% odds it's NOT the head gasket.

I'd be looking at heater hoses if it was my car. (given of course, that they travel all along the RIGHT side of the engine, and that head gaskets in these cars don't have anything to do with oil... see my signature for a mental stability technique...)

Heater hose is like $0.75 a foot, and coolant is $12 a gallon, and distilled water is $0.80 a gallon. Certainly that's at least "semi-affordable" if not FULLY "affordable". If not, you need to invest in some durable shoes instead.

mikeyt

Do you have any pics of what it looks like?

poketad

My Phone is currently did but I'll reply with one in the morning.

poketad

http://imgur.com/a/wsnYb

There's a link to the pictures I took. My coolant is literally brown haha. After running the car for a bit I checked the dipstick and there's bubbles from it foaming.

poketad

Sorry I meant the right side as in my right, it's on the left of the car so the driver's side. So you said that in these car's the headgasket has nothing to do with oil and coolant mixing?

mikeceli

iTrader: (2)

Your vehicle is displaying the classic symptoms of a blown head gasket.

To fix this cheap, your gonna need a knowleable friend who will assist you at little or no charge.

It involves removing the heads and inspecting the gaskets to FIND the failure. The heads should be magnafluxed for possible cracks and checked for straightness(at the least) . A valve job would be correct, at this point.

The cooling system will need a really good flush to get the oil out. Change engine oil and filter, install new plugh or clean and gap if there not worn out.

Is there a High School trade school, where they work on cars for little or no money?

Good luck.

mikeyt

Don't skimp on the machine shop work, and since these engines have problems with the intake leaking, bring that to them as well and have them check the mating surface angle of it. There may be nothing wrong with it, however when you have the heads worked you want to make sure everything will have a nice flat mating surface to help reduce the potential for leaking. Not sure about California pricing, however to get the heads pressure checked, Magna-fluxed, milled, three angle valve job, and new valve stem seals installed, for both you're probably looking about $300-$400. If the heads are cracked you'll have to re-maned ones, do let them talk you into doing a crack repair, they're not that much more if any to go that route if you have to. Some machine shops have these on the shelf ready to go and it's a matter of bringing your cores to them and swap them out.

Ron U.S.M.C.

The poor guy said he has $100.00 to his name.
Obviously not making the kind of money a machine shop will charge.

If it is a blown head gasket and your not total in love with the car (some of us are) in your situation you could try to sell the car to some one with the skills and money to actually work on it, or at the very least part it out helping other Third. Gen. Enthusiast. I hate to see that but its better than the crusher.

Third Gen. Camaros and Firebirds can become money pits and it takes a lot of dedication and perseverance, not forgetting the money they can and will take from you one piece at a time.

If you keep the car and learn how to work on it yourself, possibly having some one failure with the proses = hands on teaching. That would be great.

Good lock with the project.

redneckjoe

my son used 2 bottles of this stuff in his car and it worked. might be worth a shot? he bought it at autozone but most parts stores should have it.
http://barsleaks.com/product/head-gasket-fix/

startat2

iTrader: (2)

I half agree with Ron, in that these vehicles can be money pits. However, any used paid off car will need some love time to time, and luckily there is no easier engine in the world, with as much information available as the small block Chevy. That said, I also agree that it should be done right. Spend some cash on a pawn shop bicycle, until you get her up and running. While getting it checked at the machine shop is the best bet, taking it apart and giving the head and gasket a visual inspection can sometimes give you a wealth of information. My machine shop will take apart anything and inspect it for free (provided they are doing some work for you). If you can tell you need a new head from the get go, you may save some time and can take them some pulls or older ones to inspect, or decide to go the new route. I know it sucks, but even a few major repairs like this every 6 months or so is likely cheaper than a car payment!

Heads can be picky. I had to take this same machine shop two sets of Pontiac heads to get one good one out of each batch for my last 400 build. Pontiac heads are not easy to come by, but I was happy that they inspected each thoroughly before assembly of the engine.

dmccain

iTrader: (2)

I agree with Ron. There is no cheap fix here. You are going to have to weigh out if you can get this fixed or not. I can assure you this car will only cost you more and more $ down the road though that's for sure. Most of us have these cars as a hobby and don't drive them every day or depend on them to be honest with you. Good luck in whatever you decide.

mikeceli

iTrader: (2)

What city and state are you located in, "poketad"?

Vanilla Ice

Magna fluxing was $55 per side last time I had it done at a local shop. Add that to a $60 head gasket set and some fluids and you should be able to get it done for around $200 unless the machine work is more or you have to pay somebody to do it.

poketad

Jersey and Marlboro

poketad

Thanks I might try it for the time being till I figure out what I need to do.

poketad

Trust me I love my car but it can be a PITA sometimes. The mileage isnt the best and they're not the fastest or most reliable cars but they're honestly a joy to drive. I'm not totally sure what I'm going to do yet, when I run my car it sounds healthy, I'm barely losing compression. Hopefully the gasket broke in a way were it didn't leak into the cylinder and its just mixing the two together and leaking out the side of the engine. I'm honestly debating doing it myself but I'm scared I'll mess something up somehow.

mikeyt

By driving it in the condition it's in, it WILL get worse. If you use the Barsleak you will have to do some extensive flushing when you actually fix the problem. Using it will buy you some time, not be a permanent fix.

IROCZman15

iTrader: (25)

there are definitely plenty of machine shops in your general area of NJ. I am in northern NJ, but if you are looking for parts, replacement used heads, etc try joining up on www.njfboa.org . Maybe even a member that lives close to you might be willing to lend you a hand with the tear-down since you are on such a tight budget. Just a thought.

maks10

Sofa is right there's no oil mix with head gaskets on our cars...I wouldn't jump to head gasket as a problem....need to look at other possiblilities...if i read correctly you have unknown fluid drenched (heater hose sits up top passenger side) and brown coolant (doesn't mean oil) and a rough idle....look around the passenger side for loose or broken connections and detail any other signs or symptoms...good luck

dabomb6608

iTrader: (3)

To me it looks like that coolant has a lot of rust residue in it. Maybe hasn't been flushed in a long time while running a incorrect coolant to water ratio. My truck had coolant like that after it sat for way to long with mostly water in the cooling system.


I would recommend checking your oil to see if it has coolant in it since that is the only mixing I've ever seen a head gasket cause. Then from there if it doesn't have coolant in the oil then give it a compression check. If that all checks out ok then my vote is against it being the head gasket.

Kingtal0n

1. Compression test the engine using a "free" (rental) compression tester from a local auto parts store, they often rent for free.
results need to be: Each cylinder reads within 5% of each other cylinder. WRITE DOWN THE NUMBERS for each cylinder as you go. Make sure you do each cylinder the same way.


2. If the compression test is GOOD, Pressure test the cooling system by using the reservoir hose to put air pressure into the radiator. If the cap is good, it will hold 5-12psi of air pressure and allow you to track down leaks. This test is free if you have an air compressor, or again you can rent a 'free' tool to pressure the system (coolant system pressure tester)

Be prepared to take out the spark plugs and look on them for coolant due to a bad head gasket. The same way you look for oil on the plugs during the compression test.

Oil or coolant on the plugs is a sign of something wrong. If they all come out clean, and the compression test is clean, you should be able to find an external coolant leak when pressure testing the coolant system hopefully and seal that up.

Radiator system should use DISTILLED WATER. and NEVER mix colors of coolant (green/orange mixture = BAD). So I would FLUSH the radiator system, with LOTS Of water. Then FULL with Distilled water, and FLUSH again, then, once you are 100% sure the coolant system is LEAK FREE (pressure holding) you can use actual coolant with distilled water to finish it off (fill it up normally) ONLY use distilled water and coolant. In florida it never freezes, so I never use coolant. Just distilled. Distilled water works better for cooling than coolant; coolant just helps it NOT FREEZE.

greenyone

iTrader: (1)

Coolant has anti corrosion inhibitors and a higher boiling point than strait water. That's in addition to just helping it not freeze. Just run coolant no matter what climate you live in. I don't know about you guys, but I'm finding that It's getting hard to even find coolant in my neck of the woods that's not the pre-mix variety, which should already be mixed with distilled water.

Kingtal0n

You do not run coolant when diagnosing an engine. You put 100% distilled water, in case it spills out, blows out, or gets ingested by the engine, there isn't an environmental hazard this way.

After that its up to you whether you think you need it or not. The boiling point is increased by your radiator cap pressure to whatever you think you want. The anti-corrosive doesn't make any sense, there isn't anything that water is going to rust inside an aluminum engine block/radiator with rubber hoses so that is a non-issue. Water pumps are routine maintenance items and do not need to be preserved specifically. The real danger to the cooling system is the transfer of current through the cooling liquid, which can be limited by using 100% distilled water which all coolant brands contain as their base so you get it either way. The key is to avoid tap water, drinking water, anything with ions that improve electronic current carrying capacity of the liquid. Good for body, bad for engine.