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Car Forum / Chrysler Cars / October 2004Head Gasket Leak?
Hi: Probably a repetition of earlier (and frequent) questions, but here goes: 1990 3.3L Grand Voyager - lots of miles. When it gets hot, lots and lots of gas bubbles start appearing in the coolant overflow container. I've seen this before in other vehicles - I gather there can't be any other cause than a leaky head gasket, right? Is there any need to confirm this cause with any reliable test? Obviously when this happens (usually during some hill climbing), the cooling system doesn't really do its job very well and things start to overheat. Dave > Date: 28 Sep 2004 19:27:34 -0700 > From: Dave McCormick <davemcc@shaw.ca> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > other cause than a leaky head gasket, right? Is there any need to > confirm this cause with any reliable test? It probably is a head gasket leak. One reliable test you could perform that is also inexpensive is a compression check. It sounds like the leak is between one of the cylinders and a water jacket; a compression check would reveal one cylinder with low compression, or possibly two next to each other with low compression. I believe you can get a compression tester for under $50. --Geoff > Obviously when this happens (usually during some hill climbing), the > cooling system doesn't really do its job very well and things start to > overheat. > > Dave > > 1990 3.3L Grand Voyager - lots of miles. When it gets hot, lots and > > lots of gas bubbles start appearing in the coolant overflow container. [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > I believe you can get a compression tester for under $50. His car has already flunked a pretty reliable test of head gasket integrity.... I once had a car with a blown head gasket that flunked the bubble test but had compression within specs on all cylinders.  SignatureJoseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605 Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002 New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer > Date: 29 Sep 2004 08:25:54 -0600 > From: Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > I once had a car with a blown head gasket that flunked the bubble test > but had compression within specs on all cylinders. Really? Did you find the source of the leak? I agree, the overheating and bubbling into the coolant reservoir is probably enough to condemn a headgasket in this case. I understand there are also kits you can get that will detect the presence of exhaust gasses in the coolant; these can be used to confirm a head gasket diagnosis when the problem is less obvious. But a bubbler that passed a compression check, eh? Wow. I didn't know that could happen. Did one of the cylinders have lower compression than the others, but still read nominally within spec? --Geoff Other thing to ask the OP is if he is using proper mix of coolant or just water, as water will boil over and cause similar symptoms to headgasket failure. Also check cooling system performance, perhaps the radiator is not performing properly and/or the cooling fan is inoperative. >> Date: 29 Sep 2004 08:25:54 -0600 >> From: Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] > > --Geoff consider also that this could be caused by a cracked cyl head.. Joe Pfeiffer wrote: > Date: 29 Sep 2004 08:25:54 -0600 > From: Joe Pfeiffer <pfeiffer@cs.nmsu.edu> [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > I once had a car with a blown head gasket that flunked the bubble test > but had compression within specs on all cylinders. Really? Did you find the source of the leak? I agree, the overheating and bubbling into the coolant reservoir is probably enough to condemn a headgasket in this case. I understand there are also kits you can get that will detect the presence of exhaust gasses in the coolant; these can be used to confirm a head gasket diagnosis when the problem is less obvious. But a bubbler that passed a compression check, eh? Wow. I didn't know that could happen. Did one of the cylinders have lower compression than the others, but still read nominally within spec? --Geoff sure you can verify this with a test, pull the coil connector and connect shop air to each cyl one at a time with the radiator cap off, crank the engine and you will see the coolant blow back thru the radiator, this will indicate a blown gasket/cracked head, normally cyl 3 and 4 are the faulty ones if the head is warped, but check all cyl's the coolant passages may be blown into the combustion sytem Glenn Beasley Chrysler Tech > consider also that this could be caused by a cracked cyl head.. > [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > --Geoff > consider also that this could be caused by a cracked cyl head.. > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Really? Did you find the source of the leak? It was a cracked cylinder head (note your suggestion above!). Mitsubishi 2.6, with the famed intake-valve-too-close-to-exhaust-valve head crack. > But a bubbler that passed a compression check, eh? Wow. I didn't know > that could happen. Did one of the cylinders have lower compression than > the others, but still read nominally within spec? I don't remember that much detail on it, sorry. SignatureJoseph J. Pfeiffer, Jr., Ph.D. Phone -- (505) 646-1605 Department of Computer Science FAX -- (505) 646-1002 New Mexico State University http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~pfeiffer > > > 1990 3.3L Grand Voyager - lots of miles. When it gets hot, lots and > > > lots of gas bubbles start appearing in the coolant overflow container. [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > I once had a car with a blown head gasket that flunked the bubble test > but had compression within specs on all cylinders. When the headgasket blew on my Dodge Spirit with a 2.5, all of the coolant would get pushed into the recovery resevoir causing the engine to overheat. Right before having it fixed, I would have to empty the resevoir into the radiator once or twice a day. The spark plugs also showed evidence of anti-freeze getting into the cylinder. -Kirk Matheson Have you tried a pressure test of the system and the cap? There is also a test that's run that detects the presence of CO in the radiator. Have these things done first it may be a simple fix. The engine might also be running a little hot due to a bad stat, or partly clogged radiator a bad hose etc. Either way don't start yanking it apart until you run some simple inexpensive tests. Larry > Hi: > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Dave |
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