96 Sentra... Overheating... Does this seem like a blown head gasket

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Al Kondo - 29 Nov 2005 16:09 GMT

I have a 96 Sentra GXE. The engine has been overheating recently and
I have conducted quite a bit of diagnosis on it to determine the
problem. There a bunch of things I have eliminated because I have
changed the parts in a similar overheating problem last year. I have
changed out the thermostat, water pump, radiator cap, and had the
radiator flushed approximately 8 months ago. Now, I am thinking I
have a blown head gasket.

The main symptoms of the possible blown head gasket are these:

1. I am losing antifreeze at a very high rate... and, I can't find any
liquid under my car at any time.

2. I did a leak down test on my four cylinders and found that two of
the cylinders leaked down very quickly. Also, I could hear the leak
in the adjacent spark plug hole from where the compression was
applied.

The one thing going against my theory is that there is no residue
showing up at the radiator throat. I would expect that there would be
some.

I would appreciate some thoughts about my assumption. This would be
very helpful before I begin taking off the head.

Thanks, Al Kondo

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Taylor - 29 Nov 2005 21:37 GMT

>I have a 96 Sentra GXE.

There is an Al Kondo in you for meeeee, it's very good, al, it smells of
shoo, al

:D< <--happy spider

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Steve T - 30 Nov 2005 04:33 GMT

> 2. I did a leak down test on my four cylinders and found that two of
> the cylinders leaked down very quickly. Also, I could hear the leak
> in the adjacent spark plug hole from where the compression was
> applied.

If the gasket was blown into the coolant passages, when you presurized the
cylinder it will push water out of the radiator. Repeat the test with the
cap off and BTW what sort of readings did you get? The fact you heard a
leak in the plug hole next to it could just mean it has a valve slightly
leaking and the cyl next to it had a valve open so you heard it..

Signature

Steve

http://www.atlantaracing.com

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tomcas - 02 Dec 2005 03:01 GMT

> I have a 96 Sentra GXE. The engine has been overheating recently and
> I have conducted quite a bit of diagnosis on it to determine the
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Thanks, Al Kondo

Have you tried pressurizing the cooling system with the engine off but
hot and looking/listening for leaks?

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JaySpeck - 02 Dec 2005 13:54 GMT

I think you mentioned being concerned it could be the head gasket.
I'm not too familliar with your engine, but I wonder if there could be
a crack in the head too.
a friend of mine had that problem. It wasn't visible at all untill he
brought the head in the have
it plained. It would leak coolent pretty quick too.

Jason H.

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Codifus - 02 Dec 2005 17:17 GMT

> I have a 96 Sentra GXE. The engine has been overheating recently and
> I have conducted quite a bit of diagnosis on it to determine the
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Thanks, Al Kondo

When you lose anti-freeze, does it happen only when the car's very hot?
That would be another symtpom to confirm that it's the head gasket. When
the car's cold, the temperature isn't great enough to force the gasket
to move, so the car acts normal and doesn't lose anti-freeze. As it gets
hotter, that's when the gasket really does it's work . . .and when it
fails too.

As the gap in the head gasket grows, you would eventually see the
anti-freeze boil in your over-flow tank and smoke in your exhaust from
all the coolant being dumped into the combustion chamber.

The silver lining through all this, if you can call it that, is that if
indeed your gasket is blown, the hot anti-freeze is doing a helluva job
cleaning out your combustion chamber from carbon deposits.

Hope this helps.

CD

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