Well, I have a 96 Neon and just did a head gasket job with a new MLS gasket. I'm a former GM monkey wrench.....I got the head rebuilt and all that stuff, they checked it out said no cracks and it was milled true. Started her up today after I busted behind to get things finished cuz I took my time for this. After it heated up! AGhhh! Coolant started to boil with fury just like it did before the swap after 20 min!! I torqued the head as spec'd and used new headbolts, I used the MOPAR gasket sealer stuff, my block was clean.

Is there anything I can do to save this thing? Maybe loosen and re torque head bolts with head on the car? I hope this deosn't mean the block cracked in the water jacket. Funny thing is there was no coolant smoke and poor running like before when the old HG was bad.

If anyone has helpful hints, PLEASE I bought this as my gf's b-day gift and today is her b-day and I feel like a total IDIOT with nothing to give her but a coolant boiling car :(

Jon

I really can't tell you whats wrong with it exactly, examine it closely, look for cracks, etc, if theres no white smoke etc, then its not leaking into the cyilinders, but other than that I have no clue, neon motors are a dime a doesen, if you need it fixed quik, go pick up another motor quik, slap it in, and ur off, that way youll have a another motor for parts, tel your girl to have fun beating it cause youve got a back up.

thats what I would do
good luck man

the neon is hard to get all the air out of the system when you drain the system. make sure you have it filled all the way up.
also I put a compression testor on each cylinder rolled the engin to TDC for each one and hooked it up to pressure to see which cylinder was leaking if any. This would tell you whether its leaking in the cylinder or in the exhaust ports. They might not have seen a crack in the head in egr valve ports.