EGR gasket w/ screen update

[chembrad]

I installed an EGR gasket w/ screen on my Jimmy 4.3L back in January. After 6 months of driving and 15,000+ miles I decided to pull it off and service it (supposed to clean it every 10k miles according to mfg instructions).

The screen was clean. I went ahead and dry brushed the wires to a nice shine. Then reinstalled.

So no problems to report and all seems to be going well.

All except the head gasket I have to replace sometime this summer...

[BlazerLT]

head gasket is gone?

[chembrad]

I suspect the headgasket is compromised as oil is leaking into the coolant system.

I will test my suspicions with a compression test.

[BlazerLT]

Originally Posted by chembrad

I suspect the headgasket is compromised as oil is leaking into the coolant system.

I will test my suspicions with a compression test.

And what makes you think this?

[chembrad]

Two things make me think that my head gasket might be the problem:

1) I get oil in my coolant, but not coolant in my oil. Everything in the coolant system is new (raddy, heater core, etc). I have to flush the coolant every couple of weeks because of this.

2) A mechanic told me he thought that there might be a gasket leak back when I first got the truck in Nov '04.

So now whether the compression test will be a good diagnostic tool in my particular case remains to be tested.

[BlazerLT]

Originally Posted by chembrad

Two things make me think that my head gasket might be the problem:

1) I get oil in my coolant, but not coolant in my oil. Everything in the coolant system is new (raddy, heater core, etc). I have to flush the coolant every couple of weeks because of this.

2) A mechanic told me he thought that there might be a gasket leak back when I first got the truck in Nov '04.

So now whether the compression test will be a good diagnostic tool in my particular case remains to be tested.

Then why aren't you going to get it fixed instead of wasting money replacing coolant every two weeks.

[chembrad]

1) I don't have the money to get a mech to do it

2) I'm lazy

(I'm putting it off and getting other projects done)

[BlazerLT]

But you have the money to keep on replacing coolant and gumming up your cooling system?

[chembrad]

Originally Posted by BlazerLT

But you have the money to keep on replacing coolant and gumming up your cooling system?

From what I have seen it is not "gumming it up" such that flushing/back flushing does not clear it out.

And $10 in anti-freeze every 3-4 weeks and 30-45 mins work is an acceptible trade off compared to the 2 days that it would take me to do the head by myself for the first time.

So there you have it. Flame me if you want.

[BlazerLT]

Originally Posted by chembrad

From what I have seen it is not "gumming it up" such that flushing/back flushing does not clear it out.

And $10 in anti-freeze every 3-4 weeks and 30-45 mins work is an acceptible trade off compared to the 2 days that it would take me to do the head by myself for the first time.

So there you have it. Flame me if you want.

I am not going to flame you, I don't know where that came from.

But bandaid fixes will cost you more in the long run.