Head gaskets or worse?

The coolant light on my 97 Venture would come on every couple of months or so and I would add a quart of water and everything was fine. Then a couple of weeks ago I was driving the van and it began to run really rough, and the engine light was blinking. I stopped by Advance Auto Parts on the way home and got intake gaskets (I read on this forum previously that my coolant loss was probably due to the intake gaskets). By the time I got it home, the temperature guage was pegged. The following morning when I started it to pull it into the garage to begin work, it ran VERY rough and white smoke was billowing out of the exhaust. Well - I replaced the gaskets, plugs, and wires, got it back together, jacked it up and drained the oil. About a cup of water came out before the oil. When I was done, I cranked it up and it was still running very rough but there was no smoke. The engine light is still blinking. Could the problem be the head gaskets, or is it something worse? Thanks

Head gasket. The flashing MIL was a severe misfire indicator. Normally if it was just a plain misfire, it would iluminate and continue on. A severe misfire can cause damage to the engine and/or cat. converter due to extreme tempatures and unburnt fuel. The fuel can actually ignite in the converter and that is not good. You were probably ok though as the tempature was controlled by the large amounts of coolant that was being dumped into your cylinder. ( :) or maybe :( ).

The tempature guage was pegged because air was being injected into the cooling system, creating an air pocket. This air then surrounds the coolant temp sensor pegging it. Ultimately the air will force most of the coolant out of the system via the resevoir tube.

The (not so) good news is that you get to undo everything you just did to take the heads off and do the head gaskets. Join the club, I did the exact same thing a couple months back. Check out this (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=372853&highlight=overheating) thread for more information. It's not a particularly hard process, just time consuming. Depending on how mechanically skilled you are, I'd budget 20 hours or so, not including down time to get the heads resurfaced, etc.

Thank you cdru. I was hoping to give my Venture one more chance. There is some very valuable information in the thread you linked, I'll be using it as a guide. I'm going to wait a few weeks to get started...I don't want to have my golf vacation ruined with a sore back :biggrin:

Yep Its a head gasket. I just had one done on my 98 Venture. It showed the same symptoms, plus more...

Some free advice: Don't try to start it until its fixed. Mine hydrolocked Cyl #2 and trashed the starter trying to push against a cyl full of water. My mechanic was worried that there was a bent rod, so he pulled the engine. Makes the job way more expensive. Plus had to mill the head, total bill was $2600. Wish I'd had the time to do it myself maybe saved a few bucks...???

Don't try to start it until its fixed. Mine hydrolocked Cyl #2 and trashed the starter trying to push against a cyl full of water.


Well....when I tried to start mine for the first time after I replaced the intake gaskets, it only turned over for about 1/2 second and stopped. I thought about it for a minute and decided to give it another try. On the second try it cranked right up with the problems described above. Since then I have started it 3 or 4 times to look for vacuum leaks with no problems turning over. Do you think its okay?

If it is hydrolocking I would not risk it, if you have to move it to a shop have it towed. Cranking against the cyl full of water totally destroyed the starter, bent pinion & bendix, and could potentially damage the flywheel. And if you don't destroy the starter & crank it enough it could bend a rod thus potentially scrapping the engine.

I cranked mine about 6-8 times, and the rods were OK, but I am sure it depends on which cylinder is locked.

Other problems I had were: failed mass airflow & O2 sensors due to coolant contamination, leaking coolant from muffler, and head damage, the heads were repairable by resurfacing.

Since my starter had obvious damage my mechanic wanted to inspect the cylinder & rods to determine if there was any damage. The way they did this was pretty interesting - dropped the whole front end of the van, wheels, struts, engine, tranny - out the bottom of the vehicle.

But it was not cheap!

Other problems I had were: failed mass airflow & O2 sensors due to coolant contaminationHow on earth did your MAF sensor get contaminated? The MAF sensor is right after the airfilter. I don't think you could get that much farther away from the head gasket and still stay on the intake side of things. If your mechanic said it was contaminated, I'd find a new mechanic.