i've heard that humid exhaust = cracked head gasket

[skotman]

so my exhaust is very humid and often leaves visible dripping condensation from the tailpipe. every other week or so i have to put about 16 - 20 oz of coolant into the radiator. and my car burns oil. i have to check it and add a little every month.

all of the evidence points to a head gasket that is failing in one or more spots. being that my car's performance hasn't changed that i can tell, i'd guess that it's been like this since i bought it 3 years ago. that having been said, my sister's boyfriend has a truck in his family which has been hauling crap around with a cracked head gasket for 5 years.

dad says i just need to be certain to check my coolant level.

no one seems overly concerned about it, so i've decided i won't be either. all i need is another 6 months out of this CRX and i'll be done with school and might be able to afford another vechile to give myself time to work on this one extensively.

my question for you is: is changing a head gasket hard? it seems like it would be simple enough, i've just never been deeper into my engine than right under the valve cover. i'm assuming that the assembly with the valves comes off somehow and the gasket is under that. take off, put back on, keep track of where things came from and voila.

why, then, do mechanics give me estimates in excess of $1000 to replace a $60 part? (estimates based on a previous vehicle which had a really badly blown head gasket) there's gotta be some catch.

[livinincalifornia]

yeah I had mine replaced for 800, before I learned to do it on my own. Get familar with all the parts, read a lot inculding asking people who have already done it before. It's not hard to do really as long as you have the right tools and knowledge. The head unbolts and the timing belt comes off, all the other stuff is just procedure, get a haynes or equivalent to be safe.

[fierangero]

when i had a blown head gasket, it was real obvious. on startup it would run real crappy, like it was flooded, and it would just billow out thick white smoke, which smelled like antifreeze, and there was water contamination in the oil. i had my buddy replace my gasket for like 150, and it ran better, but it still burnt a little coolant (but it didnt come out of the tailpipe). then a couple weeks ago my thermostat went out and i replaced that, now it seems to be doing fine, although, like most older cars, it still very slowly burns off the antifreeze.

condensation is not necessarily a blown gasket, do a compression test on the cylinders, if one leaks out then you know the gasket is bad.

[Hybrid1990crx]

Originally Posted by fierangero

when i had a blown head gasket, it was real obvious. on startup it would run real crappy, like it was flooded, and it would just billow out thick white smoke, which smelled like antifreeze, and there was water contamination in the oil. i had my buddy replace my gasket for like 150, and it ran better, but it still burnt a little coolant (but it didnt come out of the tailpipe). then a couple weeks ago my thermostat went out and i replaced that, now it seems to be doing fine, although, like most older cars, it still very slowly burns off the antifreeze.

condensation is not necessarily a blown gasket, do a compression test on the cylinders, if one leaks out then you know the gasket is bad.

Its normal for high mileage cars to use oil, not coolant, if you are ever loosing water, then you have a leak that shouldnt be there.

Doing a headgasket shouldnt cost you more than 150 bucks if you do it yourself, and thats with the price of the gasket and new head studs. Its a pretty easy job to do, takes about 3 hours tops, as long as you don't have a hard time getting the old gasket off.

And a compression test will kinda tell you if you have a bad headgasket, but a leakdown test will work much better.

[fierangero]

i work on cars for a living and it seems like nearly every car that comes in is low on coolant and needs to be topped off, even cars with under 30k miles seem to burn some antifreeze off...

i do know that my car really doesnt like cold weather, it smokes a lot out of the tailpipe, mostly because its running too rich tho.

[Hybrid1990crx]

well dude, seeing that no antifreeze should be getting into the combustion chamber ever, so it shouldnt be low unless there is a problem. maybe you mean the resivour or something?

[fierangero]

Originally Posted by Hybrid1990crx

well dude, seeing that no antifreeze should be getting into the combustion chamber ever, so it shouldnt be low unless there is a problem. maybe you mean the resivour or something?

yeah the overflow reservoir.

[BullShifter]

The only newer cars that need coolant topped off are american piles that use dexcool. Shit we just did intake manifold gaskets on a gm 3.1L with 36K, and right now doing intake gaskets on a chevy van with 65K. PATHETIC! When are they going to figure out dexcool is complete junk. It seems like all we do is replace leaking intake gaskets on dexcool cars lately, and water pumps.

[91civichatch2571]

Originally Posted by BullShifter

we just did intake manifold gaskets on a gm 3.1L

who hasn't? lol

[BullShifter]

Originally Posted by 91civichatch2571

who hasn't? lol

with 36k miles, that's a joke.

[91civichatch2571]

Oh, I agree. Thats why I left that part of your quote out. Just cracking a joke about the 3100's intake gasket woes

[fierangero]

yeah dexcool sucks fer shure, extended life they say, 100k miles before service they say, BAH!

[jeef]

Your coolent leak could also be from a bad water pump or heater core btw... like said a 15 dollar compression tester would tell you a lot though.

[skotman]

Originally Posted by jeef

Your coolent leak could also be from a bad water pump or heater core btw... like said a 15 dollar compression tester would tell you a lot though.

i had my water pump replaced recently, though, by a proffffffessional. cause apparantly it was "along the way" while replacing the timing belt. so i said "go ahead if you can get it done today."


and they did.

wonder if they botched the gasket.

[iponnet]

they couldnt have messed up the head gasket buy replacing the waterpump, but they may have messed up the installation and you could have a leak? have you checked for leaks, cause that maybe it.