Ever seen a car blow it's head gasket?

[QWK SVT]

Never good when you see steam come out the tail pipes...

http://66.111.223.172/BlownCamaroHGsm.wmv
(he made some pretty good power, too)

[CBT]

Ouch, I say. Ouch.

[RoyLPita]

Where I work, we fix that problem for a price.

[Smokie]

Never seen one leak that bad under the car, it seems to me someone pulled the heads and didn't do a very good job putting then back on.

[DEFYANT]

That sux!!!!!!!

[STLR FN]

Ruh Roh RI Rinhk Re Rot a Roblem.

[Bluerauder]

Never good when you see steam come out the tail pipes...
Yep, that's exactly what happened to all my coolant when the headgasket on my '94 Thunderbird decided to let go. Ford replaced the entire engine for me and paid for a rental car for 3 weeks. :D

[Mike Poore]

That sux!!!!!!!I'm more than a little confused. He's running a blower, and it was going full tilt, when the bad stuff happened. Because of the supercharger, aren't the intake, and the cylinders were pressurized? I don't know, but is there a time when there's intake vacuum on a supercharged motor? Having pointed out those conditions, how did water get into the cylinders, on both banks from a single head gasket failure; and why did that much water end up on the floor? Would a burst hose from the radiator, or a connector or fitting that cools the intake have injected water into the intake? That much smoke from both pipes makes no sense to me, if it's from a single head gasket failure. :dunno:

[MikesMerc]

Nothing strange there at all. Simple head gasket failure.

Both sides of the exhaust emitted the white smoke because the exhaust is not side specific (all dual exhaust set ups have a equalizing cross over). When you pop a head gasket, water can and usually does leak out heavily onto the ground as well as get into the cylinders. SC makes no difference at all.

[jgc61sr2002]

Yep, that's exactly what happened to all my coolant when the headgasket on my '94 Thunderbird decided to let go. Ford replaced the entire engine for me and paid for a rental car for 3 weeks. :D

Did you have the 3.8 6 cyl. That was a very common problem the usually developed after the warranty. :(

[Mike Poore]

Nothing strange there at all. Simple head gasket failure.

Both sides of the exhaust emitted the white smoke because the exhaust is not side specific (all dual exhaust set ups have a equalizing cross over). When you pop a head gasket, water can and usually does leak out heavily onto the ground as well as get into the cylinders. SC makes no difference at all.
Thanks for clearing that up, Mike. Now it makes sense.

I feel sorry for the poor guy. It was going so well, and in an instant, Poof! All gone.

What do they do, tear it down, clean it up, and put it back together? Would you expect a lot of damage?

[Bluerauder]

Did you have the 3.8 6 cyl. That was a very common problem the usually developed after the warranty. :(
Exactly !!! I got a letter from Ford about 1 month before it happened saying to watch for signs of overheating, coolant smell, or white exhaust. The warranty period had been extended to 6 or 7 years as I recall. One day on the way to work, I got all 3 symptoms in the space of 60 seconds and blew most of the coolant out the exhaust. Fortunately, I was only about 3 blocks from the dealer and I was able to limp it over there after refilling the radiator. :D Had the warning letter from Ford in the glove compartment. :rolleyes:

Ford decided to replace the entire engine rather than just the headgasket; but it took awhile to get the engine. So, I picked a 2000 Taurus SE off the lot as a loaner. They wouldn't let me have a Mustang GT or Cobra. :depress:

[sailsmen]

That link appears to be infected with a Trojanalwaysup virus.

If you downloaded I suggest you run a virus scan with the latest virus definition.

[RoyLPita]

Exactly !!! I got a letter from Ford about 1 month before it happened saying to watch for signs of overheating, coolant smell, or white exhaust. The warranty period had been extended to 6 or 7 years as I recall. One day on the way to work, I got all 3 symptoms in the space of 60 seconds and blew most of the coolant out the exhaust. Fortunately, I was only about 3 blocks from the dealer and I was able to limp it over there after refilling the radiator. :D Had the warning letter from Ford in the glove compartment. :rolleyes:

Ford decided to replace the entire engine rather than just the headgasket; but it took awhile to get the engine. So, I picked a 2000 Taurus SE off the lot as a loaner. They wouldn't let me have a Mustang GT or Cobra. :depress:

My mother's 94 Mustang had a coolant smell. One time I had the car pressure tested but found no leaks. After some time, we pressure tested it again. This time the leak was from the timing cover. Thank goodness for warranties.

BTW, The head gasket job on the Camaro will be big $$$. The engine has to brought Down in order to get the heads off.

[MikesMerc]

What do they do, tear it down, clean it up, and put it back together? Would you expect a lot of damage?

The short block won't need a tear down as long as no gasket debris entered the cylinders and cause any scratches on the cylinder walls. Damage like that is unlikely. Also, it seems that they shut down quickly after the failure so I wouldn't expect any damage from coolant contaminated oil.

Looks like they'll need to pull the motor and R&R the heads. I'd also pull the pan, flush the short block, and inspect it.

[Mike Poore]

That link appears to be infected with a Trojanalwaysup virus.

If you downloaded I suggest you run a virus scan with the latest virus definition.Thanks, I'll run a scan.:(


It's clean; thanks again for the head's up. :)