I recently replaced the whole head and head gasket on my 2003 jetta 1.8t and it is still overheating so I have to replace either the thermostat, cooling fans, timing chain, or water pump. I have $700 and they said they can fix it for that. So should I spend my $700 and hopefully the problems go away or should I just try to sell the car as is and try to squeeze as much money out of it as i can?
View 7 RepliesI have a 2003 1.8t awp head that needs replacing but can't find one with that exact code of awp! My question is can I just buy another 1.8t head with a different code?
View 4 RepliesI'm looking at a cousins 1996 integra that has some issues. It's a hand me down vehicle that has little maintenance. Probably regular oil changes and that's it. It has been overheated once in the past and uses coolant now. Coolant slowly disappears and she adds coolant to rad when it starts to get too hot. So likely, more overheat episodes. What are the chances just changing the head gasket will resolve the coolant loss?
View 7 RepliesI'll start by saying that I have a 2004 GTI 1.8t. Picked the car up from a local junkyard around 2 months ago for a grand. They were unsure why it was running rough, so I took a chance and picked it up. Got it back to the house and the timing chain tensioner was shot. Ordered a new one up. Went to a friends house and he noticed it was producing some white smoke from the tail pipe and suggest I take a look into my head gasket. Replaced the head gasket about 2 weeks ago. Got everything buttoned back up and it smoked even worse.
Being my first head gasket change I accepted the fact that I may not have been thorough enough in my replacement and stripped her back down once again. Made sure I was extremely focused and replaced the head gasket again. I just got her back together and she is still smoking.
I know for a fact that coolant is getting into my pistons and causing my spark plugs to foul out. Too much moisture in the cylinder.
Is this normal or do I have a leak? Noticed this white stuff just like what you would find on the coolant cap, as well as this red stuff too.
View 7 RepliesYesterday my 2003 camry has kicking noise from head. i am not sure it is broken valve or the VVTi broken. the oil look like silver. There is no cel code and car run ok.
View 7 RepliesI have 2012 R with 33,000.00 miles on it. During regular service they detected that I have a coolant leak. They replaced a flange and determined that there was actually a head gasket leak. This is very unusual for such a low mileage. The car is still under extended warranty and they are in the process of replacing the head gasket. They told me today that they have to machine the head since there was some residue due to the coolant leak. This is all done at a VW dealer service.
View 1 RepliesMy 2003 Chevy Impala stalled after driving it for about a mile. The 'low engine oil' came on. I noticed white smoke coming out from under the hood. I pulled the dipstick and it was out of oil.
I poured 2 quarts of oil and attempted to start the car. The car started after I pressed the gas pedal but shut off when I took my foot off the gas. I tried several times. It started butshut off when lifting the foot of the pedal.
I'm hoping it's not the head gasket.
I own a 2003 Toyota Camry with 195,000 miles. We have owned the car for about 6 years. It is now leaking oil from the drivers side of the head gasket. The oil has been leaking down onto the exhaust and smoking, and it has been getting worse and worse. This is a second car and is not used much, only once a month for short trips. Is there any temporary fix for this that can maybe get me through a year? Also, I have heard mixed opinions on how hard replacing the head gasket is, does the engine really need to be removed?
View 9 RepliesMy 97 f150 5.4 started missing on 5,6 it had antifreeze on top of the spark plugs but i cant figure out where its coming from my truck has been loosing coolant and it seems like the system is holding pressure because every time i take the cap off the radiator overfill i can hear it hissing then i see the antifreeze level plummet there's no visible leaks that i have seen when the truck is running an missing it steams out the exhaust but when its no missing it doesn't seem to be there's no milky oil or anything the thermostat doesn't seem to be leaking either the truck has over heated a couple times due to the antifreeze disappearing or the temp wont move at all then it shoots all the way to hot and cools down within seconds to normal i just put a new thermostat in. Also it sometimes misses on 4 and my exhaust smells like straight gas i put 4 gallons in it got 29 miles out of it .
View 10 RepliesI just bought a used 5.4 for my 99' F150 4X4. My current engine has a blown head gasket. Anyway, I was able to hear the engine run before I bought it, and was able to check it out some. (oil, anti-freeze) I was told that this engine was bought from a salvage yard with 50K, and 50K more put on it before I bought it.
I was also told that the intake manifold is newer, from Autozone, and it has newer Accell coils. My question for you all, is ..... What do YOU think I should do otherwise before I install this engine. Oil pump? water pump? seals? ...
My wife has a 2002 F-150 King Ranch 5.4l. Recently I noticed a oil smell and I had the mechanic take a look. He said the head gasket is leaking oil. Not a bad leak but it is leaking. The truck has 160k miles on it. I can't decide what to do...
What generally happens with a head oil leak? Will the engine crater or just keep leaking? My plan was to buy my wife a different truck and I would keep the truck, but I don't wont to keep it if the head leak is terminal for the engine...
I bought this Subaru outback with 100,000 miles- clean car fax, etc, did the timing belt, water pump, thermostat at 102,000. Now at 116,000, the head gasket is leaking ($2,200 estimate) so the repair shop is working on that and they called today to say the #2 cylinder is scored and the engine needs to be rebuilt. ($4,000 estimate). I'm not sure if I should have them proceed with he work- that's a bunch of money or look for another engine, or what to do !! Its a great little car- but geez- what to do-
View 5 RepliesA local mechanic tells me I have a blown head gasket on my 2003 Saab 9-5. He also said there's coolant standing in one cylinder. If this is due to stretched head bolts, might I remedy the problem by replacing the head bolts and torqueing to specifications?
View 4 RepliesI have a 03 5.4 F150 SCrew... The intake was leaking on the passenger side (water outlet tube meets plastic).
Putting in the Dorman replacement and noticed that the front cylinder drivers side (#5) had a decent amount of coolant in it.. None of the others did. I've drained the coolant already and was wondering should I just put this back together and see?
The water outlet crossing has a hole right next to this cylinder and I can't see any cracks and not sure if the gaskets were leaking under it.
Seems like if the head gasket was blown I would see it in more cylinders? It never smoked or run bad before I got this leak... Drove it maybe 10 miles with it leaking out onto Cyl#1. Ran fine, never missed.
I just don't want to put this back together if the head gasket is blown but I don't know what to do.
I have my 4.6L engine on a stand in the garage. I think I have a blown head gasket. I am ready to remove the heads.
My Haynes book says: "Caution:Use the required camshaft retaining fixtures to lock the camshafts and leave the tools in place."
A google search shows nothing. Why, what does it do?
The problem is my new-to-me 97 Ford F150 5.4L SOHC engine, auto transmission, is overheating after driving it for a short while. Seems to be fine at idle. I have read previous posts with the exact same issue, but the consistency seems to be all over the map from burping the system, head gasket, thermostat, and possibly a plugged radiator.
Backstory:200,000+ miles.
Truck sat for 6 months after previous owner broke the shift cable.
Truck was in a front end collision. Frame looks bent underneath the engine.
Previous owner had overheating problem. He said he changed the heater core. Looks like brand new coolant in the system so story probably checks out. Desperately needs an oil change. Very black oil.
Previous owner thought the system needed a burping. So I'm largely assuming the problem started after the heater core change, or he misdiagnosed an overheating problem and thought the heater core could cause it. I have found a radiator cap and thermostat in the truck which seems to indicate he tried many things to fix the overheating and was unsuccessful. Engine looks pretty clean for the miles.
Symptoms/Backyard Tests :
Blows cold air with heat on highest level and on defrost.
Blender door fuse intact.
Doesn't overheat at idle.
Ran the truck for 15 mins with the coolant bottle fill cap off on level ground to try to burp it after draining some coolant and checking the thermostat orientation. Coolant level increased in the bottle. Large air bubbles came out. (Another session before this one, I ran it for 30 minutes with no coolant cap, and eventually coolant overflowed the fill bottle. Normal or no?)
Seems to overheat after the thermostat opens. After doing the 15 minute warm up/burp, I took it for a test drive. I drove it about 20 blocks with the temperature gauge on the dash reading the same as the warmed-up idle temperature. Got to the 20th block and the gauge immediately spiked to overheat with the oil pressure dash light coming on. I could be mistaken as the oil pressure light almost looks exactly like the overheat dash light. But I'm pretty sure the temperature icon was on the right side of the oil can icon and not the left.
After the above drive: Upper rad hose too hot to touch.
After the above drive: Lower rad hose medium warm. Could hold on to it if I felt like it.
After the above drive: Upper part of rad pretty hot. Not Insta-burn but hot. Tempature decreases to warm to cool as you go lower down the rad.
After the above drive: Both heater core hoses going to the cab luke warm.
Coolant looks brand new.
Radiator looks slightly bowed. Probably from the accident? Otherwise looks clean and minimal bent fins.
Drained some coolant and pulled the upper rad hose to see if the thermostat was upside down. Looks installed correctly.
No signs of weep hole leaks from the water pump.
Fan seems solid. Has maybe 1-2mm of play in the bearings.
Something that looked like steam from the muffler at startup, that disappeared after getting closer to a normal range warm engine.
I have driven crap cars for many years and I've never seen a plugged radiator which makes me skeptical of it being that. All the radiators I have changed were because they were eventually leaking from cracks in the radiator.
I would also be interested in doing an informal poll if you have read this far and have had this era of F150 that overheated. Have you ever repaired the head gasket? And/or have you ever changed the radiator?
I just purchased a 2003 F150 Supercrew 4.6 that had been wrecked, but somewhat repaired. I knew the owner said it had a blown head gasket. It has water in the oil (small amount asi it is lightly milky) and water starts dripping from the exhaust after it has run for a few minutes. I did not run it long, but throttled it up to warm the engine. It started dripping soot filled water from the exhaust connections. I bought it to put a 4bt in it anyway, but want to sell the motor with the ability to tell the buyer the skinny on it. I drove it on the trailer and off with no apparent loss of power noticeable.
View 2 RepliesAfter running at normal temperature for about 10 minutes, my car starts to overheat. I noticed my radiator fan wasn't running at any speed, but my auxiliary fan was running fine. I checked the thermal switch and that was okay, because the auxiliary A/C fan still worked after jumping, and the big fan didn't. I replaced the fan assembly and now both fans work fine, so I assume that my thermostat is okay (maybe not and I'm missing something?). Even though both fans are running, my car still overheats, but maybe after 15 minutes now as opposed to 10. Water pump seems to be fine because I can see it pumping back into the coolant reservoir, and it doesn't seem to be sputtering or anything. Just replaced coolant recently after flushing with water, so I assume that the radiator isn't clogged. I also recently replaced the oil because it needed it anyway. It is still overheating so now I'm stuck. I can get to work and back because it's only a 5 minute trip and it doesn't have time to overheat, but I don't want to keep driving it obviously.
View 9 RepliesI have a 97 with a 4.6 Triton motor I need to replace the head gasket on the passenger side number 3 is leaking nothing else is wrong with motor so I have it torn down to timing chain cover and ready to remove. do i have to take the drivers side valve cover completely off to take timing chain cover off or can I take to first 2 studs out of the drivers side front valve cover and side the timing cover off. I just want to replace the passenger side head gasket and get rid of truck.
View 6 RepliesI have a quick question, I just replaced the head gaskets on my 4.6 with 301,000 miles on it and now my battery only charges when you punch it and when you lift off the gas pedal, in town it does fine, but on drives 25 miles on the highway the battery guage goes to the line on the bottom. What could be causing that?
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