This is almost beyond belief for me and I want you to know up front I am not pulling your leg(s) on this. About an hour ago, my pristine bought-it-new Mobil 1 since new, fully synthetic everything anally maintained cooling system, positively never even heat stressed, much beloved '93 blew her head gasket!
I don't know if the two of them have been talking in the garage and Bessie was jealous of the attention Lucy got last month with her head gasket, or what. Ironically, I got the last of the 2nd wave of the head gasket DVDs in the mail this very morning, ran some errands and a few hours later the heat briefly went cool, then back to normal as I pulled onto the freeway to come home from Spokane Valley. Maybe 8 seconds. Watched the temp needle for several minutes and it moved a half needle up then back down over a period of 30 seconds. Kept driving watching the guages and all was normal. About 5 minutes later I couldn't handle the suspense and pulled off on the next exit mindful to keep it in neutral and keep the revs around 1500 (exiting freeways is when thermal shocks occur as RPM drops from 2500 to 600). Got it stopped and let the idle drop to 600 and it was *slightly* rough.
Flashers on. Jumped out and lifted the hood to see the overflow bottle overfull and bubbling away. Shut it down and immediately elected to grab a rag and pop the rad cap because if my suspicion of a HG was true then as soon as the pistons stop the pressurized cooling system will start shoving water into the cylinder(s). Not a lot of pressure or boilover occurred. Quick sniff on the open rad (NEVER do this - ever - on a hot radiator) gave me a noseful of combustion gases and fuel. Radiator full. Checked oil, tranny fluid, PS fluid - all normal.
Started her up and motored on home with the flashers on at 45 both heaters at full blast and windows cracked (21 degrees out). No accelerations, kept high idle at stoplights and eased her into her parking spot in the garage. Immediate shut down, chinese fire drill to again pop radiator cap. Everything's full and fine. I think I literally 'felt' the head gasket go and she's cooling in the garage. I'm going to pull the sparkplugs to confirm (should find one or more stripped clean from steam) and order Cdan's head gasket kit Monday.
Can you believe it? I can honestly say I'm not upset. Feeling kind of bemused, actually. I have done what needs to be done now twice just 30 days ago, have all the tools, heck, some of the new tools are still sitting on the bench 'til I find a home for them!
Tuesday I'm gone to Florida with my wife and kids for two weeks and I just know every once in a while I'm going to be sitting by the pool with a drink in one hand and laugh to myself about this one...
Which reminds me. I placed a call to Cdan already and he called me back later. After hearing the story, and WITHOUT me saying a word about my earlier accusation that he's using voodoo he tells me he may have forgotten to pull the knitting needle out of my particular voodoo doll. Which pretty much explains why I had to take the head off twice on the other one. So please, Dan - I'm beggin' ya publicly here - take the freakin' needle out!!!
DougM
I don't know if the two of them have been talking in the garage and Bessie was jealous of the attention Lucy got last month with her head gasket, or what. Ironically, I got the last of the 2nd wave of the head gasket DVDs in the mail this very morning, ran some errands and a few hours later the heat briefly went cool, then back to normal as I pulled onto the freeway to come home from Spokane Valley. Maybe 8 seconds. Watched the temp needle for several minutes and it moved a half needle up then back down over a period of 30 seconds. Kept driving watching the guages and all was normal. About 5 minutes later I couldn't handle the suspense and pulled off on the next exit mindful to keep it in neutral and keep the revs around 1500 (exiting freeways is when thermal shocks occur as RPM drops from 2500 to 600). Got it stopped and let the idle drop to 600 and it was *slightly* rough.
Flashers on. Jumped out and lifted the hood to see the overflow bottle overfull and bubbling away. Shut it down and immediately elected to grab a rag and pop the rad cap because if my suspicion of a HG was true then as soon as the pistons stop the pressurized cooling system will start shoving water into the cylinder(s). Not a lot of pressure or boilover occurred. Quick sniff on the open rad (NEVER do this - ever - on a hot radiator) gave me a noseful of combustion gases and fuel. Radiator full. Checked oil, tranny fluid, PS fluid - all normal.
Started her up and motored on home with the flashers on at 45 both heaters at full blast and windows cracked (21 degrees out). No accelerations, kept high idle at stoplights and eased her into her parking spot in the garage. Immediate shut down, chinese fire drill to again pop radiator cap. Everything's full and fine. I think I literally 'felt' the head gasket go and she's cooling in the garage. I'm going to pull the sparkplugs to confirm (should find one or more stripped clean from steam) and order Cdan's head gasket kit Monday.
Can you believe it? I can honestly say I'm not upset. Feeling kind of bemused, actually. I have done what needs to be done now twice just 30 days ago, have all the tools, heck, some of the new tools are still sitting on the bench 'til I find a home for them!
Tuesday I'm gone to Florida with my wife and kids for two weeks and I just know every once in a while I'm going to be sitting by the pool with a drink in one hand and laugh to myself about this one...
Which reminds me. I placed a call to Cdan already and he called me back later. After hearing the story, and WITHOUT me saying a word about my earlier accusation that he's using voodoo he tells me he may have forgotten to pull the knitting needle out of my particular voodoo doll. Which pretty much explains why I had to take the head off twice on the other one. So please, Dan - I'm beggin' ya publicly here - take the freakin' needle out!!!
DougM
for poolside in Florida
