Phoenix people please help /Please welcome me to the blown head gasket club (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Mar 6, 2006
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Location
Westwood, Ca/Ixtapa MX/Ahwatukee, Az
My Wife is in town and we planned a nice getaway to Sedona/Jerome We left early this morning and made our way up the 17 towards Sedona. at the offramp to the 260 there was a bit of a hesitation which I thought nothing of. At the left on Finnie Flat the truck bucked & a cloud of billowing white doom wafted from my tail pipe. I turned back towards the freeway & an AM PM where I confirmed my fear. Over the next 7 hours ( it had taken 2 to get there I stopped no less than 10 times and no more than 15 adding water.) There were several accidents which conspired to lengthen the ordeal. My hope @ this point is some kind person knows of a good mechanic that is near 50th & Chandler, will accept parts from Dan & can do it quick & well. I have no other cars here as I am not truly an Arizonan & my cars are in Morelia & L.A. so I'll be renting a car tomorrow. Thanks
 
Good luck m8, hate to hear this, especially happening when your on vacation! :crybaby:
 
Just saw the damage. Gasket is original & is blown in front of 1 & at the side of 6

Per Vern seems like it was leaking for a little while before it went completely. Head is on it's way to the machine shop for it's diagnosis
 
So after a week & a day & new radiator I got the news that the motor is great! YEA!!!! get her back in the morning! :D
 
I Got it back at noon and it is running great. They got it done pretty fast & were great to deal with.

One question, Does the ABS computer need time to "learn"it's program after the battery is disconnected? twice it "pulsed" when I was stopping normally.

Man I am glad to be out of that pos Cobalt.
 
Lucky for you that you were on vacation when it happened. At least you had the time to deal fully with the problem. I can imagine what a bigger problem it would be if you had a 9 to 5 to deal with at the same time.


Kalawang
 
I wasn't on vacation, my Wife was. I am "living" in Phoenix for now for work, but we LIVE, right now until my Daughter graduates High School in Morelia, MX.

My Wife was here for two and a half weeks and I had taken Monday off to go to Sedona. I used the Monday to take the truck to the shop.

I am very happy with the results. It feels like a new truck.
 
ABS issue - have any front axle work done recently?

DougM
 
Rebuilt the front end several months ago. Never had any issues, never removed battery. I think it was the computer relearning it's processes because it did not recur today. All is well.

I thought the truck had good power before & it may have but it is really quite peppy for a behemoth!

I am verry happy with the results.
 
I just posted in your thread.

I left out ask for Vern if you call them.

Good luck.
 
This is probably not the right place to post this theory, since most of the readers are savvy. However.......it came as news to me some years ago that it was not good practice to use an excessive amount of "antifreeze" in the coolant mixture. I had always assumed that if a 50/50 ratio was ok, then more antifreeze instead of water would be even better.

Then I read an explanation that while the pure coolant did raise the boiling point and lower the cooling point of water, the coolant itself was not an efficient conductor of heat. If your mixture is too rich, it will get too hot because it isn't giving up enough heat to the radiator.

After learning this, I was always struck by the number of disabled cars with boil-overs that I would see in early summer.

One wonders whether some of these incidents are triggered by improper coolant mixtures? (or is it just my wishful thinking with 140k on the fj80?)
 
I don't know about the science of coolant to water mixture ratio, I just know that the manufacturer has a reason for the things they dictate as correct and I have always done my best to use their recommendations. I think that is why my things usually last longer than average. I take care of them pretty well.

I think 166k is a reasonable interval for a hg (my current mileage) & I am glad that my bottom end has been checked & deemed in good shape.
 

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