blown head gasket?

[aznlonewolf135]

So I'm running errends today sick on my day off and white smoke starts coming out of my tail pipe but no over heating yet...It smokes for about 3-5 minutes and as soon as it stop smoking it rapidly over heats. So I pull over check out engine bay...


<img src ="http://k.boragine.home.comcast.net/~k.boragine/engineBay.JPG">

There seems to be coolent splatter near the intake manifold. At first glace it seems the coolent came from the hose that connected engine to the round black plastic bmw "thing"

So i finish my errends on foot and limp the car home by driving it until the needle moves too far for my comfort and then I'll coast and pull over.

CHP "pulls" me over when i'm already pulled over and insist I get off the free way ,even though I only needed to get off in 2 exit, insisting it was much safer...mind you he is insisting I get off DOWNTOWN at 6:30pm Which ends up adding another 2-3 miles to my trip...

[cooljess76]

Bummer dude, sounds like you might have a blown head gasket. Best way to check is do a leakdown test. AutoZone sells a kit for about 20-30 bucks. An obvious sign would be oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil. If your dipstick and oil cap look like chocolate milk, it's blown. But you might not be at that point yet. It doesn't always mix either, sometimes the gasket will blow in a place where the coolant doesn't flow into the oil.

[aznlonewolf135]

She's got a little under 140...

I know it's not the hardest job but on a scale of 1-10 how hard are we talking here and just so we have the same frame of reference compare it to changing out a a clutch or starter...

should I start looking for a new love and whore this one out?

[cooljess76]

It's a tedious job and out of reach for the average DIYer. The job involves ripping the entire top of the engine off. You'll need a few special tools that can quickly get very expensive.

Teardown isn't very difficult, removing the cams, lifters, valves, timing sprockets etc. Once the head is off, you'll get your first glimpse of the damage. From there, you'll be able to see if any of the valves are bent/burnt, cylinder walls scored or damaged(if so, then you're looking at bottom end work ie. pistons, rings, rods, rod bearings...)

The head will need to be taken to an automotive machine shop to be checked for flatness and/or cracks. If it's warped, they can remove a couple thousandths by resurfacing it, but you'll have to compensate with a thicker gasket or your compression will go up.

Going back to the block, if the cylinder buckets are damaged, they can bore them out and install sleeves(which is better than running larger pistons, like some shops will try to do).

Once all of the damage is addressed, then you get to build it back up. This is where things get really tricky. You're gonna want to replace all of the hardware. It's never good to re-use old head studs, bearings etc. A lot of that stuff is designed to only be torqued once in it's lifetime.

Obviously you'll be installing a new gasket. Everythings gonna need to be loctited and torqued to spec. The most difficult part will be compressing the valve springs and seating the cams. I've heard of people making a special tool. If I'm not mistaken, it can be done with the head off, so I'd just let a shop do it.

Once the head is built back up, check the lifter and rocker clearances, new gasket in place, marry the head to the block. Now you'll have to install the timing sprockets and timing chain. Once everything is in place, you'll need to time the cams before torquing down the sprockets. You'll need a couple special tools, cam locking tool, crank locking pin. Then you install the valve cover, new gasket of course.

Drain/flush all of the oil and coolant, clean or replace the plugs and pray to god you didn't forget or miss anything. It's a 20hr job at most shops. Usually costs between 1500-2k bucks. If you DIY, you can do it for about 300-400 not including the tools and assumng the head is not cracked and can be resurfaced without removing too much material. You might as well replace the entire cooling system while you're at it, so there's another 300-400. At the very least, you should replace the two plastic coolant fittings that are known to break. Those can be purchased for about 30 bucks.

On a scale of 1-10, this job will be a solid 10, clutch being a 7 and starter being a 5. It's probably the most complicated thing you can possibly do to the car short of an engine swap or rewiring the entire electrical system from scratch. You'll definitely need a Bentley manual for torque specs, proceedures etc.

I definitely wouldn't part the car out because of it though. It's probably a good swap candidate for someone else if you weren't interested in doing it. And right now, we're just speculating it's a blown head gasket. We don't know for sure it is or the extent of the damages if it is. Don't assume anything until you've done a leakdown test. Best wishes,

-Jess

[aznlonewolf135]

upon a little further investigation I stress little because I am sick and working full days...hose number 11 is in piss poor condition and one of the ends that connected to the back of the block came off very easily.

I checked the oil from the cap and the dip stick and it looked very normal. However I did see condensation of coolent along the dip stick.

[cooljess76]

Maybe you have a blown hose or cracked plastic fitting and coolant sprayed on the exhaust. That's why i said not to assume anything until you've performed a leakdown test. Before you do a leakdown test, it couldn't hurt to fill the radiator back up, start the car and look for coolant leaks.

[dbrown504]

Pretty much the same thing has happend to me recently, but I was not able to just pull my car over and had to drive it. white smoke, high temp. realized that my coolant was empty. had to get it towed to the house. My hose #11 from the diagram was completely gone on one end, looked like coolant had came out from it. Could the coolant from that hose sprayed onto my starter? Now my car will not start and its making that whirring noise it once did before I replaced the starter. I do not have any coolant in my oil, was leaking coolant out of my tail pipe after I topped my coolant off. Any help will be much appreciated.

[jca]

I'm pretty sure that coolant out the tailpipe means that the head gasket is blown. Good luck with the fix. John