Head Gaskett Gone?

[Guest Knownothing]

Back in may i subjected my car to a drive back from Glencoe to North Wales on a really hot day. Now after driving for half an hour or so the radiator is boiling over with brown froth. Upon taking the radiator cap off a thick brown froth can be seen.

 

Oil appears clean under the oil cap.

 

Once the engine has cooled there is a film of bubbles on top of the water.

 

Has the head gaskett gone?

 

Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

Cheers

[agent_zed]

looks like it to me. I've had a car where the oil remained clean but pushed through into the water like that. Is the oil level lower?

[Guest 2b cruising]

First thing to do is give your radiator and engine a good flushing out.

I think someone just might have used something like bars leaks in there.

Whatever, your coolant mix has not been the correct strength, hence the rust colour.

When and only when you have your system clean, fill it back up with water, avoid wasted cost as you will be draining it out again.

When it is full and bled to an air free state, gently I've a few soft squeezes to the bottom hose with the cap off. This should displace any air remnants. Start the engine with the cap off and keep on idle. Watch inside the filler for air bubbles.

If no bubbles at this point, keep idling or just above idle to get the system up to running temp and recheck for bubbles.

If no bubbles it is unlikely your head gasket has gone. Looking at the mess inside your system, there is a good chance that you have blocked radiator tubes. This would of course lead to overheating.

If you do have a constant feed of air bubbles, it's a good pointer to burnt out gasket.

I don't usually recommend a compression test for head gasket check as they do not always show if the leak is only a small one or even only leaking when hot.

If you are confident the gasket has gone, it's not the end of the world and not that difficult a job to complete.

Good luck and I hope you do well with it. Just remember safety when you are removing hot rad caps.

Ken.

PS. Coolant usually goes white if oil is present. Especially if you have run it hot for such a long distance.

Edited August 29, 2016 by 2b cruising

[Guest Knownothing]

Oil level is correct.

[Longboarder]

Doesn't look like oily froth to me. Oily froth doesn't dry to rusty dust so just rusty froth IMO, so in future make sure you run anti-corrosion levels of antifreeze all year round.

 

Wether you have a head-gasket leak or not I'm not sure. You can pressure test the cooling system, do a leakdown test on the cylinders or use an exhaust gas detecting kit on top of the rad (a gathering system and a blue fluid that goes yellow if exhaust gas is bubbled through it). All need a bit of cash for the kit. Ebay for exhaust gas kit probably cheapest.

 

Nigel

Edited August 30, 2016 by Longboarder