Blown Head Gasket?? Need some help.

[KB01GT]

So heres a quick rundown of the situation. I work in Louisiana and bought an 03 out of New orleans while I was down there. Drove the car 750mi back to Illinois about a month ago with zero issues and parked it when i got home. Had to leave again for work and just got back home. I went out to start the car and it fired right up with no problems. As I let it idle and warm up I noticed White smoke coming from exhaust that kinda smelled of coolant so I shut car off and check the oil again and coolant level. Oil looked fine and was not milky and coolant was full. Started car again and while idling the cap poped and coolant poured everywhere. The expansion tank prolly split since its old and I havent replaced it. What do you guys think? Im going with head gasket but looking for imput.:beer:

 

[Quagmire]

Do a compression and a leak down test, it will tell you everything. If you see bubbles in coolant bad head gasket.

 

[My96z]

I figured mine out by barely cracking open the plug on the cross over, nothing but air (combustion gasses) would come out. The headgasket was letting combustion gasses into the cooling system and then causeing it to overheat.

Car didnt smoke or anything at first, but would blow coolant onto the window under WOT. Eventually it did start to smoke.

 

[Carbd86GT]

Do a compression and a leak down test, it will tell you everything. If you see bubbles in coolant bad head gasket.

+1

This is the only way to know for sure before you start worrying and tearing into things.

 

[KB01GT]

So update is that this morning I burped the coolant system and let car warm up with bleeder open just alittle on crossover tube. Had some slight bubbles that eventually stoped once car warmed up. No smoke with a slight coolant smell through vents with heater on. Drove car about 10-15mi with no issues. Car does not overheat and does not seem down on power. Gonna take her in and have compression and leak-down done today or tom. Thanks guys

 

[NJredfire03]

I went through the same thing, over and over. Eventually had to replace head gaskets, resurface heads, and get a valve job. Still never figured out why it was doing that. ARP head studs helped definitely. Good luck on the the tests.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

I dunno what a shop charges for leakdown/compression tests but isnt the coolant tester like $50 that will tell if theres byproducts from combustion gasses in the coolant?

 

[My96z]

That tester didnt work for me. The coolant tank is so far out of the coolant system so it wouldnt pick up any of the exhaust gasses. I had a blown headgasket and that thing came up clean.

 

[Terminator0304]

Mine is blown also, I went to install my head cooling mod and found the antifreeze looked like a brown sludge, thought maybe system needed a flush, finished installing head mod and flushed system, filled cooling system with fresh antifreeze and new thermostat, drove the car for a day and checked fluid, it was dirty again and while idling in my garage fans continuously running it bagan to overheat and spewed coolant all over so I flushed it again and was hoping maybe i hadnt got everything out and not bled it properly. so today i drove the car 20 miles highway and around town, no overheating but it did start blowing antifreeze out of the coolant jug again and the antifreeze has the rust colored sludge floating in the tank again. This sucks considering I have only had the car a month and put less than 1000 miles on it. Good thing is... I am a shop owner, so It will only cost me parts but damn that looks like a lot of work!

 

[Terminator0304]

Doing a lot of reading and seeing multiple issues with de gas bottle and cap so if it passes the exhaust gas and cylinder pressure test i will try a new bottle and cap.:shrug: