Questions and Answers
Blown Head Gasket?
Q. I recently was told that I have a head gasket leak! What they (the guys at the garage) didn't tell me was how serious is this? If I don't get it fixed ASAP what kind of problems would I be facing (besides freezing on cold mornings.)
I'm taking it in this week anyway but I just would like to know more about what's wrong with my car other than it's going to cost $700.00 to get it fixed. I'm not totally dim when it comes to cars. My biggest concern is that they're going to pull the engine out to fix the leak and then it will snowball into other problems later. Any help, information, advice would be very welcomed and appreciated!
Sincerely,
SamanthaA. You didn't mention what kind of car you have, but in general a head gasket replacement is a pretty straightforward job. It is just very labor intensive. I have never seen a car where I had to take the engine out to replace a head gasket. As with any major job you will run into, what I call, the "might as wells". Things that might as well be done while you have the engine apart. And there are hidden things that may be bad and aren't discovered until you start taking things apart.
One thing I have found is that on high milage American engines, if you replace the head gasket there is an increased lienholder that it will start pulling oil up past the rings. When you have a nice tight top end, the weaker bottom end will not be able to keep the oil from coming up and getting burned.
Besides leaving you stranded somewhere, a bad head gasket can cause engine damage, depending on the severity of the leak and where it's leaking.
One other thing, if you are a "Professional Heartbreaker", please don't break mine.
Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA
