Possible blown head gasket?

[72firebird]

Well I just bought my TTA yesterday and it only has 17,700 miles on it. Well when we went to pick it up the ugy said he had recently had the fluid flushed and we looked and there was coolant in the radiator but none in the tank. So we bought some and filled the tank up to the Hot Full line. Then we drove it like 300 miles home. When we got home the collant level was then at the cold full line. So today I drove it around and I let it warm up in the garage for baout 4 minutes before I drove it and the car has a leak right at the cat but there was fluid on the floor. My dad stuck his finger in it to smell it and said it was water. Well so I drove it for a good couple hours and when I got home my dad said he thinks I might have a blown head gasket (he's knows his cars pretty well and normally I agree with him). The car seems to idle a little rough bouncing around 700-900 rpm. I also had thew car just shut off on me twice don't really know why but I ould put it in park and it would start right up. If there is anyone who thinks they can help me it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jared

 

[Lee_Burough]

Check for air and water where they shouldn't be: Water (read coolant) in the oil, and air bubbling into the coolant reseviour at idle.

I'm sure experienced gasket eliminators will chime in soon Compression tests help to illuuminate your situation too.

leeb

 

[89ICBM]

The 1st tell tale sign is white smoke, not light blue but white coming from the tail pipes, this is steam. 2nd, pull your plugs, where the gasket let go will be the really clean plug, it may also be white and not just clean. The coolant tends to turn white in the combustion chamber. 3rd, you will develope a miss as the coolant starts fowling the plug. You should have been able to see the smoke after the 2 hour ride. Start the car and let it worm up, if the gasket is gone you should start seeing the smoke. HTH

 

[72firebird]

Well the car was producing some white smoke last night. However there are no other signs. The oil seems fine and the coolant in the radiator looks good. The only problems symptoms seem to be the magically disapearing coolant, the liquid (which doesn't smell like coolant at all) on the floor, and white smoke from the exhaust. The only thing of those that throws up a red flag for me is the missing coolant. Tonight we're gunna do a compression test and see what we find out.

 

[72firebird]

Well we jsut got done doing a compression test and I think we had 4 cylinders at 155psi, 1 at 157, 1 at 150, and 1 at 148. So everything checked out and we had called the guy and then he let us know the overfill tank has a hole in the bottom of it. We looked and there's a decent amount of rust on the inner fender.

 

[Lee_Burough]

Whew !!

 

[Lee_Burough]

Originally posted by 72firebird
Well we jsut got done doing a compression test and I think we had 4 cylinders at 155psi, 1 at 157, 1 at 150, and 1 at 148. So everything checked out and we had called the guy and then he let us know the overfill tank has a hole in the bottom of it. We looked and there's a decent amount of rust on the inner fender.

4+1+1+1 = 7 cylinders

Must be German made

 

[72firebird]

Yeah I just realized I meant 3 at 155psi.

 

[postal]

Where do I buy an extra cylinder? I would like to have one also. Hell if they're cheap enough I may take two!

Jason

 

[turbota]

Those coolant recovery bottles are still available from Generous Motors. Mine split along one of the seams about a year ago and I had another one in three days. Any G.M. Dealer can order them... Turbota (#70) P.S. Sign me up for one of those extra cylinders too...