Blown head gasket or cracked head?

bigjerm · Sep 30, 2009

Over the last few months I've dumped a bunch of money into my truck(trans rebuilt, shocks, egr solenoid,egr sensor, plugs,wires,maf cleaned, throttle body serviced,tires)hoping that i would reach the end, but thinking about tapping out, as I'm worried the blown head is next, to go along with the new ball joints all around. I purchased this truck pretty blindly, and am finding out the hard way it was ran into the ground. I noticed a while back that the coolant in the reservoir is a little brownish, but in the radiator looks green, i've searched around and found that that is a bad sign of failing head gasket-true? Also, when i first changed the oil, the oil had serious mileage and was very sludgy and had some green sparkly specks in it, maybe a bit milky even, but the "neighborhood" mechanic tried to tell me it was just old. Now, the oil is pretty slick and normal looking, but I'm thinking it may be traveling up the dipstick. With the balljoint news, im about to count my losses and trade this sled in. Any info would be appreciated. thanks.

Big Jim M · Sep 30, 2009

Discoloration in the coolant tank is entirely NORMAL. Blown heads and head gaskets give no warning.. they suddenly put compression in the coolant and overflow the coolant..
Balljoint sales are UP! It is the first trick on the alignments guys platter.
Get your alignment done by Ford! For the most part they give good days work for too much money. But it is done right.
As most of us know little about ball joints it is easy to SELL us new ones when we don't need them.
Big Jim

bigjerm · Sep 30, 2009

thanks, I actually noticed the boots on all the balljoints were busted up while putting in some Bilstein shocks last week. I'd hate to have it fall out deep in mex and roll the truck. Is there anyway to diagnose a failing headgasket in the early stage, or is it just inevitable on a engine that's been abused. I talked to a guy at a shop who said they could do some kind of exhaust test. I'm wondering if that can be relied on. The coolant in the radiator is looking clean, but the resevoir is pretty murky.

Big Jim M · Oct 1, 2009

No way Jose'.. It's either doing fine or it ain't. Why the worry about head gaskets? Most last the life of the engine. Of course you don't hear about the high percentage that last...all you hear about is the ones that fail. Which is a small percentage at most.
Big JIm

RunBaja · Oct 1, 2009

You could just have had a little rust in the coolant for the truck sitting and not having the a 50/50 mix in it. If your worried about the head gaskets you could always run a compression test on the motor its fast and cheap if you or buddy has gauge and a leak down test. but it sounds like your on the right track, just remember its a FORD so it cant be that bad!!

Toms01PSD · Oct 1, 2009

Jim- I don't completely agree with the "it's either good or it's bad" statement based on my experience with my 4.0 this past month...
The truck had bubbles in the coolant tank. The only reason it would have bubbles is from compression in the cooling system. I performed a pressure test on the cooling system (16 lbs according to the cap) for about 20 minutes and the truck didn't lose pressure at all. No white smoke, you could barely smell anti-freeze, and no foam on the dipstick or oil fill cap. It didn't throw a code, run rough, or overheat. I KNEW it was an issue solely because of the compression in the cooling system. When I finely got it torn down both heads were cracked in between the intake and exhaust valves and the head gaskets were leaking in between cylinders 4, 5, and 6. It was also leaking between 2 and 3.
Here's the pressure tester kit: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00946342000P?vName=Tools&cName=Auto&MechanicsTools&sName=Auto Specialty Tools&psid=FROOGLE01&sid=IDx20070921x00003a
If you're that worried about it i'm sure you could rent one from AZ or something but it may not be an issue.

Big Jim M · Oct 1, 2009

Howdy Tom.. As I said it is either good or bad! Not inbetween. Yours was a bad one. My question is, why did you take the cap off and observe the bubbles? I'm betting you had reason to look in there. Those small bubbles you saw were the result of the engine not holding it's compression.
Big Jim

Toms01PSD · Oct 1, 2009

Well obviously it was bad. The thing is though, it was perfectly driveable. Never once did it overheat. I looked in there to check EVERYTHING on the truck. All the fluids and whatnot. The guy who was selling it also told me about the bubbles in there but he was unsure of what it was. If I ran the truck and then shut it off and pulled the radiator cap, coolant would fly about 10 feet (duh). I pretty much had it figured out when I saw the bubbles but I decided to the coolant pressure test for shits and giggles.

SMTGREG · Oct 1, 2009

There is a way to test for exhaust gasses in the cooling system. You put a blue test fluid in a clear cylinder connected to the cooling system and pump the "air" from the system.If the fluid turns green there is exhaust gasses. Most radiator shops can do this test in a few minutes. A stuck thermostat will also cause the coolant to burp out.

Explorin94 · Oct 1, 2009

A plugged radiator will also cause antifreeze to over flow too. Regardless if it is either blown or cracked the heads still have to come off. Pull the heads and then determine from there.

bigjerm · Oct 2, 2009

Well, i dropped it off for the day at a trusted shop, and they did some tests, which ones I don't know, but my guy was sure no blown head gasket, but turns out I got a tiny leak in the radiator. I haven't lost any fluid though. And the fluid that was suspect to me, turns out was just a bit dirty and needs a flush, which will happen now that i need a brand new radiator. Is a tiny leak in the radiator going to be a big risk for a few days? Thanks for the responses.

Big Jim M · Oct 2, 2009

Be as quick as you can to make the repair. As the coolant level drops the first things to get hot are the heads! I'm betting that has been the problem with most cracked heads posted here. They are depending on SPLASHED coolant to take the heat out of them.. They get hot and the coolant doesn't! Because the coolant is too low and the heads have lots of air in them.

Small slow leaks have ruint many, many engines.

BigJim

Original_Ranger84 · Oct 2, 2009

So what jim is saying is that its fine but check it alot until its repaired. just to be safe.

bigjerm · Oct 2, 2009

thanks, i was thinking about waiting for one to come in the mail, but from what you're saying the 40 bucks i might save would not be worth it. I'm gonna get it done tomorrow then. thanks you guys.

Toms01PSD · Oct 5, 2009

How's the truck coming?

Blown head gasket or cracked head?

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