Blown Head Gasket?

[DamnYanks2]

Need some advice, obviously a blown head gasket is a death sentence. My 98 Chrysler Sebring has been overheating and I flushed the coolant, and put some new coolant in it, and overnight it evaporated, it did not leak that I could see. Could it be something else?

[aukevin]

I had a blown head gasket on my '96 Mustang when it was about 5 years old. It cost some money to fix it, but that car lasted me 16 years, so it isn't necessarily a death sentence, but on a '98 it sure is. Hopefully that isn't it for you.

Have your radiator and water pump checked, they'll cause overheating and the dumping of coolant.

[DamnYanks2]

Quote: Originally Posted by aukevin

I had a blown head gasket on my '96 Mustang when it was about 5 years old. It cost some money to fix it, but that car lasted me 16 years, so it isn't necessarily a death sentence, but on a '98 it sure is. Hopefully that isn't it for you. Have your radiator and water pump checked, they'll cause overheating and the dumping of coolant.

Yea, I bought this thing for about 600 dollars, and it's been great for that price, other then an oil leak, but man I'm screwed if it goes down. I'll check into that though, thank you. I just don't want to pay someone 100 dollars just to look at it, and tell me it's a head gasket.

[Bullit]

Coolant/Antifreeze can't normally or easily get sucked into the exhaust as the exhaust is under pressure leaving the cylinder. However, it can get sucked into the intake path and/or pulled in at the head gasket during the intake stroke when vacuum is created and/or by pressure from the cooling system. Plus Coolant/Antifreeze being burned in the engine should create steam out of the tail pipe along with condensation drops of water.

I suggest pulling the plugs and visually inspect them for one or two being cleaner than the rest are as the created steam actually cleans the plugs and piston tops. Usually a blown head gasket that is leaking Coolant/Antifreeze into the combustion chamber/cylinder will cause the engine to have a rough idle since the Coolant/Antifreeze cools down the combustion process interfering with complete combustion.

You could try a Head Gasket sealer if that ends up being the correct diagnosis and if you go that route you must follow the somewhat time-consuming directions to the letter or it will not seal the leak.

[longshadow11]

I think you have to weigh the pros and cons of an expensive repair if you can't fix it yourself. I was in a similar situation recently, and I just couldn't put up to $2,000 repairing a car that was old and had close to 200, 000 miles on it.

[djp73]

those cars have a ton of problems with water pumps and head gaskets

aside from paying a professional to properly diagnose it how do you expect to find out for sure?

even if it's not a head gasket you're likely to exceed the value of that car doing even a basic repair

[C the Lyte]

What does our oil look like? Is it milky/muddy looking?

[DamnYanks2]

Phew, I dodged a bullet, it turned out be a frayed wire and my fan wasn't operating properly, causing it to overheat. I ended up just putting a toggle switch on it, and it's good to go now, been driving it all day, I appreciate the replies though fellas.