questions on head gasket replacement

[jdbubb at ix.netcom.com (Dan Bubb)]

Couple thoughts:
1. depending on how you drive your car you can get little moisture deposits
on the top of the dipstick, inside the oil fill cap and other places that
don't see a continuous oil flow. You can also get a little brown foam in
these areas. This doesn't mean too much. OTOH if you drain your oil and get
a dose of coolant or you have a lot of brown foam in the oil then you've got
a problem. What you describe doesn't sound bad.
2. water is a normal product of combustion. Once everything is hot it comes
out as steam and isn't too noticable, but if your exhaust pipe is cold then
you'll get water drops. Again, what you describe sounds normal.

I've reused headbolts in the past (bad, bad boy!) with no apparent problems.
You can check the block and head for warpage with a straight edge. I'm
pretty sure the Bentley describes this.

Sounds to me like you have some cooling system issues, but I wouldn't jump
to the conclusion it's your headgasket.
Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robbie Cotner" <robw_z@yahoo.com>
To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 4:23 AM
Subject: questions on head gasket replacement


> First off thank you to anyone who reads all this! I replaced the
headgasket on my JH 8v about 6 months ago, but I think it's gone bad again.
The engine was rebuilt 15K ago, and the head gasket replaced about 3K ago
because I had to remove the head to drill out an exhaust stud.  Here are my
symptoms:
>
> 1.) I *think* I have a little coolant in the oil.  It's so little that
it's hard to tell whether its moisture build up or coolant, but it's
consistently in the breather line.  I stuck a straightened coat hanger down
the dipstick tube to the bottom of the pan, no coolant apparent on it when
brought back up.
>
> 2.) I *think* I'm burning coolant.  No noticeable smoke out the exhaust,
but I can feel moisture coming out with my hand.  Putting a dollar bill in
front of the exhaust outlet for a few seconds left a few small water
droplets on the bill.  Also my spark plugs are eerily clean after replacing
them 1K miles ago, and appear to have little white crystals on them.  A look
at the pistons through the plug holes revealed some white substance in the
"valleys"(cracks) of the carbon buildup.
>
> 3.) My compression is 137-142-148-148.
>
> 4.) My car runs hotter than it did last summer(110-115C oil temps, water
temp just above the LED on the freeway).  Also it seems to boil over very
easily(in part due to the fact my rad fan wasn't working for awhile there,
but that shouldn't make a difference on the highway, correct?)  The cooling
system is flushed and running 70/30 water/coolant.  The rad has been Simple
Green'ed overnight about a month ago.
>
> Attempts to see if I'm actually losing coolant have been futile since I
kept losing it through other means(boilovers, leaky tank cap); though since
I've solved those problems it does seem I'm losing it slowly, very slowly.
>
> Now if/when I replace my headgasket, what should I check while I'm in
there?  I'm guessing I did something wrong on the last job.  Also last time
I reused the headbolts(they only had 10K on them), I'm getting new ones this
time though.  Any reccomendations for a good brand of headgasket?  I'm
worried that the block is somehow warped(or even worse, cracked!).  How
would I check for that, and whats the likeliness that happened?  How easy
are cracks in the head to spot?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> -Rob
>
>
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