So i went to castle hill for lunch and to pick up some things. I see the low coolant light come on, but the temp still looked ok, so i keep driving. (The mistake)
Get to the M2 tollbooth and steam is coming out of the bonnet, so i pull over and call the towtruck.
Get to work and notice the rad hoses to the LPG converter have come off and let all the coolant out. So we fill up the coolant and reconnect the hoses, yeah she'll be right..
Head home and now shes drinking coolant at a level of 2 litres every 5kms, steam pouring out of the exhaust, but no oil in the coolant, or coolant in the oil. Nothing seems to be leaking from the head or the radiator.
Definately head gasket right?
Its a Falcon ED btw.

I blew my headgasket (apparently) in my old magna. Didn't know until I took it in for service.

Yay me! Got to prove that stereotype

Sorry can't help, no clue. I blew the tube just before my car died though. Steam was pissing out of the bonnet

I guess it's possible that the head is cracked between a water jacket and an exhaust outlet and that the head gasket is still fine, but either way the head is coming off.

Sounds like it might have blown between a water jacket and a cylinder.

Best way to check is to either try a compression test or take the radiator cap off and crank the car over. If it is pressurising the coolant it should want to spray out while cranking.

Other way if it isn't pressurising the coolant is to take out all the spark plugs and lay some news paper over all of the spark plug holes and crank it over. Check the paper afterwards for wet spots.

Jim is inside my head :(

yea deffinatly sounds like a blown gasket OR cracked head, but usually its the gasket.
pull the head clean the old gasket off(check head/block for cracks) and chuck a new gasket in. set bolts to required tourqe setting.

edit: these fellas beat me to it and totally correct

last edited by Fuknukle at 20:29:18 20/Apr/06

Yeah my Camry was spewin' steam out the exhaust, Uncle Buck stylz (although he had smoke).

Head Gasket was gone :(

I blew my headgasket (apparently) in my old magna. Didn't know until I took it in for service.

Yay me! Got to prove that stereotype

I cracked the head in my gemini & didn't even know about it until I went to check the water in the car & there wasn't any, checked the oil, so that's where all the water went. I have no idea how long I was driving around with a cracked head/sump full of water for I check the oil/water about every 6 months, or when a light tells me to. Can't have been all that long, I probably fluked checking the water when I did.

Also, if you can find a flat enough surface make sure the head isn't warped anywhere from the heat before you just go slapping it back on.

note that some or most warping (been a long time since I had any experience in this area) isn't usually detectable without feeler gauges :)

How do you use the feeler gauges to detect warping? Wouldnt wasnt to put it all together again and find out the head is warped.

use a straight edge metal(something dead straight) ruler and try push the feelers under.
while the head is off ofcourse to get access to it

slide them between your straight edge and different sections of the head. I have no idea what the tolerance should be though, you need advice from someone with current skillz :) in fact I reckon the best bet is to take it to a machine shop who specialise in head repairs. some cracks can't be detected without a pressure test and the head may be warped, but not enough for you to know for sure. they can check it and possibly machine it and hand it back to you and you'll know it's good to bolt back on

can I say that Whoop's oil looks like a big bowl of s***?

3 head gaskets and counting for me :)

What sort of car do you drive tung?? ( so i never get one) 3 head gaskets ffs thats insane s***

No what is awesome is that he hasn't owned it for very long.

the head was probably bolted back on warped from the first time :)

thats 3 head gaskets in 4 cars, not 3 in the one car :p

well if you love head gaskets so much why don't you MARRY one