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View Full Version : Blown head gasket(I hope) opinions? pics and story inside


jskateborders
10-25-2007, 11:51 PM
First off, heres the bg on the car.
stock s13 blacktop
s15smic
aluminum, high pressure radiator
Ok, so heres where the story begins.
I did a compression test on my car, and I had low compression, granted, I did it dry.
My numbers were 107 105 110 115 not in that order, I forgot the order
I had boost coming out of the breather on my valve cover, so Im thinking, shit my rings are fried. I decide to take it up to densetsu and on the way my car overheats. Im singing along, like we all do on long drives, and dont notice till the needle is at the top. I pull over, let it cool off open the radiator, and its dry. I add water, starts up, runs cool all the way to the shop (about 25 more miles). Have them look at it, tell me I have blow by. spend like 2 hrs there, then proceed to make my way home. About 30 miles from the shop, It gets really hot again, so I pull over and theres coolant all over the passenger side of the engine bay. Im pissed. I let it cool off, Add the last of the water I have in the car, And start driving again. Cools of for a little while and then gets really hot again. pull off at an exit and my car turns off in front of some dudes house. They come
out to see whats wrong, the give me more water and point me to a gas station. I drive there and get more water and throw it in. Driving the rest of the way home, It gets really hot again, so I call my dad, and get Him to bring me more water. During this whole time I notice that the rate I lose water does not depend on speed, So I decide to fly home. I make It back before It overheats agian. Its late so I go to bed cause I work at 5 am. The next day, Im pulling It apart and I notice a blown water hose under the intake manifold. I replace It, add water, start it up let it run. Its fine. I go to bed, wake up and start to drive It to work. It over heats again on the way there. I pop the hood, Its still dark, so I can barely see anything. What I do notice is water in the engine bay. I call a tow truck, get them to tow me home. Miss work, start pulling stuff apart again, find another blown hose under the intake manifold. This time I replace every single hose I can Find, and put it all back together. Go to start It up and It just cranks. During this whole process, I did remove my harness and put it back, So I figure i must have forgot to plug something or other. I check fuel, Its there, I check spark, Its there. I notice that with my radiator cap theres exhaust coming out of the radiator. Fuck blown head gasket. I go to check compression and Have the gauge in cylinder one. Turn it over and water shoots all over me out of cylinder 2 and 3. By this time Im very pissed because this is my only car. Me and my freind pull the head off right then and there. I didnt see any cracks in the block walls or in the cylinder head. From the amount of water out of the cylinders, I figure the cracks would be very visible. The head gasket is in one peice, a little warn, but in one peice.
My thought on this hole thing is that the first time it overheated was because it ran out of water due to It being a high pressure radiator and the location of the overflow tank, and me being a dumbass. Then It damaged the headgasket, causing pressure to build up in the water lines, blowing the first hose. This cause more damage to the headgasket, and the pressure blew the other hose, and that time it destroyed the headgasket. Only problem is , the hg doesnt look all that bad. Honestly though, I dont have that much experience with blown head gaskets, and what little I do, they have always been very obviously blown.
Also my water pump did go out during this whole thing. Leaking water out of the weeping hole
I would like to get some of your opinions on this situation, And what you think.
Heres Pictures of everything. The oil in the cylinders was to check for leaks.
http://a275.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/63/m_5bd57d841ae3f138d167dac2b13792ca.jpg
http://a155.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/7/m_bf3ea5ba420be1c62fc494e9e6aa8f82.jpg
http://a64.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/61/m_fc7d85d23a61182e598284a1b9e4edef.jpg
http://a468.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/24/m_c73a2eee5ceeeacd9faf1d4c23a9d3db.jpg
http://a59.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/97/m_9fdb565f50b13bd6db93bef4cbe65b6a.jpg
http://a276.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/120/m_c164c4da07d8494078e5d44fa6045d1b.jpg
http://a237.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/36/m_655a4d2170db8ee73244deca9a491354.jpg
http://a640.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/75/m_475a2ba860745b7c0eb3919785418f6f.jpg
http://a586.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/56/m_2aca6dc4eba5d18b0ef5df229d9ea081.jpg
http://a809.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/74/m_a0cf0fda0e87080199ea05884a51cc08.jpg
http://a171.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/59/m_9ac0f0b6cd36951e6bd90b41ee02c782.jpg
http://a402.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/119/m_0ef8fd5a313a40925195c194ba374949.jpg
http://a870.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/120/m_7445639d34bd4a57d55bc6891e295955.jpg
Photos are small so as not to make anyones comp go to slow. For bigger pics, go here
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=19383844&albumId=1071919 (http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.editAlbumPhotos&albumID=1071919&MyToken=63457281-7faf-4dce-884e-6dcec9bf4d3f)
Thanks in advance for looking guys. Also if you need me to take a picture of something else or do anything so you can better help me, let me know.
Jason

rob3725
10-26-2007, 12:20 AM
any smoke whatsoever?

jskateborders
10-26-2007, 12:21 AM
none at all. Never smoked the whole time I had it. I put the swap in. Exhaust was always non visible.

Chrischeezer
10-26-2007, 12:30 AM
nahh get rid of that headgasket def. blown..
weakest part of an sr20 is the headgasket, first thing to blow.

i recommend a commetic headgasket with ARP studs (at 85 flbs.)
i use a HKS head gasket but it has given me problems

your "bigger" pics don't work by the way.

jskateborders
10-26-2007, 12:37 AM
pics are fixed.

used240sxparts
10-31-2007, 08:55 AM
ya, your headgasket is done... also you may have warped the head from overheating it to many times... Bring the head to a reputable machine shop and have them check to see if the head is still within clearance and have them redeck the head. Then replace the head gasket with a cometic and some arp studs..

Hope that helps