@whatever1539
“What does it mean if there’s no white smoke, but the coolant tests positive for combustion gases, and temp gauge is spiking?”
It means you’ve got major problems . . . blown head gasket, cracked block, etc.
Don’t worry about the white smoke, or lack thereof
Right now we’ve got a car in our fleet that is overheating, and it tested positive for combustion gases. But there’s no white smoke
Yes, it is right. Cracked blocks and cracked heads are actually extremely rare in stock engines… extreme subzero climates aside. Generally when it’s discovered that combustion gasses are getting into the coolant, this is posited as a possibility, but it usually turns out that the headgasket is the culprit.
I have to apologize, by the way. When I originally said “go for it” I hadn’t picked up on the $250 cost. I should have said “try an additive from the parts store”. Mea culpa.
You made an excellent point about the “find a mechanic” comment. It seemed that your area of expertise was other than auto mechanics, so I thought the post made sense when I read it. I promise you that no offense was meant, and it sounds like you may have already found one… and, as you stated, that itself can be extremely difficult. I myself have found competence and honesty to both be “all over the map”, and finding a good honest mechanic is almost a crap shoot. And a manual is always good to have. It’s just that they’re so doggoned expensive.
Re: the white smoke. The white smoke is coolant vaporized and carrying the coolant’s additives. It would not be unusual for that vapor to be “scrubbed” by sticking to the innards of the exhaust system, especially the catalyst coated honeycomb in the converter. Even though it wasn’t designed to scrub coolant additives (largely silicates) out of the water vapor, stuff sticks to stuff. While big white clouds are a great clue that coolant is being vaporized, the lack of them isn’t necessarily a sign that coolant is not being vaporized.
I think your only sensible option is to try some parts store additives. Hopefully one will work.
Sincere best,
TSM
I had those exact symptoms on my Taurus. If I drove for longer than 20 minutes, it would push all the fluid out of the radiator. I carried a gallon of water with me. and filled it up when it cooled down.
I spent hours trying to figure out what was going on. The fans didn’t come on. The thermostat seemed to work. And nothing I did made any difference.
Just remember, it isn’t so much the heat as the pressure. The engine is pushing the fluid out, not boiling it out.
Did a head gasket and - bingo - problem gone. In this case, it only cost a weekend and a couple hundred dollars. Got 3 more years out of the car before it got rear-ended. It doesn’t take much damage to total an old car.
Re the bleed hole, @whatever, when combustion gas escapes into the water jacket it accumulates in a bubble under the thermostat when the thermostat is closed. The bubble of exhaust gas becomes an insulator to the cylinder head allowing the temperature to rise significantly above the ‘wet’ portion of the engine.
With all of this research…why don’t you just DIY. I don’t believe that the mechanic’s $250 process will be much better, so just buy a $20 bottle, follow instructions, then report back.
Just an fyi, I did this to my Accord a couple of years back and it bought myself time to purchase another vehicle. Follow the process to a T, and it may help. All you can lose is $20 so try it.
It is true that depending on the kind of problem you have, this fluid may not work, but at such a low cost…just give it a try. Then post back.
All you can lose is $20 so try it.
That’s not entirely true. Have you read some of the reviews out there? I did because I wanted to see what the company claimed and then what people were saying about it. Quite a few people went after them on their warranty policy because the stuff solidified throughout the entire cooling system requiring replacement of radiators, water pumps, heater cores, etc along with the effort to flush the stuff out enough not to plug everything up again. Just saying it’s not risk free…
Regarding the paragraph breaks, it seems to mainly occur when using the mobile interface (Android) but I haven’t figured out the pattern yet. Sometimes, it works properly if you edit and re-save. Other times not. If I open the post up for editing, it appears properly in the edit window so the breaks are still in there, not like they got stripped on my end or by the BBS software. I use CRLF by the Enter key. I’m not going to type HTML coded breaks, too much effort, especially on a micro sized keyboard that requires multiple keystrokes just to access special chars; ex: GT LT keys…
I know I’m late to the party here, but I will tell you my personal experience in using Blue Devil Head Gasket Sealer (the large yellow label bottle). My F150 has the 4.6l Windsor V8 with just over 114,000 miles on it, and as most of the older modular Ford V8’s were prone to do, it had a head gasket leak (#3 cylinder). This was confirmed by testing for combustion gasses in the coolant, which came back positive (or yellow, if you want to go by the color that that the testing liquid turned).
Long story short (because there was a coolant leak from the rear of the upper intake manifold as well, which caused the diagnoses of the head gasket to be delayed) I opted to spend the $50 on a bottle of the Blue Devil on the advice from my father-in-law, who had spent the last 30 years as a heavy equipment mechanic. I’m no stranger to turning wrenches either, as my grandfather owned his own auto shop in West Virginia and my Dad had taught me enough to help him rebuild several classic Fords (Mustangs, Falcons, and Comets). I was well aware of the fallacies surrounding stuff like Bars-Leaks and Aluma-Seal, but I was also aware of the fact that we had used Aluma-Seal to fix pinhole leaks in several radiators over the years, so I thought it was worth a try. Well, it was.
I followed the directions to a “T”, including flushing the system, and 21,000 miles later she is still running like a champ. Now granted, if the blown head gasket is severe enough then I’m not sure how well this product would work, but I can tell you that if you catch it at the earliest symptoms this stuff will more than likely do the trick. I’m now a believer in this product, but I also don’t think it’s a “Miracle” cure. Know it’s limitations and follow directions.
Yeara ago, I had a 1947 Pontiac with a flathead 6. Coolant was getting into the oil. Pullingll the cylinder head revealed that the block was cracked around one of the valves. I put the head back on with a new gasket and bought a can od K & W seal
I drove quite a few miles after that with no problems. I traded the car and it was still on the street two years later. I don’t know if that product is still around, but it worked for me.
Any sealant can be effective but follow instructions to the letter. They can also block the radiator, especially if you double the treatment, Don’t worry about the next owner; the car has little future.
I own a 1996 Cadillac Sedan Deville It has been running hot for the last 6 months I finally stop running to thew mechanics shop asking the same question and spent some money on Blue Devil Pour-n-go and the initial results were encouraging, but I still had a slit leak that was because the treatment I got was and is for four to six cylinder motors so I spent another forty dollars for another can and added this can to the over flow because it was at night and I didn’t want to open the radiator hose on top of the radiator, I ran the car as instructed on the bottle and added 15 min. the temp went up to 255 and started to drop after 30 min I turned it off at 242 the regulare running temp is 222, so I know there is no coolant in thew car and I need to fill the cooling system so I will wait until the parts house or Walmart opens in the morning to fill the system. The smoke has stop and the temp resembles the old temp when it was running great for an old ass car. Thanks Blue Devil, I was on my way to Buy a new Northstar engine…