I’m lost here. It’s possible to massively blow a head gasket in 5 miles, but only if I drive it… if the dealer drives it three and I drive two it’s not? Whuh?
You’re still not following me here. It is possible to blow a head gasket in 2 or 3 miles DEPENDING on the situation.
A head gasket can blow for a number of reasons. Overheating is only one of them.
To massively blow a head gasket in 2 or 3 (pick one) miles this means the head gasket is going to have a pre-existing condition OR during the drive the vehicle was stuck in traffic for a while and severely overheated.
If that were the case then this means the head gasket was blown when you picked the vehicle up. This also means it was running badly when you picked the vehicle up.
Was it running badly when you picked it up?
Again I ask; you state the head gaskets were “fine” when the vehicle was towed in so how do you KNOW the head gaskets were fine when that vehicle was towed in?
I repeat this again.
Rotted radiator, rotted water pump, rotted cooling system, all aluminum engine points to a chronic, long term problem inflicted by the previous owner of the vehicle.
Chances are a mechanic in the past gave them bad news and they dumped the vehicle rather than fix it. This point could also be made by the fact it needed a new fuel pump at 90k miles. Chances are the previous owner neglected the fuel filter changes just like the cooling system and that’s what knocked the pump out. This is a very common problem and many curse the pump, the car, the dealer and the car maker instead of themselves.
The engine in my car is all aluminum and is maintained well. I can go out there, remove both the radiator and water pump, chunk them in the dumpster, and drive that car for 2 or 3 (pick one) miles and it will not blow a head gasket in that length of time.
Still curious about your responses to my questions.
The vehicle was running fine when the fuel pump failed. I thought fuel pump was a pretty common problem though, no cursing necessary here. They fail, so what.
As far as I know the engine is not all aluminum. Not even the head is aluminum. …? I know there is an aluminum model but didn’t know there was an aluminum 5.7.
Here’s another scenario. Rather than the vehicle being stuck in traffic to get severely overheated, could it have been taken for a joyride by some hotheaded rookie shop tech with an adolescent streak? Just speculating here, because there is a small window when the the vehicle could have been driven that way, and that’s it. Nobody else ever drives this truck but me.
What I do know is that whatever the chronic, long term problem the previous owners had, it had over 7000 miles in it before the fuel pump failed, and as the tech has told me, the head gasket was a sudden failure, the worst damage he’s ever seen, and it was not corroded at all. I can’t put that any more simply. When I see the head gasket I’d be glad to take a picture and send it to you.
When I picked the vehicle up, it appeared to be running fine. Two miles down the road, it started making some serious noise and died. I don’t think I can put that much more simply either.
At this point, it makes no difference, it’s just a steamy pile of scrap metal as far as I can tell. There’s no way around that this truck blows chunks, and that’s life, and next time I go buy a vehicle, I’ll try to find someone to help me that knows anything about it. Lesson learned.
Have they started putting things back together yet?
You are correct; my mistake. The early Escalade uses the L31 engine and is all cast iron construction; a truck engine basically. The later Escalades used aluminum construction.
However, cast iron is very durable in this area since a cast iron engine can really be hammered and run hot for an extended spell without blowing a head gasket.
While it’s possible that someone could have driven the vehicle and hammered it hard this is not likely. If that were the case then the vehicle should have been running bad when you picked it up. The fact the head gasket decided to give up after you went 2 miles does not mean that anyone did anything to it during that 3 mile test drive. I worked for years in dealer service depts. and I don’t know of any instances personally where a tech ever did this or would consider it. It would be too easy to get blamed for something and wind up unemployed.
It’s one of those automotive things in life that happen and head gaskets routinely give up suddenly all of the time no matter what make of car is involved and they also give up for any one of a dozen reasons.
Basically, my point is that you have a premature fuel pump failure probably caused by lack of fuel filter changes and a head gasket problem probably caused by failure to maintain the cooling system. Neither of these conditions are your fault and the blame is on the previous owners.
That Escalade could have suffered one instance of severe overheating in the past and weakened the head gasket, which means it was doomed to fail. It was just a matter of time.
Heck, I’ve had to replace head gaskets that were totally blown on vehicles that did not even have 10k miles on them,
There are also other areas that are prone to failure due to meglectful maintenance. Failure to change power steering fluid now and then, failure to change brake fluid, failure to change transmission fluid every 30/40k miles, failure to even change spark plugs on a regular basis can all lead to future problems that can surface at any time.
Again, I apologize if I’ve seemed combative with you. It is not meant that way and I’m just trying to provide an “on the outside” objective opinion as to what caused the problem.
lallebach:
OK4450 is correct in the points that he makes. A 5.7 Chevy V-8 with cast-iron heads is a tough motor. My brother has one in his 96 chevy pick-up. I cannot count the number of times he has run it out of water do to a leaky intake gasket. At times it has been so hot after shutdown it will not crank over for an hour. Last week he finally had me replace the intake gaskets and the truck runs great. No indication at this point of a failed headgasket. As OK4450 mentioned the headgaskets on this truck have been weakened and can fail at any moment with out warning. I suspect this is what happened to your Escalade. The previous owner may have overheated it before haveing repairs done. This previous overheating coupled with a bad radiator 7,000 miles later is a disastor in the makeing.
As far as the tech driving it like a mad man that is unlikely. At the dealership where I used to work their are always 2 people on a test drive. The tech that performed the work and the service manager or service writer. Never just one person.
You paid the dealer 120.00 to diagnose the no start condition. All of the dealer service departments around me charge a minimum of 1 hour shop time for every vehicle that comes through. Although I do not agree with it thats the way they do it. They will charge you this hour whether they spend 10 minutes or 50 minutes on your vehicle. I can also tell you that regardless of what the repair order or the service writer told you the only thing that was checked was the no start condition. This probably amounted to a computer scan to check for trouble codes, a quick look at live data to verify a crank signal, cam signal and injector pulse, and a fuel pressure check. I figure 30-40 minutes of actual time. My book shows the minimum time for a fuel pump replace is 2.7 hours * 120.00 hour is $324.00 and a GM fuel pump @ $315.43. This all totals to $759.43.
OK4450 has been a regular poster on this forum for many years. He has provided many people including myself (20 year ASE certified tech) with information needed to get things repaired. He will tell you straight up if a dealer is being crooked or honest. He does not hold back and calls a spade a spade. The information he provides is honest and reliable. I can tell by reading the posts that his information has been upsetting to you at times but it is quality information. I know if I ever had a problem in the Oklahoma dust bowl I would seek him out for help.
~Michael
Thank you for your humbling, and embarassing, words, Dartman. I put a huge amount of faith in your posts also and consider your words to be money in the bank. 
In the case of this Escalade I just happen to firmly believe this vehicle had a bad history behind it and the original owner either did not know of these problems and just happened to trade it off or somewhere in the past a mechanic gave them bad news and they decided to unload it knowing of those problems.
A 2000 model vehicle with only 90k miles on it and suffering from a premature fuel pump failure along with a rotted radiator and water pump just screams neglect.
It’s hard to stay on top of maintenance stuff at times. I change the fuel filters every 25k or so in my cars and often pull the filter off and dump the contents just to see if a problem is brewing.
Last spring my wife and I were going out of state and I pulled the filter on my Lincoln for inspection before the trip (only about 15k on it) and some dirt particles came out. The engine ran fine even though the filter was partially clogged.
About a half dozen times during the trip I made the comment to my wife about hoping the fuel pump did not give up on us even though I had replaced the filter before we left.
Well, 1500 miles later, and 20 miles from home during a driving thunderstorm the pump gave up 9 o’clock at night. Nice. My profanity vocabulary increased with the addition of some new ones along with losing a 100 to the tow truck.
Goes to show the effect of a lightly clogged filter on fuel pumps; physical symptoms present or not.
What I would be concerned about in this Escalade’s case is other potential problem areas. One could assume if the fuel filter and cooling system was ignored then what about the transmission fluid? 90k with no fluid change and the transmission might possibly have a shortened life; depending on how it was driven before the OP bought it.
Fix the head gaskets and the transmission may drop next week. You never know.
It’s fashionable to bash dealers for selling junk cars to the public but it needs to be considered where those cars come from; the general public. On average, dealers will not tear a car apart doing an inspection before selling it and often someone in sales may not even know there is a problem with the car.
Change the oil, detail shop, quick test drive, and out she goes for sale. Sadly, someone buys the car warts and all and has problems that were pre-existing.
I agree with you OK4450. This Escalade screams abused. It is like the T/A I have been working on. The first 10 years and 90,000 miles were not kind. No maintanence was done period. I recently did cap, rotor, wires, plugs, fuel filter, cooling system flush, water pump, thermostat. None of these items had been done previously. A week later the intake gaskets started leaking, last week I replaced the leaky heater core. The current owner is doing all the repairs that were neglected by the original owner. I think the original owner of the Trans-Am much like the original owner of the Escalade found out what repairs were going to be needed and unloaded it.
Thank you for your kind remarks about my posts. Over the years I have read your posts and responses and still learn new things. Thank you for takeing the time to share your knowledge and experience.
~Michael
Unfortunately, it seems the majority of vehicles on the road are abused to one degree or the other.
There are so many of them that get driven hard and neglected. Eventually the old Fram saying “you can pay me now or pay me later” comes around and the original owner decides to not do either. They unload the car and that catch-phrase becomes the next owners headache, or least the first part of it. 
I think they are putting it all back together, should be able to pick up by next week sometime. I think you guys are right, I think that this truck probably had a crappy maintenance history.
Everyone’s comments to this post are appreciated, so thank you all. I will get out of this thing somehow.
-Loa
Well they charged me for 4.5 hours total (including the 1 hour diagnosis) and $337 for the GM fuel pump. I guess it’s in the ball park. They finished it in less than two but the service writer told me just what you said, even if it came to less they would charge me for the whole estimate, then he said there were two guys working on it, so really it was 3.5 anyway. (two guys?)
I think the service writer was trying to convince me of the bill; I disputed the hour diagnosis since I told them the issue, and I was a little bent out of shape over the labor thing, because I showed up an hour before they said it would be ready and it was parked in the back lot. So, I was kinda persistent and he got a little flustered and I think in an attempt to calm me down he fed me a little BS. If the other major problems hadn’t surfaced that would have been totally believable., hahah… Murphy’s law, right? I’m probably the only customer he told that to.
I’m surprised, honestly, that it’s not dealership common courtesy to check the fluid levels. My ex-husband was a tech at a dealership where there was rarely a service writer on the test drive, so I think that rule must vary with the dealership. He spoke of driving cars at full throttle to see if other problems would pop up they could tell the customer about. That was a small dealership though, kinda rural area and I think they had more time for stuff like that.
ah well. doesn’t matter all that much, in the bigger scheme of things.
Hope you are the back on the road soon and again, I think you will have a good reliable vehicle after the repair work is done.
(They should be lighting up the star on the mountainside at Alpinglow soon.)
You’re still off-base on the hour diagnosis. The dealer cannot and should not rely on someone’s word about a diagnosis. Look at it this way. What if they took you literally, did no diagnosis while relying strictly on what you told them, replaced the fuel pump for a large chunk of money, and the problem was NOT the pump itself?
Would you be mad at them then for NOT doing the proper diagnosis after finding yourself owing a chunk of change for an unneeded fuel pump?
There’s a dozen reasons why a pump may be inoperative other than the pump alone.
The fact the service writer got flustered does not mean they’re guilty of anything. It simply means they’ve reached a point where they feel an explanation is going nowhere; much like a lot of this thread.
I would have some doubts about your ex-husband test driving a vehicle a “full throttle” to see if other problems would crop up. There is no way in the world I would let a guy like that work on anything of mine or even have him on the payroll.
I’ve never known a tech to do anything like this and I’ve worked for several small dealerships also. Why he would have this ignorant habit is beyond me. If I was running the dealership and caught him doing this he would be warned once and fired the next time.
He said they told him to… geezus… what is it with you? You have some doubts about a conversation my ex-husband and I had 10 years ago? Show me the scientific explanation for that! Lay off, OK4450. I appreciate your comments on the mechanics of things but your speculations about what people said to me I can do without!
Ah I so miss it. I learned to drive up there, and I can’t think of a better way to learn than with a stick on a sheet of compact snow and ice! hahah… what a blast.
Thanks for the posts but I don’t think I’m going to keep this truck long enough to find out what else is wrong with it. I’ll eat the loss (ow) and might have to wait until I get a tax return to dump it but hopefully it will run at least that long. After this I think it would be almost as stupid to keep it as it was to buy it in the first place. will kick myself for a while over that one.