I need a new head gasket on my minivan(ford freestar V6) i can’t afford to pay a shop to do it right now. are there any head gasket sealers and i can use? i have exhaust gasses being pushed into the coolant and air locking cause a over heating issue. i only need it to seal up for 3-4 months then i can repair it the right way.
Click on the “Search” above and search this board for a thing called “Steel Seal” (though there are others) and “Sodium Silicate” which is the active ingredient in Steel Seal.
It’s cheaper to order a bottle of sodium silicate froma local pharmacy for about $22.00 than to spend $60.00 for a bottle of Steel Seal.
The son-in-law drove a 1992 Chrysler LaBaron 4 cyl. What a heap! He calls me one day asking if he could bring it to the shop for an overheating problem. He comes driving down the street and there’s so much steam coming out of the tail pipe you couldn’t see anything behind the car. I open the hood and there’s coolant running down the side of the engine from the blown head gasket. I check the oil and there’s no coolant in the oil. I dump a bottle of sodium silicate into the radiator, fill it with coolant, start the engine and bring the RPM’s up to 2,000. Within five minutes there was no steam out of the tail pipe and no leaks out of the engine. He drove that car another three months until the transmission crapped out.
Tester
I have a 2000 Cadillac Deville DHS that is over heating. I have put on a new water pump,radiator,radiator cap, thromostat, Had it flushed and I’m still over heating. I was told I may have a gasket problem. The car purrs like a kitten. No noise at all, no leaks anywhere. No smoke, I don’t have any funny looking stuff in the oil.It was getting heat but the last time I had it running it didn’t have heat. Could I possibly try the steel seal and see what happens? Could it hurt the car. It is a northstar engine. What esle can i do or should I go ahead and sell it for 1500.00
To nrobinson: You may have a head gasket leaking into the water jacket; you will see no crud in the oil or water. It’s a Northstar engine so you will have to sell it. At least get the compression checked. If one cylinder is low, you know what the problem is. I posted more stuff but erased it because it was really off.
I normally wouldn’t dredge up an old thread but this does save time.
@Tester, Does this work with antifreeze or do you have to drain the coolant out and fill with just water for it to work?
How big of a bottle? How much would you use for an LS3 5.3L 18 qt cooling system? Loosing about a quart a week (400 miles). 225k miles.