Does Steel Seal really work to repair a blown headgasket? I’ve been told that’s what’s wrong w/ my 2000 windstar and i don’t have the money to have it replaced, but i need my van.
No, it doesn’t, and will probably damage your engine more.
No.
Yes. Steel Seal does work. This is just sodium silicate sold at an inflated price. You can order a 12 oz bottle of sodium silicate from a local pharmacy for about $20.00 and get the same results. If you’re going to go this route, why pay more?
I’ve used sodium silicate many times to repair breached head gaskets, and each time it has worked. You can read how sodium silicate works in repairing head gaskets here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_silicate#Automotive_repair
Tester
what about thermagasget? you know anything about that product?
If the rest of this 10 year old has seen better days and you’re goal is to squeeze an exta few years out of it, try the Steel Seal. If it’s in good shape overall and you hope to keep it another 10 years, the way to do that is to get it repaired properly.
The main problem with these temporary repair additives is that the problem is pretty much certain to reappear at some future date and when it does the damage could be serious, like overheating and/or erosion of the pathway that is the breech.
Such products may hold the engine together for a while and are worth giving a try when your only other alternative is scrapping your vehicle. Is steam blowing out the tail pipe? Or is coolant showing up in the oil? Or possibly oil in the coolant?
no steam coming out of tail pipe. car was not overheating. the radiator was leaking coolant and i had it replaced. i checked the fluids one day and the coolant was low so i topped it off. the day i topped it off the engine kind of started stuttering and then it shut down. after towing home, checked the oil and it appeared that coolant was in oil. - looked chocolately. was told by two mechanics that it was the headgasket. i haven’t driven it since b/c don’t have the money to make that repair right now. otherwise, vehicle is fine. coolant was at proper level, still is; and color is correct.
Water in the oil is the least favored scenario for a blown head/gasket. That chocolate milk shake does not lubricate very well and it quickly gums up the rings and timing chain while the bearings are being quickly wasted. Change the oil and filter, drain the cooling system and refill with water and follow the directions on the snake oil that you choose. Good luck.
The ONLY way to permanently fix a blown head gasket is to tear it down and replace it. Fixes in a bottle are band aids and can fail at any time. Just remember that if you decide to go that route. Cars seem to break down at the worst possible moments. Make sure your triple A is paid up and give it a go, you might just get a year or two out of it. Also remember, the engine has already been run with coolant in the oil so bearings have probably been damaged to some extent. You are probably going to have to drop the pan and give it a good cleaning along with the oil pickup screen. Let us know what happens.
transman
i used it on my mx5 when i had an overheating issue that resulted in a blown piston 4. it caused more issues than it solved. the gasket stopped blowing for about 4 weeks. when i got around to doing the head gasket i found that the exhaust valves on piston 4 were covered in white crystals that made compression worse than the blown gasket.