Damage from blown head gasket - Engine Troubleshooting


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Damage from blown head gasket

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aaron2100
New User

Jun 11, 2008, 2:08 PM

Post #1 of 3 (1726 views)

Damage from blown head gasket	Sign In

Hi guys, having some trouble here. I have a 93 ford taurus wagon, 3.8 liter, v6. Last year a radiator hose collapsed and the car overheated which seemed to have blown the head gasket. I used a bottled gasket sealer which seemed to work for a good while because I didn't have the tools or money to replace the gasket.

However, it turned out that water was leaking into the engine oil and now the engine hiccups a lot when driving and I can hear what I think are the pistons grinding and the car gets very hot, though the temp gauge doesn't seem to reflect how hot the engine gets. I can feel the heat coming off of it and it seems to be more than normal.

Now the car barely runs and dies when at idle after driving for a little while. It sounds terrible and has very little horsepower. My guess is the the water in the oil lowered the viscosity enough to where the engine parts grinded against each other and wore down. I changed the oil again before the scheduled change, but that didn't seem to make much difference. I didn't change the oil filter, but its been less than 3000 miles since the last oil change. Could the oil filter being changed help much at this point?

So, does that conclusion sound accurate? Are there any short term fixes that I could use to get a little more time out of the car before it won't run anymore? Thanks for any input, Aaron

Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
Tom Greenleaf profile image

Jun 12, 2008, 3:58 PM

Post #2 of 3 (1710 views)

Re: Damage from blown head gasket	Sign In

Arggh! This could be "Game Over" for that engine. The sealer may have handled the head gasket for a while but it's not a cure for that at all. Sealer may have hurt the radiator's ability to keep it cool and if oil level got too full even mixed with coolant would likely cause engine damage.

There aren't even any good ways to fake this for now. If oil still has coolant in it you could try changing it again with a new filter this time, and perhaps cutting pressure gasket on radiator cap to not allow pressure could prevent more coolant from getting into oil - who knows.

The engine running poorly could have destroyed the converters and the list goes on. Not good news for this from what I can see

aaron2100
New User

Jun 12, 2008, 5:44 PM

Post #3 of 3 (1706 views)

Re: Damage from blown head gasket	Sign In

Ok. Thanks for the post. I was thinking that may be the case. I guess I'll get some experience parting out a car for the first time.

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