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Hey,
My wife has had her 2001 Galant for about 4 years. The mileage on the car is 210k. A month and some odd weeks ago, My wife and I were driving in the Galant. As we were driving, we noticed that she was not getting any kind of heat, whatsoever. Now, I am no expert, but I knew that it was the radiator right away. We added coolent, and the heat worked just fine. Well, about a week or so later, i discovered a crack at the top of the RAD next to the RAD cap. We have constantly been maintaining the water in the RAD as a temp fix until I get around to replacing the RAD. As far as that goes, it get’s even worse. Just today, she came to pick me up. On the drive home, the car had overheated. We pulled over to put water in the overflow tank. We then proceeded to drive home. At this point, we had a 25 minute drive to go. We had driven at least 15 to 18 of those miles, and the car really starts to over heat again. I told her to turn in somewhere so that I could examine underneath. As we turned, the car completely shuts down, and we had to coast down the hill. I popped the hood only to see a lot of grey smoke coming from somewhere in the engine area. It was also coming from the RAD it’s self. We put oil in the car just to be sure it was not running low (galant has had a bad oil leak ever since summer of 2012.) After oil was put in, we then started the car. There is noticeable-out of the normal shaking going on. When she revved to go faster, the engine make a really fast clicking sound,I was just told that the engine was pretty much done for, but can someone please make my day by letting me know it is not the engine. haha. I would like to better understand the symptoms of and engine that is about to blow, and if it is worth me even fixing the RAD, or if the engine is doomed. I am hoping this is more of a gasket fix. I can do gaskets.
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Did you check the oil on the dipstick or the oil filler? Milky is bad, indicates coolant leaking into the oil. You may have overheated it to the point it caused more major problems.
I have not checked. The only thing I am really worried about is the engine it’s self. Do you think, just from what I have described, that the engine is done for? I know that it has only over heated severely. There have been other times where the car got hotter than usual, but nothing extreme. But, the smoke coming from the engine was not very dense. It was white, but not dense. I put my face up close to the smoke, and it kind of left just a bit of moisture on my face. I wonder if it is steam? I really hope so. Do you think that replacing the radiator will be worth it at this point? Also, we don’t know for sure if the engine is what is clicking. All we know is, there is some clicking going on under the hood. I just really need these questions answered, and I know that it is hard without seeing first hand, but I just want answers to the best of everyone’s ability at this point. I would love to hear that it is anything other than the engine blowing, or about to blow. What is the BEST way to tell if the engine is done for? I do not have any kind of scanners, or any electronic type of equipment. Just wanna know how to, maybe, manually tell?
Ok so the first thing you are going to want to do is take a look at the oil. If the oil is light brown or milky looking then this could mean you have a blown head gasket. This would be probably caused by the cracked radiator. The next thing you could look at is see if there is oil in the coolant. This could also mean that you could have a blown head gasket.
Another sign is white smoke coming from the tail pipe. To be 100% sure you can do a compression test to see you have a loss of compression on any of the cylinders. if one cylinder can’t hold its compression then you know that is where the gasket is broken.do a compression test on the engine.if that checks out
try the new radiator.If I’m being honest here.The car sounds
pretty beat.Maybe a newer car.UPDATE ON MITSUBISHI GALANT!!!
The Galant’s head gasket is blown. I know the part it’s self is dirt cheap, and I also know that the labor is pretty extensive. Would any one with experience be willing to give a step by step on a diy job for this? Thank you so much
be sure its the head gasket and not bothe the head gasket and the block before commiting to spend alot of money and time
[quote=”Alex integra” post=46728]be sure its the head gasket and not bothe the head gasket and the block before commiting to spend alot of money and time[/quote]
To elaborate and simplify… Do a leakdown test!
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