Blown Head Gasket Diagnosis

[Alex]

My car is a 96 accord LX 2.2 with 145k miles. A month ago I noticed the car started to idle rough. When I checked the coolant it was a bit low so I filled it up. The coolant was not extremely low, but I decided to do the cooling system bleeding procedure just to rule air in the cooling system out. The problem was still there. I rented a cooling system pressure test kit and I pressurized the system. I noticed a bulging top radiator hose so I replaced that and tested it again. The cooling system held pressure over a 5 minute period only dropping 1 PSI. I noticed the bottom rad hose was also damp around the connections but I did not get a chance to change that one. After the pressure testing, the car was very hard to start and took about 5 tries to get it going. After that I assumed I had a leak in the head gasket but I wanted to make sure. I rented a block test kit from AutoZone and bought some of their test liquid. I did the block test and over a 4 minute period of testing from stone cold the liquid became VERY faint blue, but not green or yellow like the instructions said tit would for a blown head gasket. I am leaning toward the idea that I do have a blown gasket but I don’t want to replace it if I don’t need to. I have no other signs of a blown head gasket. No coffee color in the oil or on the oil cap, no wetness on the spark plugs, coolant is not oily of milky. I do have some condensation type smoke/vapor coming out of the tailpipe when for the first 5 minutes of cold starting. The car runs very well except for the idling problem and the car does not overheat. Also the coolant does drop slightly every few days, but I am not sure if the lower rad hose or other cooling hoses are the cause. Is there anything else I could do to verify if this is the problem or does the evidence I have gathered so far give a clear picture of the problem? Thanks.

Topic

[Alex]

Money is tight right now but on the other hand I don’t want to redo the head gasket during winter. I am considering whether to buy new head bolts or use the old ones. #EricTheCarGuy do you recommend buying new head bolts (around $100) or will the old bolts work fine? Thanks!

[EricTheCarGuy]

There’s no need for new head bolts as they are not torque to yield bolts. Since finances are an issue, you might look for a Beck Arnley head gasket kit. Those are very complete and more affordable than OE. I don’t recommend Ebay parts, I’m not saying they’re all bad, but it’s a crap shoot.

[Author]

Replies