head gasket

[rhylie]

i am getting alot of mixed advice about my car it has quite a bit of crap in my water but no white slug on oil cap or dip stick could my head gasket have gone or could it be that i have not put water in it for months and just be the crap from the bottom or the rad please someone help

[jake-the-peg]

Your head gasket can fail without the famous "mayonaise" in the oil. It depends on how exactly it's failed. Other signs can be white smoke if water is getting into the cylinder or black smoke if oil is getting into the cylinder (but you can get black smoke if you're burning oil for othre reasons too - older engines tend to burn a bit when starting so don't panic)

Getting through a lot of coolant without any obvious leaks is also another sign.

If you're not seeing any of these just the muck in the water then I'd guess if it's a reasonably old car I'd suspect a radiator getting a bit rusty. You don't want any of the engine water channels getting blocked though because then you could start getting some overheating which could cause all sorts of bad things to happen.

I'd drain the cooling system, flush it through with a hose a few times unitil it runs clear and then refill with a decent water-antifreeze mixure which should have a rust inhibitor in it.

If you don't want to do it yourself a decent garage should be able to do it quickly and cheaply - ring a few up and get them to quote for flushing and replacing the coolant. If you turn up looking vacant and pointing at rusty water some unscrupulous ones may talk you into having unnecessary work done.

Of cource the head gasket might be on the way out but the golden rule is fix the cheap possibility first.

[carolyn kus]

buy a pushbike!!!