Well boys and girls, it looks like I'm going to be replacing the head gasket on this project car after all.

When I bought it, I knew this might be a possibility and figured it into my offer price. I just hoped I could avoid it.

After installing all the new cooling system parts, I took it for a test drive. I just drove back and forth on the street in front of my neighborhood. After about 10 minutes everything was looking good and I thought I was golden. As I turned back into my subdivision, the temp gauge started to climb and just hit the red as I pulled into the driveway.

I popped the hood and could hear the coolant boiling in the expansion tank. And even though it was tightly capped, coolant had still sprayed past the cap. There is no doubt that the cooling system is being pressurized. The FFT-FFT-FFT sound also got worse as the engine warmed up.

I did go ahead and drain the oil, though. Lots of water in it. It was very thin and runny, too. I changed the oil filter and filled it with fresh oil. It's probably going to take a couple of oil changes to get it cleared out.

Next week I'll get the head pulled and take it to a machine shop. I'm interested to see what it looks like since it's already been off recently. And to be on the safe side, I'm going to Timesert the block while I'm waiting for the head to come back from the machine shop. Fun, fun, fun!