Head gasket repair?

[jpilk99]

I was chasing a coolant issue for the last month or so and believe I have found the root cause: Bad head gasket.

After multiple Coolant Bleeding procedures, my '03 X5 with 3.0 six cylinder would - after a couple hours of driving - would come up with the Check Coolant Level message. I would let the vehicle sit overnight, completely cool down, yet in the morning, when slowly removing the expansion tank cap, coolant would blurp up/out and leak out. A cup or two worth of coolant. Other times, after the bleeding procedure, and then parking ...I could hear coolant boiling.

I'm going to double check the water pump and thermostat, but, I'm convinced my issue - the pressure build up in the coolant system, and boiling, is being caused by a compromised head gasket.

Thoughts?

Has anyone had this "project" done? Trying to get an idea what I'm going to have to spend to fix the issue.

Thanks in advance,

Jay

[oldskewel]

Sorry to hear that, but I thought it might be the issue. Did the combustion gas test confirm it yet?

As mentioned, I did this repair earlier this summer. In my case, and as the machinist explained to me as being common, my head gasket was fine (replaced anyway, of course). The problem was that the head warped, probably due to overheating. It does make sense that trying to keep the whole length of the I-6 head/block surfaces perfectly flat to one another is an easy thing to fail at eventually. (i.e., easier to avoid on a 3 or 4-cylinder head)

Whether it's the head gasket or warped head does not actually matter at all. In both cases you'll want to replace the head gasket and surface the head. But you might also have a cracked head, which of course does change things.

I already gave a lot of reports from my repair this summer, and advice on your car in other threads.

If you want to make a decision now about whether you want to dive into the repairs yourself, I'll recommend watching the 50sKid youtube videos. He presents things in a very realistic way, not trying to make difficult things look easy, for example.

And BTW, he started out thinking it was a head gasket, confirmed HG failure, warped head too, and when he sent the head into the machine shop for surfacing, they found it to be cracked. So he ended up getting an un-cracked junkyard head and rebuilding that.

He goes through a full budget, etc., but I think he overdid a few things (I would too if I were planning on making a youtube channel out of it), made some mistakes, and also rebuilt the bottom end.

[jpilk99]

Originally Posted by oldskewel

Sorry to hear that, but I thought it might be the issue. Did the combustion gas test confirm it yet?

As mentioned, I did this repair earlier this summer. In my case, and as the machinist explained to me as being common, my head gasket was fine (replaced anyway, of course). The problem was that the head warped, probably due to overheating. It does make sense that trying to keep the whole length of the I-6 head/block surfaces perfectly flat to one another is an easy thing to fail at eventually. (i.e., easier to avoid on a 3 or 4-cylinder head)

Whether it's the head gasket or warped head does not actually matter at all. In both cases you'll want to replace the head gasket and surface the head. But you might also have a cracked head, which of course does change things.

I already gave a lot of reports from my repair this summer, and advice on your car in other threads.

If you want to make a decision now about whether you want to dive into the repairs yourself, I'll recommend watching the 50sKid youtube videos. He presents things in a very realistic way, not trying to make difficult things look easy, for example.

And BTW, he started out thinking it was a head gasket, confirmed HG failure, warped head too, and when he sent the head into the machine shop for surfacing, they found it to be cracked. So he ended up getting an un-cracked junkyard head and rebuilding that.

He goes through a full budget, etc., but I think he overdid a few things (I would too if I were planning on making a youtube channel out of it), made some mistakes, and also rebuilt the bottom end.

Thank you.

[jpilk99]

I've watched his videos before - I like him.

One other comment that my mechanic made was that he thought my timing chain was making a faint noise at 2500/3000 rpms. Should probably replace that while the job is being done. Hopfully no cracked head.

Damn Im just kicking myself that I couldn't have figured this out before buying the vehicle a few months ago. It ran, and still does, great.... 130k and I've already put a decent amount of money into it; new tires, etc. It's clean as all heck. DANG!