Is my head gasket blown? Or leaking?

After buying my truck about a week ago, everything was going good, drove it back to my house which is an elevation change of about 4500 feet up, and nothing was overheating at all, one day I was late for work and drove kind of quick and then after getting off work I noticed the engine was getting too hot, I thought maybe it was just low on coolant, and filled it up, and it was good for 2 days, but now I'm coolant is coming out of the overflow, and the engine is getting hot again. Do would that just mean a leak? Or could it be my thermostat not setting the right boiling temp for my coolant? Let me know what you guys think. Thanks!

 

Never mind figured out the problem!!!

 

So, what was the issue? I've had a blown gasket twice over the years and want to know symptoms and solutions.

 

Yeah interested to hear what your fix was.

 

I put a new raidiator cap, and thermostat on it and it has been doing good so far

 

So far today the thermostat has been the cure, it also might be that we all could use a good coolant system flush. The coolant will deteriorate after a while, and it will contaminate your new coolant, making it get too hot, so that could be another cause of overheating. So far what I'm doing is replacing the cheapest stuff first, and if it continues to over heat, and lose coolant through the overflow, I'll move onto the next cheap thing to replace, but I have a feeling that it's either the gasket is leaking, or I need a flush. Which is probably good to do if I end up with no more problems

 

And symptoms would be a lot of steam coming from the engine, noticeable loss of power, loss of coolant, a lot of liquid coming from your exhaust, and if you check your oil and there's bubbly stuff on your dipstick it's probably blown head gasket.

I know one way to fix a LEAKING head gasket, that's is that you drain out all of your coolant, then you fill the radiator about halfway with water then you put gasket re-sealant in the radiator and the let your engine idle for about 30 minutes and it should re seal it pretty good

 

It just loses its ability to prevent corrosion over time. It will still cool just fine. That's why people happily drive without ever changing it until the internal corrosion causes something like the head gasket to fail.

It's also a good way to create a lot more work for yourself when you end up fixing it for real. The sealant will clog the radiator and other coolant passages (IAC, EGR). Not to mention that it might (probably) won't seal it completely and driving it with a small head gasket leak can allow the coolant to corrode the cylinder walls and screw up the compression.

I hope the t-stat and cap fixed your problem though.

 

Aaah I see, I'm hoping too, I was looking around the whole underbody of the truck earlier tonight and haven't swen any coolant on the floor or the truck, and also no getting hot, or fluid in the overflow, it seems to be working

 

On a highway for a while, under load, like going up a hill is the real test. If the head gasket were leaking from a cylinder into the coolant, this is when the highest cylinder pressures would be.

Also, just keep an eye on the new coolant. If the head gasket were leaking, the coolant would turn into a chocolate milkshake over time.

 

I live in the mountains haha, my daily commute to work is about 800ft down and then 800ft back up, and I've been trying to slightly go a little harder going up the hills to see if it gets hotter, and when I am kind of pushing it, the temp gauge goes from about 50% to 60%, so I'm really hoping it's fixed

 

Oh and something decently large to note. While I've been having this problem, I had to get the truck smogged, because I just purchased it, and it had tailpipe emissions tested, and was smogged, and it passed like nothing, and the tailpipe emissions were just shy of perfect. So after just realizing that at 12:50 at night, I'm a lot more convinced it's not a gasket problem.

 

you can always just pull your oil fill cap off and take a look down into the valve cover to see if your head gasket is blown instead of guessing and keeping your fingers crossed. then you would know for sure.

 

I really hope this is a joke

right lol. Also, while removing the oil fill cap take a look at the pistons to see if everything is ok there haha

 

The downside to waiting for the symptoms of a head gasket leak is that water in the exhaust will cause your catalytic convertors to fail. That becomes a more important issue in newer vehicles where the convertors are active components of the emissions control systems. Be careful.....

 

Yeah driving earlier this morning up a steep and long road the engine heat only went up to about the 3/4 point on the heat gauge going up the hill and then went back down

 

Today, or tomorrow I'm getting it officially checked out

 

What would piss me off the most is that the previous owner probably knew something was wrong and didn't disclose. Hate dishonesty. Good luck

 

That's a little high. What brand thermostat did you put in? Aftermarket tstats can be crap. Toyota ones only cost a few bucks more and seem to keep the engine at a steady temperature. Or it could be the radiator fins are dirty or the inside is slightly clogged, so it's not cooling like a new radiator would.

Also, the jiggle valve on the tstat should be at the 6 o'clock position when installed on the 3.4 engines as opposed to 12 o'clock like other engines. There has been much discussion about this on the forum. I'm not sure why but people say it runs hotter when it's not installed correctly.