well i have a bad coolant leak somewhere.......heater only blows out cool air and i'm noticing white smoke starting to come out my exhuast. haven't drove it so i hope the damage isn't too bad. now this is a stupid question but one i've never really concerned myself with before......valve gasket and head gasket are the same thing? i hope so cause valve gasket is pretty easy. i'm sure it's just the gasket......going to go look at my plugs now.

no they are not the same thing, the head gasket is lower and is what is in between the head and the block.

the VC gasket and the HG are not the same. the VC gasket is the gasket between the valve cover and the head, and the head gasket is between the head and the engine block. has your HG ever been changed? if no there's a good chance it is part of the problem. check around the back of the block where it meets the head. see if there is any oil back there, but if your HG was blown you would be losing a lot of oil and there would be oil in your coolant and vice versa.

actually those are very different things. the valve cover is jes covering your cams, valves, rollers,etc.... but the actual head is what holds all that together. another way to check for head gasket leak is to do a leakage test. if you see bubles cmin from the radiator then you have a blown headgasket. jes take off your radiator cap and look under there.. good luck



"Proud to be, a 2gnt" (was) :)


-mitsuman

Turbo:
1. HRC STG 2
2. Blits SS BOV

Exhaust:
1. Greddy Power Extreme

Exterior:
1. C/F hood du!!

Ride:
1. Motegi MR7 17'' wrapped
in yokohama A550v
235/45/17
2. H&R Sport Springs

Sound:
1. sony xplod cdxm620 deck
2. 2 10'' audiobahn subs
3. nice shiny audiobahn
amp

Electronics:
1. HKS TT(sitting in room)
2. Apexi S-afc(sitting in
room)
3. Corbin's A/F
guage(sitting in room)

Body:
1. Blitz front end(sitting in
room)

Fun mods:
1. "Nozzel mod"

Wanted:
1. Injectors
2. Howell rebuild kit.

yeah i was out looking at my car and knew the answer after thinking about it. radiator cap? you mean thermostat cap? should i check it with engine running? when i just looked at it was empty in there with engine off.....pulled my plugs and they look good btw. sure HG was replaced when they did my rebuild. anyone now what i should expect to pay for install on a new HG. i haven't even been driving it hard since i put the injectors in. probably the wear and tear from when i was at 10psi though.

crappy thing is i can't drive my car anywhere for them to check it out. it'll overheat.

well i went back out and started my car. still is getting too hot. there isn't any smoke coming out of my exhaust anymore, wasn't that bad to begin with. i shut my engine down as soon as i saw it. spark plugs looked like they were running rich (i knew that already) but were fine. i wonder if it's just my thermostat or water pump.

oh yeah oil level is fine also...about 3/4 up the hash marks on the dip stick, same as it was 2 weeks ago.

just thought about this.....if my head gasket was so bad to the point that it caused my coolant to leak that fast and overheat my car so quickly just from idle shouldn't my resiviour be draining out (or empty)? my resiviour is staying full, if i put coolant in from the thermostat cap the coolant just overflows my resiviour. making me think that my thermostat isn't opening.

i'll be happy with just a bad thermostat. my car was feeling so strong just before this, just not making any sense to me.

i hate cars sometimes!

well dont rely on that alone. if you dont see any wate/cololant under the radiator cap (right on the housing) then you have aleak in your radiator sumthing. fill it back up till you can see it about half way full. then put the cap back on start the car and let it idle till it gets to normal operating temps. then take the cap off (slowly) and fill it to the brim. if you still over heat then check the fluid level again and if it isnt full then you have a leak somwhere but if it is full then your thermostate is not functional. let us no what happens. l8r

"Proud to be, a 2gnt" (was) :)


-mitsuman

Turbo:
1. HRC STG 2
2. Blits SS BOV

Exhaust:
1. Greddy Power Extreme

Exterior:
1. C/F hood du!!

Ride:
1. Motegi MR7 17'' wrapped
in yokohama A550v
235/45/17
2. H&R Sport Springs

Sound:
1. sony xplod cdxm620 deck
2. 2 10'' audiobahn subs
3. nice shiny audiobahn
amp

Electronics:
1. HKS TT(sitting in room)
2. Apexi S-afc(sitting in
room)
3. Corbin's A/F
guage(sitting in room)

Body:
1. Blitz front end(sitting in
room)

Fun mods:
1. "Nozzel mod"

Wanted:
1. Injectors
2. Howell rebuild kit.

I thought valve gaskets were the gaskets around the spark plugs?

no, those are spark plug gaskets or.....if you replace either one you may as well do both.

thanks for clearing that up :)

well i pulled my thermostat out and it "appears" fine. when i undid the housing for it looked like i had no gasket there, looked closer and noticed that i did have a gasket but it look extremely old and dry rotted (thought it was just a part of the metal housing!). so i'm going to get a new thermostat and gasket tomorrow. if anything i hope it'll at least let me drive my car to a shop. i'll keep you guys updated....i've also haven't flushed my radiator in awhile (over 2 years i think!). still original water pump too with 99k on it......

...can't tell by looking at it but might as well replace it anyway if it's still out. If you're blowing white smoke AND your car is overheating then it is the HG. The smoke is the water and oil being burned off togethr so check your oil level as well. While you're at it come back to cali so I can help you out...lol

the white smoke i only noticed for a sec turned my engine off really fast cause i was paranoid (not anything like the amount i saw when i blew my motor). could have something to do with my new fuel setup. started car back up no white smoke or anything. i do remember getting the MLS head gasket when the did my rebuild though. oil level is same as it was 2 weeks ago (full). basically my syptoms are:

overheating
no hot air in heater
coolant resiviour overflowing

either way i'm going to get a compression test done ASAP.

i doubt it's your HG if you haven't lost any oil.

well i replaced my thermostat and gasket. also flushed my radiator. no white smoke. my heater works. temps are staying normal. oil still looks good. idle for over 10min though and my fan never kicked in. might be cause my coolant system is finally working. HG could still be bad though. i may go buy a compression guage and do a compression test if not i'll go to a shop and have them do it monday for sure.

UPDATE: blew my HG, white smoke is now coming out. this is not due to my 15psi but a $15 thermostat that went bad and caused my engine to over heat. damn my car will be down for sometime till i get the $$ for this. how much should i expect to spend in labor for this?