http://seattle.craigslist.org/car/157328131.html

 

" Black W/ burgandy GL 4 door wagon......"

"Runs and drives fine but needs HG"

 

Hehe - probably intake manifold or carb base leaking. These engines never "run fine" with a blown HG. At least none of mine ever have.

 

GD

These engines never "run fine" with a blown HG. At least none of mine ever have.

 

Mine did for 40K, plus however long the previous owner had it like that.

Mine did for 40K, plus however long the previous owner had it like that.

 

And what were your symtoms then? (also - turbo's are a different animal....)

 

GD

"Runs and drives fine but needs HG"

i've had two non-turbo's like that. one was an internal leak that i drove for 20,000 or so miles just fine (not including adding of the coolant of course!). it was a leak on the outside edge (of the head, sort of on the fire-wall side of the engine so to speak) between the cylinder wall and one of the small coolant passages at about 3 o-oclock (looking at the head). the other was a small external leak. i actually traded for the car and was told it was a "hose", nope sure wasn't it was a head gasket. passengers side seeped out the back ever so slowly. this one leaked very slow, rarely needing coolant. i replaced the headgaskets on both of these.

 

lots of newer generation vehicles will leak slowly as well, dodge neon's, any pontiac or buick with that POS 3100 6 cylinder, the subaru 2.5's...etc. all can be driven for quite awhile before serious issues occur. similar failure modes but much larger frequency.

 

and of course i've seen the completely blown head gaskets before as well. loud and wet!

All's I know is my car sure won't run with a blown head gasket very well. I guess it all depends on what part of the head gasket breaks.

I guess it all depends on what part of the head gasket breaks.

bingo. different failure modes. internal leaks rarely last very long as they progressively get worse fast. external leaks can run for a very long time. "can", not always! i've seen a few do anywhere from 20k - 40k miles with no increase in coolant loss, but the gaskets were finally replaced.

All's I know is my car sure won't run with a blown head gasket very well.

sure it will depending on how exactly it fails. "blown" signifies more than just a small leak so that's different in a way. if by blown you mean "completely gone, loosing 2 gallons of coolant immediately after start up", then it needs a head gasket but certainly isn't driveable. that might not be the case in this car, it doesn't say. if it's driveable i'd guess it's not "blown" by your definition as it's still driveable which is entirely possible as well.

 

now that i think about it, myxphlyx RX is a turbo and it had externally seeping head gaskets as well that i replaced. very slow leak as he never added coolant in the year he owned it. either way it isn't a "good thing" and i wouldn't count on driving it very much in terms of making a purchasing decision.

My 83 hatch runs decent but it shoots milkshake out the valve cover breather tubes that go up to the air filter from both sides. As soon as I saw that I shut it off.

Interesting - usually I find that the carb base or the manifold gaskets are to blame for coolant loss. Perhaps it has someting to do with aftermarket vs. OEM head gaskets.

 

GD

Long time Ago... (It sounds like "Once upon a Time..." anyhow) ...my EA82 got a head gasket leak, it only did the coolin´ system looses water/coolant... it makes engine to overheat very fast, but the car was "Driveable" for shot trips... I mean very short.

Then my dad decide to do a around 100 Miles trip... the engine got overheatin´ and dad did open the radiator, and drop right in fresh water (I mean VERY fresh water from wild mountain fount) and it Crack one of the Heads...

It was a horrible story, but I already did post it in other thread...

You couldn´t imagine my dad comin´ home in it (Where I was Waitin´ and I didn´t knew that) with just two ciliders literally "Boxing" the other two from 72 miles away... ... No Words.

I think a Blown head gasket is a "Hurry-Up" repair for EA82´s.

I drove home on two cylinders from a blown HG once. Water sprayed out the tailpipe like a hose.