A blown head gasket??

Question

OK, I don't know hardly anything about cars and motors.. etc. But, I've got a question. We have a 1993 Pontiac Grand Am. Well, if we drove it for a like a while over and hour or so. It would just die on us like we just shut if off at a stop sign, or stop light. So, we took it into the shop to get it looked at. After several people seen it, and heard it running. They said it was probably just a sensor.
Well, the place (TUFFY) looked at our car, and told us that we had a blown head gasket. That our engine was junk. That they could replace the head gasket, but the bottom of the engine would blow out. So, we decided not to have the engine replaced, and went to get the car. Seems it was still drivable, just died every now and then. Also, we was going to get a 2nd opinion from somewhere else. Seems everyone that had told us about the car said that's not right! If you had a blown head gasket you would have know it. Which I don't know.... :(
So, we go to get the car, and as soon as we...

we started the car, it just started pouring out white smoke, and was chugging really bad. We didn't even think it would make it home. So, we took it to my in-laws which was the closet place.
So, I called the place up, and they said it had "NO" water in the car, and when they put the water in it, that it started smoking like that, that's how they knew it was the head gasket. Well, we had all the fluids checked not long (couple weeks) before we took the car in to the shop. All the fluids were fine!
If the car had "NO" water wouldn't it have been over heating or something? It wasn't over heating, it wasn't smoking, or anything like that before we took it in. Now, it's not even drivable, which it was before we took it. It wasn't chugging or anything.
I did contact our lawyer, because to me that didn't seem right. Well, they told me to have another certified mechanic look at it, and to get proof that the car had something done to it. Is it going to be possible to tell that??

I mean how would they be able to tell if something like that was intentionally done? Is something like able to even be proved? Does anyone have any suggestions??

Thanks for reading all this, and for any answers!! :)

Answer 1

you may actually have a blown head gasket on it,,but i dis-agree with the fact they said the bottom end of it wouldn't hold up,,that's impossible for them to determine at this time..a blown head gasket will mess one up,,but i own a repair shop,,and have replaced a lot of head gaskets,,and the bottom end of them have held up,,unless there is damage to your lower end of the engine it should hold up..if i were there i could tell you,,but all i have to base my answer on is what you have told me,a car with a bad head gasket can be driven,,but it wont run very good at all...and will die all the time on you,and miss,,and maybe smoke a little too,id get another opinion on it,,you have nothing to loose by doing so,,and see what they tell you,,don't tell them what any other mechanic has said about it,,and then see what they say,,and go from there with it,,,good luck with it,,i hope this help,s.

Answer 2

Your vehicle uses information from the coolant temperature sensor to help measure the fuel mixture. If the vehicle was driven hot, which I am almost certain it was, the hotter the engine got, the worse the pinging and timing problems are going to get, until the engine just cannot run on what the ECM is telling it to do, because it is extremely overheated. Then once the engine cools it will be normal, until the engine overheats again, over and over. The first mechanic is correct. Your head gasket is blown, and depending on how much you drove it without coolant, and how many repeated times you overheated the engine, until it stalled, there was probably bearing damage done from excessive heat, and possible coolant intrusion into crankcase. The engine has been burning coolant for a while, little by little until the cooling system was empty. The reason it smokes white now after you crank it is, the cooling system builds pressure when the car is running. When you turn the car off, the coolant under pressure in the cooling system pushes past the blown head gasket into the cylinders. Coolant in cylinders makes white smoke. If it was a small internal engine leak, you could have caught it if you had kept a check on the coolant level, but this was not done. I am afraid, you will need that engine after all.

Answer 3

I have had head gaskets blown on two cars. The head gasket keeps the oil separated from the antifreeze. It is located between where the engine block and the head (where the valves are). So if the head gasket fails (blows) in the most typical way there will be a leak between a coolant passage (antifreeze) and a piston cylinder. When the engine operates it will suck in this antifreeze and spit it out through the exhaust manifold through to the tail pipe and come out as white smoke. Lots and Lots and Lots of white smoke. The engine will not run good, and eventually not at all as the leak gets worse. If the leak was small to begin with the engine may have just run rough, but still run, but as the head gasket leak gets bigger it will not run at all. Also, the antifreeze (water) can be all sucked out through the engine in a very short time with a bad leak, and you may not see any external leakage. I do not know of a way a garage could sabatoge your car to cause a head gasket leak, so I doubt if they did that. If you drive the car with no antifreeze (water) in it because it all got sucked out through the engine internally you could have overheated your engine and fried it, however, maybe you just need a new head gasket (instead of a whole new engine). That is what I did, replaced the head gasket. If your car has over 100,000 miles on it the head gasket replacement may not be that uncommon. One tricky thing about some cars is, if you drain out some antifreeze (water) in order to add fresh antifreeze and you do not bleed the system correctly (or keep the radiator cap off long enough until the thermostate opens to let the air out on some cars) you could trap air in the engine, which could cause the head to warp, which would cause a gap between the head and block and cause an antifreeze leak. Anyway, if you do just do a head gasket replacement make sure the head and block are not warped, if the head is warpped it probably can be machined true. Blocks rarely warp. Remember what Shakespere said about lawyers.

Answer 4

Could be a lot of causes. Three simple things to look for if it is the start of a blown head gasket are, (1) does the engine oil dip stick read over the full mark (2) while driving does white blue smoke exit from the tail pipe and smell of anti freeze fumes and (3) you can test if water is in the bottom of the engine oil pan by holding a container under the oil pan drain plug and loosen the plug to catch one or two quarts. If water comes first, guess what ? You're ready for major engine repairs or another engine. If antifreeze fumes, go to www.crcindustries.com and research K and W Nanotechnology permanent head gasket and block repair. You make the decision.

Answer 5

Ooh, yes it sounds like you have a blown head gasket and possibly a cracked head. This is does not require the entire engine being rebuilt though, so it's not as expensive as that. When the head gasket and head had to be replaced on my Plymouth Acclaim at 156k miles, it cost about $800 and the car ran great after that for a long time. I recommend getting the compression test done. This will help to determine if your problem is in fact a blown head gasket. A sure sign of a blown head gasket is smoke eminating from the exhaust, rough running, oil in your coolant and coolant in your oil.

Answer 6

A few easy ways to check for a blown head gasket or cracked head. Oil in your anitfreeze or antifreeze in your oil (it will look like a milkshake.Loss of antifreeze, too much oil.White smoke emitting from the tailpipe along with a punjent sweet smell. Overheating. Idling and driving excessively rough. If none of this is apparent I would have someone do a compression check and see whats going on. If all this passes it could very well be a electrical sensor or fuel issue. Any check engine lights or the like? Good Luck

Answer 7

Sounds like the car is ruined, but have someone else check it out anyway just in case it isn't.

The mechanics advice was also bad. I have replaced head gaskets many times without blowing out the bottom end.

Sometimes willful negligence on the part of the first mechanic can be proven, but the cost to prove it in court may be greater than the cost of a replacement car.

Answer 8

yes it is posable to tell, like say they had taken the head off and was going to replace the gaskit but then you said no and they just let you go with it. the gasket also has like a glue on it called a gasket sealer if they took it apart then it would break the seal then water could get into the pistons then you would have water comeing out of the exaust, and it would look like white smoke, its actualy steam, or spray. now if you didnt driveit long once that started then you might be alright. but now that there was water in the pistons you have to take the whole thing apart which is going to be expensive. you have to dry out the pistons and the rings as soon as posable, because left as is it will rust inside, in which case you will have to have the pistons rebored and replace the rings. you also need to get the water out of oil if it went in the heads then it could get in the oil. then it would both rust up everthing oil gets into and it would wash off oil from lubricated parts causeing them to fail. so take it to another mechanic. see if he can tell if it was the other guys fault. it sounds more like you needed a new carborator or just the fuel mixture was wrong or that you had a bad fuel pump. if it was the fueld pump then you would have to start it then get right on the gas and go but it wouldnt go as fast as it should, then sputter and die when you stopped. so they probly looked at your head gaskt which would have broke the seal causing water to enter.

Answer 9

i bought my wife a 94 god damn, this same thing happened. those motors are known for that. i knew it was comming slowly cause it kept loosing antifreeze, with no leak. the only way for white smoke is trying to burn antifreeze. i dont know any possible way for a person to purposely damage a head gasket. trust me . the gasket on newer cars are a ***** to change . it was just timing that it finally let go when it did. as for the bottom end, antifreeze takes the "babbet" off the bearings , after that they are junk. ask your next mecanic. my best advice is to change the motor, look into napa for "factory rebuilds" in canada autopak carries them, good luck