The other night, on his way home from work Brian, had a head gasket blow in our 'new to us' 1996 Chevy S-10 Extended Cab pick-up. We've only had it for just over a week, with this weekend being the first real weekend Brian would have to check everything out...Instead he is getting to rebuild the whole top part of the engine.
See...this is what happens when a person uses not only the wrong type of antifreeze in their radiator, but this also happens when they mix the two types of antifreeze...You get a lovely 'rust' sludge...
This rust sludge then works it way throughout the engine...making stops at the thermostat housing, where it works to build up the pressure and causes the engine to not really know the correct temp of the engine, thus causing even more antifreeze and coolant to make its way through the engine...
This lovely yellow looking stuff is where antifreeze got into the Intake Manifold by way of a blown intake manifold gasket, as you can see through the vacuum port. This can cause many issues in and of itself. The Intake Manifold gaskets are not a hard repair on these engines. GM's are notorious for this type of repair as the intake gaskets usually have to be replaced every 100,000 miles. Fel-Pro Gaskets make a problem solver kit for this. Luckily, those gaskets are included in the head gasket kit that we bought.
Brian now has the lovely task ahead of him of dismantling the top half of the engine, cleaning out all the sludge, rust, and grime build-up. And praying that such things, as this MAP sensor are not completely shot and also have to be replaced.
For Brian to take this to a shop to be done he's looking at minimally a $1000 repair bill...THANKFULLY I have a mechanically inclined husband, who also works in a parts store (thereby getting us a discount on parts)....I may have to spend this next week sharing the car with him again, complete with 6am wake-ups and multiple trips back and forth into town for doctor, dentist, physical therapy, and work...but the repair should only cost us about $400 out of pocket...This includes the price to replace all the heater hoses, radiator, water pump (maybe), gaskets for the entire top of the engine, cleaner for everything, two oil changes (at least), antifreeze, torque wrenches we don't have, and etc...Just remember, OIL AND ANTIFREEZE should never mix. This is a sign of a blown head gasket. Never drive a vehicle that this has happened to until it is repaired properly. It may be ok for a few minutes in order to get it off the road, but signs of this condition are poor performance, engine skipping, very quick overheating, knocking, pinging and engine shutdown. if it gets too hot you can wind up replacing the whole engine as you can literally MELT the main and rod bearing to the crankshaft, snap a rod and knock a hole into the engine block.
**post completed in part by my lovely husband**
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