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Wondering wat someone might suggest is the best stop leak product to dump in the radiator for a leak that is presumably the head gasket.. i need to do something like this today.
There are several block sealer products out with sodium silicate in them, the most popular being the K&W brand. The alchemists called sodium silicate "water glass" since it turns to glass when dried. When added to coolant, first it is sucked into a crack by the intake suction, then the exhaust blast dries some of it out and turns it to glass, making the leak smaller. This continues with each stroke, the leak getting smaller and smaller as concentric layers of glass are laid down, until the leak stops leaking. Here are the major complications:
1. Most products add metal to the mixture to strengthen the glass, so that it is more durable. Products without metal produce a "town car" result, where the fix may only last a year or so, provided that you don't take it on the highway and heat it up.
2. They often clog up the heater cores, so it is best to disconnect the heater when treating the car, and for a period following treatment.
3. As indicated on the label, it is very important to flush all of the antifreeze out before treating, and flush all of the block sealer out before replacing the antifreeze. I reuse the old antifreeze for a few hundred miles, then flush and replace it and reconnect the heater.
4. I believe that you should drive the car hard during treatment, to get the the crack to shift in any way it can to fully fill it in. However, I first drive gently to mostly seal the crack, then vent any gas in the head, then put the pedal to the metal to finish the job. I suspect that the Higway Patrol wouldn't let them put this on the can.
Read more at http://www.allpar.com/fix/cracks.html?ktrack=kcplink
What GTO Lover said is right as far as you guys have taken this.
But, what car are you working on, and what's your goal here? Do you want a patch job to limp a few more miles from a rusty beater, or do you want to fix the head gasket problem completely?
Pulling the head, pressure test of same, clean all up and put together with premium name-brand gaskets (Fel-Pro, Elring, etc.) is the hard way, but the right way, and the only thing that I really think would hold up for say 50K miles/5 years.
There are a couple of stop-leak products that claim to be able to do the Northstar engine, most say they can't.
Me either, really. Looking at the one I pulled out of the Scirocco, I'm really not seeing how that blown-away gasket material can be replaced by silica glass, at least not on a long-term basis.
Bottle treatments are probably more likely to work longer if the head and block are both iron or both aluminum.
The very common and generally excellent aluminum head/iron block engines, the head expands more than the block, so they move in relation to each other, it's important to get the right finish on the head itself as well as clean both surfaces really, really good. I mean get on that block with a strong good light and some reading glasses and/or a good magnifying glass, and get *all* the old gasket material off the top of the block.
The stuff must work for a while in at least some cases, or people would quit buying it, right? Or maybe not, like the "male enlargement" pill industry, maybe people just *want* it to work so damn bad they waste their money on it, knowing full well no one has ever seen it work?
I've never seen these products seal a head gasket problem at a combustion chamber area.
Minor seeps at less stressed locations, maybe ... and not to be considered a "durable" fix, but at best only a temporary sealing.
I have, however, seen the damage this type of product does in aluminum radiators, heater cores, and plugging up critical water passages in engines. I've seen it plate out on aluminum radiators and block heat transfer.
Thankx for all of your replies... i used Bars new product with Carbon fiber $50 a bottle.. w/money back guarantee.. and imma be an honest engine (no pun intended)... not only did it stop the leak that was pouring water into my piston chamber, but it stopped the oil from getting to my sparkplugs as well.. (maybe thats one in the same i dont know)... all i know is the car starts wonderfully now, and runs just as good.. i'll probably sell it real cheap to a high skool kid who is looking for his first beater car, letting him know whats been going on with it.
What kind of car is this anyway? Do you live in rust country or no?Why not man up and fix it right? Head gasket R&R is not exactly rocket science. If you pull the head and at least check the valves, maybe grind them, put in new valve stem seals, on most imports the bottom end is good for mega miles if you have kept decent oil in it - fix the head right, clean everything up, maybe test or replace the fuel injectors - for all practical purposes you end up with a "like new" engine, typically for less than $200 in parts and a couple of weekends labor.
Both coolant and oil pass from the block to the head in separate passages, which do pass the head gasket. I hope the oil to the head wasn't clipped off short too. This is just one reason why bottle cures are not the best idea. Maybe it worked this time and maybe it killed the engine.
Almost makes me want to buy it just to tear it down, but I got other chores lined up so far out i would never geterdone.
If I were still a pro tech i wouldn't dare do this on a bet, since it would be likey I would own the engine i did it too.
In the 70's Saab had a problem with porous heads, coolant would simply run right thru the metal.
A fix no longer possible was with a like bottle fix from SILO. You drained the coolant added water enough added SILO block seal and it worked, but it worked so well it clogged the rads and the heater cores too.
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