Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn
So why did I get so much guff when I said, Sorry guys, but I could never
buy a Chevy again...gee.
This is rhetorical. Never happens on my Toyotas! (Well, I don't buy Fords either, ha!)
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Head gaskets are.. Funny things. Until you have one go out, then it isn't very funny.
But, too many people here just.. Bang.. You overheated? Head gasket is gone... And, no.. Not necessarily. If you hit hot and stop.. You may be OK. You should be nervous that the head gasket is gone, but.. It's not for sure. If the head gasket *IS* gone from overheating.. Pay the extra money to have the head dipped and machined to be sure it's level. Last time I had that done, it was only about $100 extra. I think it's less likely on overheat that you blew the gasket, and more likely that you warped the head. Then it just becomes how bad did you warp the head. Of course.. You turn it off, the temp is generally going to continue to rise a bit.
I have yet, in my personal experience, to see a head gasket 'catastrophic' failure where you lose seal between a water jacket and cylinder, or between cylinders.. But, again.. I don't do this professionally.
I do have someone with a Ford truck.. The 2005 step-up-from-Ranger.. Someone asked me to look at it, and I didn't really have time for anything but a glance.. He's got chocolate milk oil.. But, even that i'm not positive that it's a head gasket.. There's a possibility that it's the intake manifold or gasket.. That's one of the worst things to come along in the past 15 years or so.. Manufacturers using those plastic intake manifolds.
Another funny thing about head gaskets. There's such a wide range of costs. The old Escorts I had.. Were about $300 to replace the head gasket at a shop (This was 20 years ago, though).. The S-10 was about $600.. That was about 10 years ago. I asked, since my current Colorado with a Vortec engine has 180k on it (and is a 4 cylinder) about how much it'd run.. That thing is about $1500. So, there's a really wide range of costs on how much a head gasket replacement costs based on engine and vehicle.
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